Coring for a good geochemical record

In addition to looking for fossils at this field site, we are also trying to assess the environment of deposition and the environmental conditions that these organisms lived in. To do this, the UT Austin team has joined forces with Dr. Ben Gill's team from Virginia Tech. The have brought out a portable coring drill. It is pretty awesome!

Ben and the students prep for core hole #1

This rig, the Shaw Tool,  is built around a weed-wacker motor and fits in a backpack... very cool indeed!

The hole is very small, but we still did our best to hide it!

Stubborn little fossils

So confession time.... I am used to working with reef rock; carbonates are usually well cemented and so when you break off a chunk, it stays together. The fossils we are excavating at this new site are not reef rocks, they occur in calcareous siltstones, and man are they stubborn little guys! These fossils require power tools for excavation (jackhammers and diamond-bit angle grinders), and to top it off, they often break on us, so we have to be really careful with how we handle them!

Oh well, the students are having fun with the tools!

Jacketing a fossil

We found a really nice fish specimen at our site and so, since it is so delicate, it's going to get a jacket!

Step 1: Remove the overburden with a jackhammer and an angle grinder, a diamond blade makes the grinder a mini rock saw! Notice all the safety equipment, even though it is hot, it is better to be well protected in this remote region.

Step 2: Cover the fossil with wet paper towel for protection and then take strips of burlap and roll them up into "bandages" in plaster of paris. We then lay these strips over the fossil creating a jacket that is, for all intents and purposes, the same as a cast that you or I would get over a broken bone.

Step 3: Cut around the fossil and pop it out of the surrounding rock. repeat for the underside creating a nice solid jacket for the fossil! When this plaster sets up (dries) it will form a solid cast or jacket around the fossil and will protect it while it is transported.

Ready to go!

Powertools? Check!
Safety gear? Check
Awesome rocks? Double check!

Let's go find some fossils!