The Great Pandemic of 1889-1890 In the Northern winter of 1889 -1890, one of the deadliest pandemics since the Black Death of the mid 14th Century swept the world. Our forebears called it the Russian Flu. Where the Black Death took three years to spread from Constantinople […]
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The Copper Wars, called by some the Battle of Butte, took place from 1898 to 1906 between the Anaconda Copper Company and companies owned by Fredrick Augustus Heinze. One of the minor but significant players these wars was young Anaconda geologist Reno Sales (1876-1969). In his eighties, […]
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The definition of a geological fault, and why most dictionaries get it wrong One of the most important structures for any mineral explorer to understand are faults. What, exactly, is a fault? To geologists the answer seems so obvious that few of them (even the writers of many […]
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The fashion for fact checking I’m preachin’ dis sermon to show It ain’t nessa, ain’t nessa ain’t nessa, ain’t nessa Ain’t necessarily so! (Porgy and Bess, 1935. Lyrics by Ira Gershwin) “Fact” and “Truth” are abstract ideals that you can seek, but never be certain to […]
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THE UNRAVELLING OF SCIENCE “Facts no longer made contact with the theory, which had risen above the facts on clouds of nonsense, rather like in a theological system. The point was not to believe the theory but to repeat it ritualistically and in such a way that […]
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Look after your drill core: it’s a resource that keeps on giving Diamond drilling is always undertaken for the needs of the moment. But fresh-cut rock, in most cases, will last hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Drill core is a resource which can keep on giving […]
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Aboriginal Heavy Mineral Separation Technology in the Pilbara of Western Australia More than 50 years ago I observed a heavy mineral separation technique being practiced by aboriginals in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The technique was simple, effective and probably unique. I have never seen it […]
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The philanthropist of Nullagine The town of Nullagine, in the Pilbara region in the northwest of Western Australia, is situated 1400 km NNE of the State capital Perth, where the old Great Northern Highway crosses the broad, dry, sandy bed of the Nullagine River. The town was […]
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Climate change: naming of parts Reed, Henry. “Naming of Parts.” New Statesman and Nation 24, no. 598 (8 August 1942): 92. NAMING OF PARTS To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday, We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning, We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day, […]
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The movement of faults Faults are not mathematical planes (2D surfaces with length and depth but no thickness) but 3D tabular zones of deformed rock. The length and depth of a fault is always much greater than its thickness, but fault width can vary through many orders […]
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