Projects: NEO Earth Expeditions
1998 Belize Expedition Journals
January 17 Report -- Arrival in Belize
by Lu Coffing
In books, the adventurers always start their quests at the crack of dawn.
We were no exception.
Adriana Ocampo, Kevin Pope, and I had to be up before daylight to get to
Los Angeles International Airport. Eight hours later, after a short stop-over
in Houston, Texas, we landed at the Belize International Airport. There
we met Jan Smit, a sedimentary petrologist from the Netherlands, and Mike
Gibson, an invertebrate paleoecologist from Tennessee.
Wonder of wonders! All the equipment had arrived from the states, made it
through customs, and was waiting for us.
It started raining before we left the airport and continued during most of
our trip to Corozal. After two hours of driving, we arrived at Tony's Inn,
tired, hungry, and excited to be in Belize for our explorations.
January 18 Report -- Early Discoveries in Mexico
by Lu Coffing
What a great day!
We decided to go into Mexico to see if we could discover any ejecta blanket
material similar to what Adriana Ocampo and Kevin Pope found at Albion
Island, Belize in 1991.
We did! We found not one site, but two!
For years, Adriana and Kevin have wanted to check out the Mexican side of
the Rio Hondo River, but they never had the time. Today, as we were driving
on a road parallel to the river, we located in the road cuts two sites that
seem to have green clay (weathered glass) blobs and other features like the
ejecta blanket in Albion Island.
This is important for two main reasons:
In science, it is always better to have more than one example of something.
Now we can compare what we found today with the Albion Island quarry.
We think we have in situ deposits on top of the ejecta. This means we have
deposits from a later geological period (Tertiary) on top of the ejecta
blanket. We don't have this at Albion Island. So now we may be able to
determine how thick the ejecta blanket is. Also, this new site in Mexico is
now the closest to the crater.
These are important findings. Now if we can only confirm them.
We celebrated by having a wonderful seafood dinner at Cenote Azul. A cenote
is like a lake, but it's really a sinkhole filled with water. This one
is 90 meters deep.
We also looked at stromatolites, blue-green algae mounds that are primitive
life forms that first appeared 3.5 billion years ago and helped supply oxygen
to Earth's atmosphere.
Of course, tomorrow we intend to go back to Mexico. With this new find, everyone
is anxious to return. What will we find tomorrow?...
January 19 Report -- Looking for Something
by Lu Coffing
Off to Mexico to look for more green blebs (weathered clay) and ejecta blanket
material. We decided to continue south on the road that parallels the Rio
Hondo River and past the two sites we discovered yesterday to see how far
south we could find the ejecta blanket.
Along the way, we saw jungle, sugar cane, and lizards, but no ejecta blanket.
We saw chickens, horses, and turkeys, but no ejecta blanket.
We saw butterflies, beautiful flowers, a toucan, goats, cows, pigs, dogs,
cats, and a monkey, but no ejecta blanket.
We saw pot holes in the road that were as big as a cenote (an exaggeration:
see yesterday's notes), but no ejecta blanket.
By now, we were a wee bit discouraged when Michael Gibson said something
like "when you are looking for something but you don't find something,
you are still doing something." It sounded reasonable at the time, which
says something about our mental state. :)
We drove back to the area of yesterday's two discoveries, which are about
3.3 kilometers apart. We found another area that looks promising, but we need
to check it out more.
Next we drove to Chetumal to pick up Francisco Vega at the airport and get
some anti-snake venom vaccine.
When we finally got back to Tony's Inn, we were glad to see that Al Fischer
and his wife Winnie were there. The team is gathering. Most of the members
will arrive tomorrow.
January 20 Report -- Fossils and Pristine Spherules
by Lu Coffing
There is a gecko on the wall watching me write this. A unique experience:
I'm not used to sharing a room with a lizard.
Today we broke into two groups. Adriana and I went into Belize City to pick
up expedition members, while the others went back into Mexico on reconnaissance.
On the previous expeditions to Belize, something has always happened to delay
at least one member from arriving on time. The trend continued. Jutta and
Paul Dudley had a delay at one of the airports, so they missed their connection
to Belize. I guess I'll go back to the airport tomorrow.
Everyone else arrived with no problems. What a great group! I am always impressed
with the enthusiasm of our members.
The reconnaissance task force arrived back at Tony's Inn in high spirits.
They had discovered at least four new sites, all in the same general area
as the previous ones. One site seems to have the same stratigraphy as Albion
Island.
Jan Smit identified Cretaceous fossils at one of the sites. So, at one site
we have the top of the Cretaceous period and at another the bottom of the
Tertiary. We can now estimate the thickness of the ejecta blanket.
Also, two of the sites have more pristine materials than Albion Island, Jan
Smit explained, "and the best preserved spherules that I have ever seen
at the K/T." This is really something, coming from the scientist who
has seen more K/T material than anyone else around the world.
There is lots of work to do tomorrow. Most of the members will be doing detailed
sampling of the four best sites, while one group will be searching for fossils.
