Because it was a long, cold day and I'm feeling like looking for trouble.
What the fuck is with contractors who seem to have a problem understanding this simple rule; if you bid the contract to build my engineer's design, you don't get to choose not to build that design because it's haaaaard.
If you can't do the work, don't bid the job.
There's only three things for sure: taxes, death and the trouble I will give your incompetent ass if you send your people out to do a sad, sorry job and then expect me to fucking sign off on it.
I come up hard but never cool.
I'm your construction inspector, and right now I'm your goddamn Trouble Man.
Showing posts with label geology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label geology. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
The Caves of Altamira
Late to the post with this, but we spent several days in eastern Oregon over the Memorial Day weekend. Nothing spectacular, but a pleasant little mini-break from the cold rain of the west side. The original idea was camping, but the cool temperatures and the threat of drizzle followed us over the hill, so we stayed in hotels and spent the day rambling the high desert.
One part of the sagebrush country I hadn't tried before was the lava caves; turns out there's something like 300 of the rascals scattered around Bend, Oregon, and one of the longest and most complex is here, Boyd Cave, just ouhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giftside Bend.
We were painfully unprepared for the cave, which was chilly and dark in the particularly inky fashion of places utterly shut off from the sun. The sad little hand flashlight just managed to make it more creepy, and we were headed back out when we were lucky enough to encounter some true cavers complete with Coleman lantern.
With the light from this portable daylight we were able to get probably 2-300 feet into the lava tube, and could see and enjoy the molten stalactites on the roof and the flow ledges (or "curbs") along the walls, all the classic lava tube features.
It WAS chilly, though, and the littles grew more and more claustrophobic and colder as we went on, so we stopped relatively early and turned back. I think we made the right decision; it seems that not far from our turnaround point were several ceiling collapse piles that required a crawl or squeeze through to pass, and that would have been a problem for the kiddos.
And for me, if we're being honest. I'm not exactly the lithe and sinuous type. So we returned to the evening daylight and the promise of delicious popovers and honey-butter at the Pine Tavern.
It was part of a lovely trip, of which I'll post a bit more later.
One part of the sagebrush country I hadn't tried before was the lava caves; turns out there's something like 300 of the rascals scattered around Bend, Oregon, and one of the longest and most complex is here, Boyd Cave, just ouhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giftside Bend.
We were painfully unprepared for the cave, which was chilly and dark in the particularly inky fashion of places utterly shut off from the sun. The sad little hand flashlight just managed to make it more creepy, and we were headed back out when we were lucky enough to encounter some true cavers complete with Coleman lantern.
With the light from this portable daylight we were able to get probably 2-300 feet into the lava tube, and could see and enjoy the molten stalactites on the roof and the flow ledges (or "curbs") along the walls, all the classic lava tube features.
It WAS chilly, though, and the littles grew more and more claustrophobic and colder as we went on, so we stopped relatively early and turned back. I think we made the right decision; it seems that not far from our turnaround point were several ceiling collapse piles that required a crawl or squeeze through to pass, and that would have been a problem for the kiddos.
And for me, if we're being honest. I'm not exactly the lithe and sinuous type. So we returned to the evening daylight and the promise of delicious popovers and honey-butter at the Pine Tavern.
It was part of a lovely trip, of which I'll post a bit more later.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Umm...is the liability insurance paid up..?
Went to "Oregonlive" and there's the next-door neighbor of a gentleman whose porch and deck we designed a pile wall to support talking about the landslide that's washing her back yard down the hill;
Landslide at Oaks Bottom - Video | OregonLive.com
This sort of thing is what keeps geotechnical engineers up at night, attorneys in business, and homeowners wondering why the hell they bother to buy insurance - since you can't beat an insurance agent hard enough to make him offer you landslide coverage.
It's just a tough deal all around.
Landslide at Oaks Bottom - Video | OregonLive.comThis sort of thing is what keeps geotechnical engineers up at night, attorneys in business, and homeowners wondering why the hell they bother to buy insurance - since you can't beat an insurance agent hard enough to make him offer you landslide coverage.
It's just a tough deal all around.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Why I Love Geology 3: Dry Falls
Intriguing bit of history courtesy of the UK Daily Mail.
