In The Field
Burgess Shale Centenary: Weather permitting
Yesterday it was 30 degrees and sunny, leading to violent thunder storms, torrential rain, and today’s wet drizzle. This demonstration of the changeable weather in Canada’s Rockies gives me a new appreciation for the early explorers of these mountains. In some ways they had it easier than today’s field geologists and paleontologists, in that they had pack horses to carry their gear (several participants at today’s conference have lamented not having their own pack horses). But clearly it was not easy, negotiating up scree slopes of shale, through dense forest, in at times horrendous conditions.