January 21 Report -- Stratigraphy and Paleontology
by Lu Coffing
There I was, by myself, driving down the Belize Northern Highway (the only
paved highway in northern Belize), looking out the window at exotic landscapes
and strange birds, passing lots of slow trucks loaded with sugarcane. I
was glad it was overcast, so it wouldn't be too hot for the members in the
field. I suddenly realized I was 1,000 miles from home and the only people
in the vicinity I knew were 100 miles away in Mexico. I felt very daring!
For all the truck drivers driving down the same highway, it was just business
as usual. But for me, it was an adventure.
I arrived safely in Belize City, picked up Jutta and Paul Dudley at the
airport and headed back to Tony's Inn.
The field teams arrived back a few minutes later -- hot, tired, dirty, and
very hungry. They had been divided into five groups: four did stratigraphy
and one, paleontology.
Here are the names of the four sites worked today and the site leaders:
Ramonal -- Michael Gibson
Palmar -- Kevin Pope
Agua Dulce -- Jan Smit
Alvaro Obregon -- Adriana Ocampo
Alfred Fischer was the science advisor to all four sites.
The stratigraphy group collected samples (every 20 centimeters, or about
8 inches) of the new K/T sites, photographed and measured them, and drew schematic
diagrams of the outcrops.
The paleontology group, led by Francisco Vega, found some late Cretaceous
fossils. We think these are the first late Cretaceous fossils ever found on
the Mexican side of the Yucatan Peninsula.
After dinner, Jan Smit gave an excellent slide presentation about K/T boundary
information from around the world.
We could not download pictures to the web site today because of connection
problems in Belize. We hope to add pictures to these reports tomorrow.
(I know why the gecko is in my room. It was invaded with ants today -- not
tens, not hundreds, but thousands [literally] of ants!)
January 22 Report -- At Albion Island
by Roger Nordin
Today we visited the dolomite quarry at Albion Island in Belize. We had three
working groups covering paleomagnetism, paleontology, and sedimentology.
Paleomagnetism
The paleomagnetism group collected samples from the spherule bed and measured
the magnetic susceptibility of the spherule bed and of the underlying Barton
Creek Formation. The Barton Creek formation represents the last geological
period just before the impact. We detected a small increase of the magnetic
susceptibility in the spherule bed. The purpose of the magnetic polarity
measurement is to try to determine the age of the Barton Creek formation.
Paleontology Group
Today we found the central portion and a few joints of legs of another
Carcineretis planetarius crab. This family probably became extinct at the
end of the Cretaceous period. We also encountered fragments of rudists (an
extinct bivalve from the end of the Cretaceous period) as well as Nereineid
gastropods. These gastropods are diagnostic for the late Cretaceous period.
Sedimentary Group
We looked closely and sampled the basal layer of the ejecta deposit and
came up with an alternative conclusion regarding the origin of the "accretionary
lapilli." Using the analogy of ball mills, we put forward an alternative
conclusion. We preliminarily propose that the spherules originated similar
to the "caking process" in agate ball mills, which tend to pick
up concentric layers of the grinding powder. This layer would act as a lubricant
between the ejecta and the Barton Creek basement rock.
We also found more striated boulders, further confirming the impact origin
of the ejecta blanket.
Washington Post Feature
Accompanying us in Belize is Joel Achenbach, a reporter from the Washington
Post. He is writing a feature article for their Sunday magazine, and he
is also gathering information for a book about science that he is writing.
January 23 Report -- Back to Albion Island
By Bob Cozzi
The mighty expedition crew got up early and packed their bags. We headed
back to Albion Island quarry for one last investigation. There was hope that
a new location near the quarry had recently been exposed, but that proved
to be a false lead.
So the team spread out and went to work doing what they like best, inspecting
the wide variety of geological features found in Albion Island quarry.
Tomorrow, Saturday, we will do reconnaissance of the Pook's Hill geological
sites. We hope to find more of the infamous "Pook's Pebbles" that
where discovered on the Belize '96 expedition.
January 25 Report -- Adventure in the Maya Mountains
By Bob Cozzi
Our spelunking expedition started out with a walk to the edge of the world
-- the local name for the end of the rain forest. Stone Sepulcher Cave was
the target of our adventure. A guide, Pete, was a former British citizen who
is the only person in the entire country licensed to take people into the
Maya Mountain Reserve.
Crawling, wading, hiking, climbing: we did it all today. In fact, we're too
tired to write more, so here's a quick look at some of today's activities.
January 27 Report -- Moisture and Music
After a rainy night, we woke to a misty and very moist day (humidity was
at 100 percent). Among the clouds, we set our course to the potential K/T
outcrops located near San Ignacio. The first stop was at Chaa Creek, or CC1
(BZ-CC1-98). We were able to identify some fossils there as being Tertiary
in age. We collected paleontological and paleomagnetic samples for further
identification in the lab.
The next outcrop we explored was near the Negroman Farm or NM (BZ-NM-98).
Geologists have interpreted this site as a highly weathered Cretaceous surface.
