Road Trip to Nemegt - August 28, 2009
The joint Mongolia-Hayashibara expedition that was here for two weeks had a farewell party on the evening of the 24th. They left the following morning, and Phil, Eva, Derrick and I also headed out for three days in the type area of Nemegt Formation, just over 100 km east of here. The trail is pretty good, and it would have taken us only a few hours to get there had one of the vehicles not blown out a radiator hose and lost a shock absorber. Jaga and I were able to tape the hose together with the last of my duct tape. We blew the hose again outside of the Nemegt canyonlands, and more tape was employed, rustled out of the other vehicle. After staying overnight in the canyon, Jaga and Ganza left in the cool early morning to drive to Gurvan Tess (another 50 km or so to the east) to pick up gasoline and a new hose.
The two days that we had in the Nemegt area were extremely productive. I was able to confirm my original hypothesis that the Nemegt Formation interfingers with the underlying Baruungoyot Formation, and that the Baruungoyot is actually the lateral equivalent of the Djadokhta Formation, at least in this part of the section. While all of this may not mean much to you, it resolves some long-standing problems regarding the relationships of these rocks and their fossils. The implications are that the Djadokhta may be a very lengthy interval ranging in age from 75 to 70 million years. We still need to confirm this with independent age data – hopefully to be provided by Dave Fastovsky’s palaeomagnetic sampling that was carried out last week.
Phil, Eva, and Derek spent their time relocating and GPS-ing old dinosaur quarries. All of the geologic and palaeontologic data will provide a better handle on the relative age and environmental preferences of the dinosaurs from these beds, and of course how they relate to the better understood Canadian equivalents—the Dinosaur Park, Bearpaw, and Horseshoe Canyon formations.
(Click on next image for more…)
Road Trip to Nemegt - August 28, 2009
The first night at Nemegt, a film crew from BBC showed up in three vans. They had made arrangements with Phil and Eva to film the activities of the Korean-Mongolian expedition members, with the intent of focussing their film product on why there are so many Tarbosaurus specimens in the Nemegt Formation. Of course, we have some answers, but nowhere enough yet to answer this question. It’s truly a work in progress. Note: although the BBC crew didn’t have any cold beer, they did have some caviar!
Road Trip to Nemegt - August 28, 2009
Our trip back to Bugin Tsav involved no breakdowns. We stopped at Naran Bulak, a natural spring, to cool ourselves off.
Road Trip to Nemegt - August 28, 2009
However, we had to drive off a herd of camels that were drinking at the spring when we arrived. One camel was particularly obstinate, but was finally persuaded to leave by Ganza yelling and waving at the animal. It watched pensively as we washed up, stepping carefully to avoid the camel droppings.
Arrived back at camp around 5:30 p.m. and heard some great news—the poached theropod that is being excavated actually has some cervical vertebrae still in place in the rock, and thus may also have a skull (yet to be determined). Also, the track site has been documented and work there is finished. I still need to get some more sedimentary data. It will make a great little research paper.
Overall, there is still a lot of work that needs to get done during our last week here. It will be hectic.
Bugin Tsav - August 22, 2009
Keeping up a blog can be difficult given how hot it is, how tired we all are at the end of the day, our need to spend time socializing, writing our notes, or drafting measured sections. In addition, the weather doesn’t always cooperate and, of course, we sometimes have to deal with gear (generator) failures. So, I’ve fallen a bit behind. But over the past ten days there have been some major discoveries and advances of our knowledge of this and other Upper Cretaceous units in the region.
First, the Kamaz has been fixed. All eight cylinders were shot and had to be replaced. Plus the radiator was filled with silt. The Kamaz, Ligden, and two additional drivers arrived in camp three days ago bringing with them more team members: Lou Jacobs, Yoshi Kobayashi, John Graf, and Thomas Adams, as well as a visiting delegation of three from Hwaseong City, Korea. We are finally at full strength, in terms of vehicles and people.
(Click on next image for more...)
Bugin Tsav - August 22, 2009
We had a small party the first night everyone was here (the 18th) and invited the team from the Joint Mongolian Hayashibara expedition. For one night, our numbers swelled to just under 30 people—the cooks were busy. Quite a happening for the middle of nowhere! The back of the Kamaz has become the kitchen, which is great because the cooks can work without interruption from the frequent sand storms. We have had four short duration sand storms (lasting a few hours) since we arrived, but the weather now seems stable and we have managed to go for two days without incidence.
