Ulog #2 : All About my Second Field Trip

Fellow eSteemed!!

So last week Wednesday, I (I and my fellow classmates) embarked on a trip to the northern part of Edo State, Nigeria, my school is located in the southern part of the state. The trip was embarked on in fulfillment of our mandatory field work which is a prerequisite to earning a degree in Geology.

We started the journey around past 1pm that day and got to our camp at about 6pm. It was a long journey within a state. We got checked in to the camp and arranged our things. Our lecturers available assembled us to orientate us on mission and admonish us to be of good behaviour and play by the rules. After that we went back to beds to have a wonderful night rest because we had a long day ahead of us.

Our project in that location was to map the entire location and get a geologic map afterwards using our base map. But on our day 1 and day 2 we were taken around for orientation.

Day 1 and Day 2 (orientation)

After preparing and getting the necessary things done, we started our orientation journey to check out rocks in different locations. Study, analyse and give a tentative name based on the physical and chemical properties observed. We were divided into two group, one group to the sedimentary part of the location, the other to the basement complex(igneous and metamorphic).

On day 1, my group were taken to the basement complex where we checked out the various igneous and metamorphic bodies in the location. It began to rain and we had to wait for a while to let the rain subside. After the rain, most of the locations were flooded and we had to go home.

Day 2, It was our turn to check out the sedimentary location. It was really fun getting to see all the things we've been taught in class and examinig them to make sure it was true, and yeah the facts were awesome.

We got to see new structures and a lot of knowledge was impacted as these things we real for us to see, not talking in class and drawing sketches of them.

After our exercise, we return to the camp while we prepare for our main job which in d mapping exercise.

Day 3 to 6 (Mapping Exercise)

The night before the exercise we were handed our various maps. Divided into 12 plots, I was in Plot 3. That night we started work on the map, gridding and taking measurements of the area.

We were given tools and instruments to enables navigate through our location. The tools were compass, GPS, hammer, cutlass(to clear paths in the bushes), sledge hammer(to break rock samples) and measuring tape. Our group had 7 members and each person was assigned an instrument.

Throughout the mapping exercise we had to navigate through the forests to locate and identify the rocks in the location with the help of our compass,gps and map.

It was really stressful and mentally tasking. We walked for hours in the forests, clearing our way through the thick bushes but surprisingly we didn't come across any wild animal throughout our four days mapping exercise. On our 3rd day we had to walk 2.6km after leaving the forest before we could get to the road where our bus was waiting for us.

All the same it was fun and educative because we got to learn the use of our GPS and compass in locating ourselves in the map. Also, finding unique rocks which haven't been located yet.

My group members were awesome and they made the exercise less stressful with their wittiness plus cooperation.

All thanks to God for a successful field work.

Thanks for reading.