Seems that in the late 1960's the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with investigating cliff retreat along the smaller, American-side fall at Niagara. This is reported to have come about because of one journalist, a Mr. Cliff Spieler of the Niagara Falls Gazette.
Mister Spieler wrote about the large rock falls in 1931 and 1954 that had created a large talus pile at the bast of the American falls, and that a combination of continued rockfall and headward erosion could "kill" the falls. This caught on with the American public, and in late 1965, the U.S. and Canada set up an International Joint Commission. Two years later, the American Falls International Board recommended damming the Niagara River above the falls in order to conduct geotechnical analysis of the falls.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) – Buffalo District was assigned the project, and from June 9, to November 25, 1969 no water flowed over the American falls for the first time in nearly 12,000 years.
The USACE drill crews cored the sedimentary rock that formed the falls, scaled loose materials off the rock face, and installed several instruments, including extensometers, in suspected areas of weak rock. After a long period of preparation people were allowed into the dry riverbed, where they gathered coins tossed into the immense wishing well over the decades and just gawked at the scenery.
Geologists scampered all over, measuring, sampling, performing dye tests and mapping joint and fracture patterns.
Among the huge rock debris at the base of the falls were man-made debris and the bodies of a man, a deer, and
After Thanksgiving, 1969, the water was set free and has flowed over the falls ever since.
After five months of work including 46 core borings totaling 4,882 feet, mapping, probing, installing piezometers to measure water pressure on rock joints, extensometers to measure rock movements, and a further six years of study and opinion polling the IJC concluded that:
It was technically feasible to remove the talus but was not considered desirable.
The Falls could but should not be stabilized by artificial means
And that while the two flanks of the American Falls and the Goat Island flank of the Horseshoe Falls were sufficiently unstable to warrant remedial action a statistically minor element of risk from unpredictable rock movement would remain and must be accepted by the viewing public.
So nothing more was ever done.
And the American falls still flow.
Seems that in the late 1960's the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with investigating cliff retreat along the smaller, American-side fall at Niagara. This is reported to have come about because of one journalist, a Mr. Cliff Spieler of the Niagara Falls Gazette. Mister Spieler wrote about the large rock falls in 1931 and 1954 that had created a large talus pile at the bast of the American falls, and that a combination of continued rockfall and headward erosion could "kill" the falls. This caught on with the American public, and in late 1965, the U.S. and Canada set up an International Joint Commission. Two years later, the American Falls International Board recommended damming the Niagara River above the falls in order to conduct geotechnical analysis of the falls.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) – Buffalo District was assigned the project, and from June 9, to November 25, 1969 no water flowed over the American falls for the first time in nearly 12,000 years.The USACE drill crews cored the sedimentary rock that formed the falls, scaled loose materials off the rock face, and installed several instruments, including extensometers, in suspected areas of weak rock. After a long period of preparation people were allowed into the dry riverbed, where they gathered coins tossed into the immense wishing well over the decades and just gawked at the scenery.
Geologists scampered all over, measuring, sampling, performing dye tests and mapping joint and fracture patterns.
Among the huge rock debris at the base of the falls were man-made debris and the bodies of a man, a deer, and "the badly decomposed body of a woman jammed head first amongst the rocks about half way up talus bank. The woman was clad in a red and white horizontally striped jersey or dress and a narrow gold wedding band with the inscription “forget me not” on the inside."No record of what the deer was wearing.
After Thanksgiving, 1969, the water was set free and has flowed over the falls ever since.
After five months of work including 46 core borings totaling 4,882 feet, mapping, probing, installing piezometers to measure water pressure on rock joints, extensometers to measure rock movements, and a further six years of study and opinion polling the IJC concluded that:
It was technically feasible to remove the talus but was not considered desirable.
The Falls could but should not be stabilized by artificial means
And that while the two flanks of the American Falls and the Goat Island flank of the Horseshoe Falls were sufficiently unstable to warrant remedial action a statistically minor element of risk from unpredictable rock movement would remain and must be accepted by the viewing public.
So nothing more was ever done.And the American falls still flow.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Why I Love Geology 2: 007
Okay. So we've established that geologists are generally cool people who do cool things.
