Now that school has calmed down a bit, let me get you all caught up on the tools of the trade:
The Brunton Transit Compass
aka "The Brunton"
The Brunton Transit Compass
aka "The Brunton"
This is the big "work horse" for the geologist. Yes, it's a compass but it's much more than that! This is what geologists use to determine the angles on rocks. In simplest terms, if you look at a mass of rocks on a mountain, there's usually some kind of linear look to the rocks. This is known as a bedding plane. A geologist is interested in finding the strike and dip of this plane. (This works for other geologic structures such as folds, faults, etc etc etc.) Strike and dip basically refers to the orientation of the plane in 3D. If you want a longer explanation, ask...or go to wikipedia. (I can't believe I just wrote that!)
Bruntons are used primarily by geologists, engineers, archeologists and surveyors.
It takes a little getting use to, but it's very valuable once you get it. There's two major challenges:
1. See the little yellow levelers, from here on known as "bugums," you need the bubble in the right place for different measurements. It's like those stupid games when we were kids where you had to make one bb stay in the eye of the guy while you try to get the next bb in his other eye and then the other 12 bbs somewhere else...yeah, sucks!! Especially when it's windy.
2. Like all compasses, this works on magnetic north. Or magnetic leatherman, or magnetic belt buckle, or fracking magnetic mouth piece holder for my camelback (description on a later blog entry). You'll be going along getting great readings and then get something odd and, usually after banging your head for a bit, realize that you didn't put your cell phone back in your backpack but put it in your front pocket where it's interfering with the Brunton. Experience...don't knock it!
Bruntons are used primarily by geologists, engineers, archeologists and surveyors.
It takes a little getting use to, but it's very valuable once you get it. There's two major challenges:
1. See the little yellow levelers, from here on known as "bugums," you need the bubble in the right place for different measurements. It's like those stupid games when we were kids where you had to make one bb stay in the eye of the guy while you try to get the next bb in his other eye and then the other 12 bbs somewhere else...yeah, sucks!! Especially when it's windy.
2. Like all compasses, this works on magnetic north. Or magnetic leatherman, or magnetic belt buckle, or fracking magnetic mouth piece holder for my camelback (description on a later blog entry). You'll be going along getting great readings and then get something odd and, usually after banging your head for a bit, realize that you didn't put your cell phone back in your backpack but put it in your front pocket where it's interfering with the Brunton. Experience...don't knock it!
Tomorrow...the rock hammer
3 comments:
Strike and dip: because cyncline hasn't figured out hyperlinks yet.
Next time on geology tool review: the tongue.
Not to start rediculous arguments, but I think I would have gone with 'boogum' or 'boogom' . . . . In searching for a proper spelling for said term, I have learned that is 'boojum' is an especially dangerous type of Snark; a Snark is a fictional monster created by Lewis Carroll, or a cruise missile named for such beast.
While I failed in my search for an official spelling of 'buhgem,' at least I learned that branders for heavy assault weaponry have a cute streak.
HAPPY SUMMER!
I was perplexed on the spelling of that word. I am very surprised it was not in the Google blogger's spelling dictionary.
I might have to send a complaint in.
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