Bugin Tsav - August 22, 2009
Now, on to the science. The Korean team, lead by Yuong Nam Lee, located a large theropod dinosaur that is almost complete, although the skull and claws had been poached. It is a quite special find, but there is nothing more that I can say about it for now, it is a sensitive discovery and will have an impact. It took a few days to correctly identify the kind of dinosaur, but now excitement about the find is high. The crew has been slaving away for the past few days, jacketing up the blocks for their eventual trip to the Academy of Sciences in Ulaan Baatar.
Bugin Tsav - August 22, 2009
Phil Currie discovered a unique track site with at least three kinds of dinosaurs represented and skeletal material. Unfortunately, this site has also been poached. The skeletons were destroyed or partly collected in the never ending hunt for claws and teeth that the poachers sell on the black market—a real problem here in Mongolia. Nonetheless, the poachers left enough broken material for us to identify the animal, but again, we are holding back on this until we have a chance to review the data. The site is unusual for the Nemegt however, as it contains rhythmites suggestive of a lake setting. Fortunately for us, the poachers are uninterested in the tracks. So we have super trackways and tracks that can be documented. Yoshi Kobayashi is heading up that project.
Lou Jacobs and his students from Southern Methodist University are collecting carbonate nodules for stable isotope analysis: an approach that allows for stratigraphic correlation and paleoenvironmental (climatic) analysis. They have been walking sections and collecting their samples, a process that involves lots of pick-axing in the hot sun.
Bugin Tsav - August 22, 2009
In the meantime, I have been having a ball with the sedimentology and stratigraphy. It turns out that we are at the top of the Nemegt Formations here at Bugin Tsav, and I am now confident I can correlate our sections and fossil localities with those from other classic sites in the Nemegt Formation, such as Nemegt and all of the Altan Ula sites. If I’m right, this will be a major advance in our understanding of the lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy, and will allow more refined palaeonvironmental correlations with Upper Cretaceous sites in North America, such as the Horseshoe Canyon and Scollard formations of southern Alberta. The palaeoenvironmental work has been helped a lot by checking my observations and data with those of Dave Fastovsky and his colleague Mototaka Saneyoshi, from Hayashibara. We’ve had a few impromptu field seminars and it’s been great to be able to discuss ideas with other geologists.
Bugin Tsav - August 22, 2009
Tonight I have just returned from three days on the road examining localities at Alta Ula with Phil and Eva Currie, Dereck Larson, and Lou Jacob’s two students. It was a stripped down crew, living out of our two Delica vans, and doing an incredible amount of hiking to see the deep canyon lands east of here. It is in these sites that I have been able to establish reliable correlations between most of the Nemegt sites.
Bugin Tsav - August 22, 2009
This morning, our third day out, we met up with Michael Ryan (Cleveland Museum of Natural History) and Dave Evans (Royal Ontario Museum). Michael is leading a Nomadic Expeditions tour of dinosaur localities and David has joined him. Using our combined GPS and satellite technology, we all arranged to meet at the Dragon’s Tomb, a locality near the top of the Nemegt Formation in the deep canyons of Altan Ula II.
Bugin Tsav - August 22, 2009
The site has produced at least 20 Saurolophus skeletons (mostly sub-adult) that are preserved as “mummies” with 3-dimensional skin impressions. The site, found in the 1940s by a Russian expedition, has since been poached heavily and mostly destroyed. It is a heartbreak to see so much destroyed bone and smashed skeletons scattered across this beautiful landscape. Had this site been preserved and protected, there is no question that it would put any of our North American “mummy” specimens or localities to shame. But dinosaurs are big business now, and the Dragon’s Tomb has been raided and its skeletons mostly destroyed. It makes a strong case for resource protection. Thank goodness that Canada and Alberta are forward thinking in this regard.
We finally returned to camp tonight at 6:30 and I am trying desperately to get caught up with notes and sections—lots to do yet.
Talk to you soon.
We Made It! - August 13, 2009
We made it to Bugin Tsav – our primary objective for this field season! But it was not without more problems. Ligden Barsbold, our guide, arrived back from Arvaykheer with parts for the Kamaz, the Mongolian drivers worked mostly through the night, and we headed out on the morning. But we were not without incident. Here’s what the rest of our trip was like:
- Broke down 6 km out of camp. Kamaz overheating.
- Rest of group went ahead 50 km to the village of Baruun Bayn Ulaan (BBU), famous for its dunes on the north side of the Altay mountain chain; arrived around 10:00 a.m.
- Remained in BBU until the Kamaz limped into town at about 2:00 p.m.