But did you know that we're also secretly the world's sexist spies?
Yep. As shown here in that cinematic triumph, Dante's Peak:I love everything about this movie, starting with the name; Dante's Peak - Dante's Inferno, get it? Subtle as a hammer to the face?
Oh, yeah.
The odd thing about this flick is that it is clearly meant to drag up the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helen's. You've got the small town (supposedly Washington but actually filmed in Idaho) literally in the shadow of the great volcano, all the flannel-and-latte trappings that the rubes associate with the Great Northwest, at least after David Lynch got through with them, and even a Harry Truman like-a-look in "Grandma Ruth" refusing to leave the upper slopes of Dante's hell-Peak because she knows "this ol' mountain won't hurt me..."
Riiiiiiiight, Grandma.
But does anyone other than me think that the entire notion of making a "Mt. St. Helen's" movie in 1997 was totally whack? Seventeen years after the eruption that made the national news wasn't exactly "ripped from today's headlines". I suspect that most people sorta-kinda remembered the events of May seventeen years earlier, but how did that help sell this flick? I suspect that the long remove from the historical event helped sink this turkey at the box office.
Geologically it's not a complete wash. The volcano does go from dormant to Plinian eruption within weeks rather than months, as is the actual case. And, no, entire mountain lakes don't really turn to acid, or hot springs suddenly boil skinny-dippers to death.
And you have Linda Hamilton, all craggy-beautiful, stone-washed wholesome, and foofily serious as the mayor of this fictional small town as well as the proprietor and sole barista of the local coffee spot, acting all intent in a sort-of-spacey disaster-movie fashion to provide both the required local viewpoint and the Love Interest.
Why a love interest in a flick about volcanic death, you ask?
Because the hero hunka-hunka burnin' volcanologist who comes to the rescue is none other than Double-Oh Seven. Bond. James Bond.
Seriously. James Bond, U.S. Geological Survey. Pierce Brosnan; the late-Nineties Bond himself, bustles onto the scene in his whompin' cool U.S.G.S. SUV (complete with snorkel for driving through rivers - you knew that all federal geologists are issued these, right?) to bark warnings to the ignorant hicks (producing much alarmed headshaking) and argue with complacent superiors (to be first reprimanded and, after the inevitable eruption, ruefully deferred to). Oh, and to conduct a "romance" with Linda the mayor/barista, naturally, although from the weak decaf they brew together it seems that Mister Kiss-kiss-bang-bang has left his Walther in his other pants and that Sarah Connor is still looking for Mr. Right rather than Mr. Right Now.
But he's fucking James Bond, people. And he works for the U.S.G.S.!
How cool is that?
So to review; cool flaming volcano death, parboiled naked hootchie, Linda Hamilton necking with James Bond, acid lakes, lattes, driving government vehicles through raging rivers.
Let's face it; geology is just flat-out, stomp-down, shake-your-moneymaker cool, and that's all there is to it.
But did you know that we're also secretly the world's sexist spies?
Yep. As shown here in that cinematic triumph, Dante's Peak:I love everything about this movie, starting with the name; Dante's Peak - Dante's Inferno, get it? Subtle as a hammer to the face?Oh, yeah.
The odd thing about this flick is that it is clearly meant to drag up the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helen's. You've got the small town (supposedly Washington but actually filmed in Idaho) literally in the shadow of the great volcano, all the flannel-and-latte trappings that the rubes associate with the Great Northwest, at least after David Lynch got through with them, and even a Harry Truman like-a-look in "Grandma Ruth" refusing to leave the upper slopes of Dante's hell-Peak because she knows "this ol' mountain won't hurt me..."
Riiiiiiiight, Grandma.
But does anyone other than me think that the entire notion of making a "Mt. St. Helen's" movie in 1997 was totally whack? Seventeen years after the eruption that made the national news wasn't exactly "ripped from today's headlines". I suspect that most people sorta-kinda remembered the events of May seventeen years earlier, but how did that help sell this flick? I suspect that the long remove from the historical event helped sink this turkey at the box office.
