Yes, I know. Normally the words ‘blue skies’ and ‘Beijing’ aren’t in such close proximity. Yet, when I was there just a couple of weeks ago, it was indeed blue skies. Warm, yes; smoggy, not really. Though I was inside much of the time … I was in the captivating capital of China for the […]
It was an early morning start and the topical air of South Kalimantan (Borneo) already hung heavy and thick. We boarded the wooden powerboat that was more than just a little tippy. It held a party of six, which consisted of colleagues Joan Esterle, Sonny Pangestu, Hermes Panggabean plus Pak Juwady, our pilot, and a […]
I just couldn’t let it go. Even after 27 years I still looked. Not continuously of course, but whenever I discovered a book that I’d had for a long time but not opened in a while I’d turn it upside down and riffle its pages to encourage anything jammed in there to fall out. Or […]
It was Ron Stanton (U.S. Geological Survey) who instilled in me the importance of proper representative sampling and John C. Ferm (University of Kentucky)* who drove home the concept of variability. In understanding the character of coal beds, these two concepts should mess seamlessly together. Or so you’d think … As it turns out there […]
Arriving in Bandung at 11pm on an early February evening the first thing I noticed was the coolness. Of course I already knew that Bandung, being over 750 m above sea level, is much cooler than Jakarta. But I was travelling from Brisbane, Australia where the temperatures had been above 35ºC and often over 40ºC […]
The next morning we woke up in the Miocene. After two full days of living in the present, we found ourselves fossicking around in sediments that were 15 million years old. They say a lot can happen in an afternoon, and indeed a lot did happen in the previous 5 billion afternoons. The march of […]
Why does Indonesia have so much coal? This might be like asking why is the sky blue? – but, like that question, it is fundamental and few seem to have considered it. A new paper by Mike Friederich, Tim Moore and Romeo Flores (“A regional review and new insights into SE Asian Cenozoic coal-bearing sediments: […]
The morning was smoky and hazy as we made our way to the docks from the hotel. A forecasted El Niño year was already being felt in East Kalimantan (Borneo) as evidenced by the fires through out the region. Still, we were all looking forward to going out on the infamous (at least in geological […]
We sped across the surface of Lake Semayang with the bottom only inches below us. Using traditional long boats – with light but powerful engines – twenty-seven of us were headed for Semayang village, on the north central ‘coast’ of the lake. We were there as part of a geological field trip examining modern environments […]
We are nearly there! – The 32nd Annual Conference of The Society for Organic Petrology will be held in a few days time. The Organising Committee wishes to thank all the speakers and poster presenters for all their hard work and for all attending participants for their presence. We know that during this current economic […]