- Decided to continue ahead using our remaining truck to ferry two loads of our gear out into the desert, leaving the Kamaz in BBU to be fixed.
(Click on the next image for more...)
We Made It! - August 13, 2009
(continued...)
- We removed freezers stuffed with frozen meat from the Kamaz, and gasoline drums, bags of plaster, and a 750 gallon water tank from the Zil. Re-packing took all hands and three hours.
- Headed out into the desert at about 6:00 p.m. Decision to travel at night made to ensure that the Zil doesn’t overheat too badly.
- Reached Bayn Gobi at 11:30 and refuelled all the vehicles. Camped in the mountains; beautiful spot…night sky is unbelievably bright!
- continued to Bugin Tsav arriving in the area at about 1:00 p.m….temperature is at least 40 degrees!
(more...)
We Made It! - August 13, 2009
(continued...)
- Two vehicles got separated from the rest and it took three hours to find one another. Separated vehicles were running low on drinking water, and radios didn’t work. Narrowly escaped problems there. Two flat tires occurred in the process of relocating one another.
- Finally agreed on a location for our base camp. Started to unload the Zil so it could leave on a return trip at night to BBU for the rest of our gear.
- Set up camp…lucked out, no wind!
(more...)
We Made It! - August 13, 2009
(continued...)
- All hands sit down for supper at about 8:00 p.m. Everyone is exhausted but happy to be here. Can’t wait to hit the rocks!
- Later, Ligden and drivers head back to BBU and Ulaan Baatar to find parts for the Kamaz, and pick up our last team members, Yoshi Kobayashi and Lou Jacobs.
- For now, we are a crew of 15, well supplied, and hopes high!
(more...)
We Made It! - August 13, 2009
(continued...)
One of the reasons I love this project is its international composition. This year our crew consists of Mongolians, Koreans, Americans, and, of course, Canadians. Although two of the three Koreans speak English fluently, none of the Mongolians speak English. Or Korean. But, while Ligden has been away, we have been able to communicate with our Mongolian support crew by using a combination of sign language, common English words (beer), and my rudimentary Mandarin Chinese. Lasuren, a retired Mongolian administrator is with us, and he also speaks Mandarin. So, he translates my Mandarin into Mongolian; so far it all seems to work fine -- but it will be easier when Ligden gets back.
The Zil made it back today (August 13) around 2:00 p.m. with rest of our gear. Now the work begins!
(more...)
We Made It! - August 13, 2009
(continued...)
For the past two days, we have begun to survey the area and its fossils, and begin to excavate a Tarbosaurus skeleton found by Yuong Nam Lee last year. Also, Phil Currie, Eva Koppelhus, Derek Larsen, John Graf and I have spent parts of the past two days confirming the locations of previously collected (legally or poached) Tarbosaurus, Saurolophus, Gallimimus, turtles, and a few other taxa. There are plans to publish a paper on the turtle bonebeds and the peculiar nature of the diversity of dinosaur fauna in the Nemegt Formation. Particularly odd is the large abundance of large carnivores (Tarbosaurus). Is their abundance a fluke of preservation, or does it represent the real diversity of that form relative to the other dinosaurs? Stay tuned.
There is a crew from the Hayashibara Museum (Japan) in the area as well; they arrived two days ago (after a major truck breakdown). We visited with them briefly yesterday and I will spend a day working with their two geologists tomorrow. Dave Fastovsky (University of Rhode Island) is an old friend of mine from our graduate student days at Berkeley. It will be fun to spend the day kicking around ideas about the rocks.
I’ve got to hit the send button on this entry…a sand storm is just hitting the camp! Generally speaking, sand storms are bad news for electronic gear.
The Breakdown Blues - August 8, 2009
Our second and third days on the road to Bugin Tsav have been a distinct counterpoint to day one. Our Russian Kamaz 43101 – a six axle transport vehicle that carries our field camp – broke down. It began by overheating, but now some gaskets are blown, and coolant is mixing with the fuel…generally not a good thing. In total we managed to cover a total of only 50 km with frequent roadside stops to let the engine cool and to try to reseal the gaskets. By day’s end it was clear that all attempts to fix the vehicle with existing parts wouldn’t work.
After setting up camp about 4 km south of a prominent uplift, we have settled in until the drivers and techs can fix the vehicle. This morning, Ligden Barsbold -- our guide and camp manager -- accompanied by two other Mongolian techs (Jaga and Bold) have headed back to Arvaykheer, about 100 km behind us, to try and find replacement engine parts.