Geologically it's not a complete wash. The volcano does go from dormant to Plinian eruption within weeks rather than months, as is the actual case. And, no, entire mountain lakes don't really turn to acid, or hot springs suddenly boil skinny-dippers to death.
Although the dummies should really know better; anytime you get naked in a disaster/slasher flick, you're gonna die. Horribly. You know that. Grow a brain, people, and keep your damn skivvies on!But there's some reasonably-close-to-accurate stratovolcano geology, and the final pyroclastic explosion is pretty damn cool.
And you have Linda Hamilton, all craggy-beautiful, stone-washed wholesome, and foofily serious as the mayor of this fictional small town as well as the proprietor and sole barista of the local coffee spot, acting all intent in a sort-of-spacey disaster-movie fashion to provide both the required local viewpoint and the Love Interest.
Why a love interest in a flick about volcanic death, you ask?
Because the hero hunka-hunka burnin' volcanologist who comes to the rescue is none other than Double-Oh Seven. Bond. James Bond.
Seriously. James Bond, U.S. Geological Survey. Pierce Brosnan; the late-Nineties Bond himself, bustles onto the scene in his whompin' cool U.S.G.S. SUV (complete with snorkel for driving through rivers - you knew that all federal geologists are issued these, right?) to bark warnings to the ignorant hicks (producing much alarmed headshaking) and argue with complacent superiors (to be first reprimanded and, after the inevitable eruption, ruefully deferred to). Oh, and to conduct a "romance" with Linda the mayor/barista, naturally, although from the weak decaf they brew together it seems that Mister Kiss-kiss-bang-bang has left his Walther in his other pants and that Sarah Connor is still looking for Mr. Right rather than Mr. Right Now.
But he's fucking James Bond, people. And he works for the U.S.G.S.! How cool is that?
So to review; cool flaming volcano death, parboiled naked hootchie, Linda Hamilton necking with James Bond, acid lakes, lattes, driving government vehicles through raging rivers.
Let's face it; geology is just flat-out, stomp-down, shake-your-moneymaker cool, and that's all there is to it.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Why I Love Geology 1: رقص شرقي
Came across this looking for a cartoon to attach to an email congratulating a co-worker for passing her GIT: 
A transoceanic tip of the hard hat to Ms. Novis!
"Claire works as a senior geologist engineer at Arup, in Central Square Forth Street, Newcastle, and says her colleagues were taken aback when they first peered into the boot of her car. She said: “They see me wearing steel toe-caps and a hard hat so to see my sequined outfit and hip belts was a bit shocking for them."Which just served to remind me of what I know from being in the business: geologists tend to be bright, outgoing, interesting people who also tend to do all sorts of entertaining things outside their profession.
A transoceanic tip of the hard hat to Ms. Novis!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Break in contact
I forgot to mention - I'm out of town on a drilling job for this thing...
...called the "Willapa Hills Trail". Pretty part of Washington. Interesting geology. I just wish the damn water pumps - on the drilling rig as well as the water supply pumps - would stop breaking down. We're on day five of a four day project.
Hopefully we'll rejoin the main element tomorrow.
...called the "Willapa Hills Trail". Pretty part of Washington. Interesting geology. I just wish the damn water pumps - on the drilling rig as well as the water supply pumps - would stop breaking down. We're on day five of a four day project.Hopefully we'll rejoin the main element tomorrow.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
This in from the traffic desk...
Sinkhole in Guatemala City:
Buffy Summers: Now, we can do this the hard way or... well, actually, there's just the hard way.
Darla: That's fine with me.
Buffy Summers: Are you sure? Now this is not gonna be pretty. We're talking violence, strong language, adult content.
Two thoughts: Traffic through this part of town is pretty much hosed.
And I wonder who has the contract for providing the City of Guatemala City with backfill? And is it too late to get a bid in?
Buffy Summers: Now, we can do this the hard way or... well, actually, there's just the hard way. Darla: That's fine with me.
Buffy Summers: Are you sure? Now this is not gonna be pretty. We're talking violence, strong language, adult content.
Two thoughts: Traffic through this part of town is pretty much hosed.And I wonder who has the contract for providing the City of Guatemala City with backfill? And is it too late to get a bid in?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)