Slovenian Karst and Nerdiness

Today we worked hard an played hard.... specifically, we got nerdy about Karst! The term Karst comes from the "Kras" region of Slovenia so we are in the perfect place!

Check out this amazing Karst!

Deep crevasses!

Nick is about 6'3"... he's pretty tall....

Until he jumps into one of the karst gullies

The scenery is lovely too!

View over the Vipava Valley

After the karst, we drove down to the Adriatic Sea to dip our toes in the Mediterranean. Here is the View over Isola, Slovenia towards Italy.

Mussels growing in the harbour!

Piran, Slovenia (an old Venetian city)

I was so proud of my student, after taking in the views, he had to stop and look at the kart pisoids in the boulders!

Tomorrow, we have to get to work cutting rocks. No more nerdy tourism sadly.

The Early Jurassic in Morocco

Hi all, sorry for the radio silence, this fall has been an insane semester with very little time for blogging. That said, I have carved out a little bit of time for fieldwork (hazzah!) so this week I am in Morocco to check out some reefs in the Early Jurassic carbonates here.

I landed yesterday evening and am now waiting for my colleagues to arrive so we can get on the road, until then, here are some shots from the flight over and my first few hours here.

The Mediterranean Sea, out the (streaky) airplane window

Awesome erosion!

Barrage el Wadha (?)

I arrived a day early so I had to stay in this very nice villa to wait for my colleagues. 

Loving the views!

Salzkammergut

So my students and I spent the last week in Erlangen, Germany, hanging out with my colleague Wolfgang Kiessling and talking about reefs and statistics. While this week was scientifically exciting, There aren't too many exciting stories or photos to go along with it. Regardless, you should check out Wolfgang's AMAZING reef database, the PaleoReefs Database (or PARED).

http://www.paleo-reefs.pal.uni-erlangen.de/

Enter the weekend.... On Friday we were in Erlangen and today we are in Slovenia. On the way we drove through the Alps and stayed for one night in my old stomping grounds -- the Salzkammergut region of Austria.

First we stopped at the Adnet quarries. My favorite quarry cuts right through a late Triassic coral reef!

 Even the floor of the quarry is awesome! All those little dark spots are coral branches.

It is truly amazing how much you can see; all the little white flecks in the red are corals (or sponges, or shells, but mostly corals)!

Just look at that wall!

 My student, Anna, for scale...

Such gorgeous slabs!

One of the other quarries has an awesome Triassic-Jurassic boundary section. Well... the section doesn't have a great paleo record for the boundary (since there is a time gap), but it sure is clear where the boundary is!

After Adnet, we decided to try Hallstat again.... there was still some rain, but this time the weather got better! So up to the top we went!

Wet down in the valley....

and at the top...

Just hanging out on the cantilever lookout!

No, YOU'RE great Salt dude!

Clearing out....

 Wet but having fun!

Time for a rainbow!

This town is so gorgeous!

On Sunday we woke up to sun (YAY!)

Time for a hike around Gosausee (Gosau Lake)

Looking back at the Chalet.

So much glacial runoff!

Contemplating that nice glacier!

Don't fall in climbers!

Just like Corben Dallas, this area is SUPA GREEN!

After our hike we drove to Slovenia.... so much rock!

 More on Slovenia next time!