And so we wait…
Mt. Doom - August 8, 2009
Yesterday’s weather was spectacular. Almost no wind and warm temperatures. But today, we are getting rain showers, the wind is testing our tents, and the temperature is dropping into the single digits. The small mountain north of us has been shrouded in cloud and showers all day, and is now referred to by the crew as Mt. Doom. The weather is like that encountered on any mountain: changeable and rather moody, and definitely not what one thinks of when imagining the Gobi Desert. It’s clear that we are still under the influence of the Khangyan Nuruu, one of the major mountain belts that runs NW-SE through southern Mongolia, and which defines the northern extent of the Gobi Desert.
Reading in the Gobi - August 8, 2009
Surrounding our camp the landscape is a sloping, but very broad alluvial fan. Its covered sparsely with clumps of spear grass and a few smaller plants, and lacks trees altogether. This featureless landscape is a unique challenge for those seeking the privacy of a toilet. Here, privacy is achieved by walking far enough from camp that no one can make out the details of your activities!
Visiting Mongolians - August 8, 2009
In general, our crew spends the day reading, sleeping and taking short walks. The remaining Mongolian techs and our two cooks visit with some of the local Mongols, who occasionally ride into camp to check us out and see what’s happening…we’re big news in this remote part of the country. Horseback riding on the Mongol’s well broken ponies provides a bit of entertainment.
Phil Currie and I spend a few hours calibrating a digital set of 1:100,000 topographic maps for use in our mapping and GPS software. With these we will be able to plot our GPS waypoints onto the topographic maps to look for geographic and stratigraphic distribution patterns in our fossil and geology sites. Otherwise, I am working on a couple of manuscripts, writing this blog, and taking some small short walks.
During my walks, I get to examine the various rock types strewn across the Gobi plain. Over the last two days I have been amazed at the local variation in rock types at each of our stops. For me, the variable presence of diorites, granites, vesicular basalts, agates, dolomites, greenstones, schists, karst, etc, as well as a range of geological features such as cinder cones, dikes and sills glimpsed from a distance, provide a sure fire cure for the breakdown blues.
The Gobi is Shrinking - August 7, 2009
The Gobi Desert is definitely shrinking. Like all members of our Korean-Mongolian Dinosaur Expedition, I was surprised, if not a bit off balance, as we travelled west out of Ulaan Baatar on newly paved asphalt. I was convinced that this smooth pavement would end at any moment, and we would revert to the norm: ‘Super Mario Kart’ style raceways consisting of multiple intersecting dirt trails and chaotically advancing and retreating vehicles. Instead, the pavement, complete with centerlines, snaked all the way to Arvaykheer, the last large town before one leaves the central Mongolian steppes and enters the Gobi. By 4:00 p.m. we covered almost two-thirds of the route from Ulaan Baatar to our base camp at Bugin Tsav—a distance that took us two very long days to cover back in 2007. Everywhere, the small grey tour buses—mostly full of North American and European tourists—made it clear that pavement has opened the Gobi to more tourists than ever before, and you need not fear taking your life in your hands getting there.
Toward the end of the day we skirted around the eastern edge of the Khangayn Nuruu Mountains, made it across one the mountain chain’s lower passes, and finally, after leaving the pavement and most of the tour buses behind, plunged into the last vestiges of the steppes and the start of the Gobi Desert.
By 7:00 p.m., we were still 250 km from where we want to set up our base camp, so we picked a place to camp overnight. As a geologist, I was pleased, our camp was in the midst of a field of dioritic intrusives (granitic-like rock) and dark coloured dikes and sills. This stunning landscape was reminiscent of the setting from a late 1950s Hollywood cheesy western, complete with large granite boulders behind which cowboys might be lurking. As it turns out, the Hollywood imagery wasn’t so far off the mark. We were soon visited by horses and cattle seeking feed, and in the morning, one of the local Mongolians and his son rode in on horseback from a nearby Ger camp…checking out the new neighbours.
Our first night camping in Mongolia was spectacular. No wind, warm-to-cool temperatures, and a full moon making our headlamps unnecessary. The Gobi may be shrinking, but it remains one of most beautiful places I have ever seen—it’s great to be back.
I’ll update you on the project, team members, and science after we get set up at Bugin Tsav.
The Gobi is Shrinking - August 7, 2009
The road to Bugin Tsva.
The Gobi is Shrinking - August 7, 2009
First night at camp.
The Gobi is Shrinking - August 7, 2009
International Dinosaur Project camp site.
