From Luis Filipe Miguel's WoGE #386 showing the Vale de Manteigas cutting a straight trench through the Serra de Estrela in Portugal, it is now time for something completely different.
Here is WoGE #387:
What is it and where is it?
The "rules of WoGE" can, as always, be found HERE.
Once again I invoke a "limited Schott" with 2 hours quarantine for every win in the last 50 rounds, which means Felix will have to wait 24 hours to give everyone else a chance. :)
Well ..looks like this #387 is a STAR!
SvarSlettGot it!
SvarSlettWell ... it wasn't a STAR, it's about OIL!
37°45'1.37"S 68°55'33.89"W, Argentina
Give me a couple of minutes and I'll be back with the geology!
Well, not much information on a desolated area ... but that's an oil camp (what I mistaken for an astronomical observation site) near the extinct crater of Auca Mahuida, with huge unexplored caves, an ancient mine, fossilized titanosaurid sauropod hatcherys and ... guanacos!
SvarSlettAs I mentioned before I was looking for an astronomical observation site, in the SOUTH, and the chilean sites immediatly crossed my mind. But no luck .... The next step was a search, a broad one, and zooming a few times until it popped out in the Nuequén area.
SvarSlettThis pleistocenic basaltic volcanism is the southernmost volcanic field of the Payenia volcanic province and there are layers marking the first transgression of the newly-opened Atlantic Ocean onto Patagonia.
And that oil fields ... how much ecological damage are they doing?
You got it again!
SvarSlettAuca Mahuida, an extinct volcano with an oil field under it. If you zom in a little in this area, you will see that the whole region is crisscrossed by a grid of very straight tracks with very regular spacing. I don't have any direct evidence, but the only plausible reason for driving heavy trucks in such a precise grid is for seismic surveys. I think that is the greatest ecological damage from the oil industry here, it will take a long time for those tracks to heal.
More on the Auca Mahuida, volcano and oil field, in a few hours. I have all my notes on it at work.
A volcano with an oil field on it! The Neuquén Basin is an important oil province in Argentina. It also has one of the best complete stratigraphic sequences from lower Jurassic to late Cretaceous, topped by Cenozoic volcanites. The entire sequence is exposed thanks to late Cretaceous folding and later erosion, making it one of the best places in the world to look at a whole petroleum system with source rocks and reservoir equivalents both exposed. And then there is that big volcano on top of it...
SvarSletthttp://cig.museo.unlp.edu.ar/_veiga/SP252_1.pdf
http://specialpapers.gsapubs.org/content/407.toc
Did I mention that I studied magma petrology and now work in the oil industry? This location was just irresistible to someone with my background. :D
This is a great location!
SvarSlettSo, it's me again ..right, Ole?
SvarSlettIf so ... #388 should be online at 8:00 a.m. (GMT + 0:00) (in about 12H)
Right now, I'm not thinking in the Schott rule ...
I'm happy to say that it's you again, Luis. :)
SvarSlettNow that you have found two of my most unusual locations, I may need a few days to find a worthy location for my next WoGE. I have about a dozen marked, but nothing like the last two - and I find that a little unsatisfying!
So I'm looking forward to your new location, and MAY be too busy searching for a good one to spend much time on yours. But I never know what I might stumble across? :D
Here it is: http://woge-luis.blogspot.pt/2013/07/woge-388.html
SvarSlett