Desert Rose

Merhaba!



So this post is very obviously not being written from Turkey, so maybe is lacking in authenticity, but I figured that I should probably finish the narration of my geologic adventures there, no matter how belated! And I recently read an online article that encouraged graduate students to practice writing - in any form - as often as possible. One of the suggestions was keeping a blog, so that provided additional motivation to finish this story!

Our third week of field camp was spent in Sivrihisar. The following week was spent in Cayirhan, which was the most arid area we worked in. As you can see behind me in the picture below, the rocks here were really beautiful! One formation in particular, aptly named the "Cayirhan Formation," was especially pretty with its pink, cream, and aqua stripes, kind of like Aquafresh toothpaste! Most of the rock formations in this area are cream-white in color, which I thought looked very "clean." Our instructor warned us against sunlight reflecting off the white sand and rocks, warning that some of his colleagues had actually gotten sunburned inside their nostrils from very white sand in the Sahara Desert! Fortunately, that did not happen to anyone on our trip :) You may notice that the layers of rocks are surprisingly horizontal. This is because these rocks were formed in lakes during the Miocene epoch, 11 million years ago. Lakes, especially in the center, are very quiet environments so fine-grained sand and mud form very even, smooth layers as they settle out of the water.



This is what a waterfall looks like without water flowing down it. That is Andrea standing in the middle of the bend. This was just the very bottom of the canyon, it actually extended up much further!




Our "fundamental question" for this mapping area was to look for indicators of faults. There were three major faults within the area we mapped. They stuck out very noticeably from the rest of the landscape and formed very narrow ridges. This is a picture of our whole class sitting on a fault. The fault is the flat surface to our right.




Ok, I want to post more pictures from the Cayirhan week, but they won't all fit in this entry, so check out part 2!

Salaam alaikum,
Sarah

PS - We didn't find any desert roses, but we did see a desert praying mantis! He was sand-colored, so he blended right in!