The geographer of the expedition, Winnie Fischer, also collected samples
of the flora. After lunch, we visited the last outcrop of the day at Benque
Viejo (BZ-BV-98), located by the Mopan River. The Benque Viejo outcrop contains
Pook's Pebbles that appear to have been reworked and redeposited in an alluvial
fan. We'll need to analyze this site further to verify whether or not it is
a Pook's Pebble site.
After a day in the field, the group had a pleasant visit to the Cahal Pech
Mayan Ruins (translated as Tick City) near San Ignacio.
As nightfall came upon the land, the group returned to base camp for the
traditional song and dance night. Each group member was asked to prepare entertainment
for the enjoyment of the others. One of the songs was a rendition of "The
12 Days of Christmas" by Sandy Miarecki, retitled "The 12 Days
of Chicxulub."
January 28 Report -- Another Journey
by Lu Coffing
There's no electricity at Falling Stone Butterfly Ranch, and a very limited
Internet connection, so I'm back to writing and faxing entries.
Today we left Pook's Hill. Vicki and Ray had become such good friends that
we hated to leave them. Francisco Vera Vega, Jaime Urrutia, and Alejandra
returned to Mexico today. Now there are only 18 of us.
Pook's Hill is one of the special places in Belize. The inn offers simple
food and accommodations, but the warmth and friendliness of the owners, coupled
with the serenity and lushness of the setting, makes this a place I will think
about with longing when I am back in my regular, hectic life. And I will never
forget swimming in the river and floating downstream with the current. What
fun!
We have no time for looking at outcrops on road cuts today, and no time for
geology. It was only 165 miles (266 kilometers) from Pook's Hill to Falling
Stone Butterfly Ranch near Punta Gorda, but it took us more than five hours
to make the trip. I'm not going to describe the treacherous roads, because
I don't want to think about them anymore, but driving the truck was an experience
I will never forget. The scenery was lush and beautiful. We passed several
banana plantations.
Ray, the owner of the ranch, took us to look at his butterflies and explain
his breeding program. He sells the butterfly pupae to butterfly houses in
England.
Adriana and Kevin forgot to mention to me that the cabins at the ranch are
located on a hill. From the eating and meeting area, I have to walk 160 steps
down the hill to my cabin. It is 500 steps up the hill from my cabin. Okay,
it is really only 160 steps up the hill; it just seems like 500 steps.
A scorpion visited us in the cabin, but Sandy, my roommate, said he was an
unwanted guest. She threw him out.
After dinner, half the people went to bed and half stayed in the meeting
area debating, discussing, and arguing about cloning. It has nothing to do
with geology, but it is an interesting topic. We get back to geology tomorrow.
January 29 Report -- A New K/T Site!
by Lu Coffing
Today was reconnaissance day. We drove to different sites and collected samples.
If this report seems disjointed, it is because I am writing it out in the
field as we move from site to site.
Brian Holland, a geologist and part owner of Belize Minerals Limited in Punta
Gorda, joined us today to show us around. What a blessing; he knows the roads.
At the first site, Columbia Quarry, we found rudist and other fossils.
We moved on to two sites along Blue Creek, where we discovered more fossils.
By this time, all of us were finding them.
We ate lunch next to the Moho River -- lovely scenery. Up in the trees, the
iguanas, between four and five feet long, were probably wondering why we were
disturbing them with our rock pounding. The minnows in the river enjoyed bits
of corned beef from our sandwiches.
At a site about three miles from Santa Theresa, we hit the jackpot! We now
have a new K/T site in southern Belize! We discovered green blebs and spherules
with internal bubbles in the cobbles that are similar to material found in
Haiti and Mexico. Jan Smit said he found basal Paleocene in the eugubina zone.
That is an index fossil of the period 5,000 to 40,000 years after the impact.
Adriana calls this a fabulous site. It looks as if we have found ejecta material
about 800 kilometers (497 miles) from the Chicxulub Crater.
As we drove along the road to San Benito Puente, we stopped in the road.
Kevin hopped out of the van. "Green blebs!" he called. "Green
blebs! Green blebs! We found another site with green blebs!"
Everyone is excited about this discovery. It is important that we gather
a great many samples to study when we return home. What a great day!
More Reports from Near Punta Gorda
by Bob Cozzi
Sorry about the delay in sending this entry to you, but we have since relocated
to the Falling Rocks Jungle Lodge and Butterfly Ranch near Punta Gorda. The
accommodations are a bit primitive since the lodge is solar powered and thus
does not have electrical outlets. We have been conserving laptop-computer
battery power and are now in Punta Gorda proper at Brian Holland's house using
up his electrons to send this to you and to recharge our battery packs.
Today was a busy day. We met up with Brian Holland who is a geologist living
in Punta Gorda, and he was our guide for the day. We visited a total of eight
sites before we had to return home due to darkness.
First was the Columbia Creek quarry, a very steep face with many rudist fossils.
Rudists are Cretaceous relatives of the coral that makes coral reefs, deposited
around 70 million years ago (5 million years before the impact) and there
were quite a few of them there, along with foraminifera and sponges.
The next site was the Blue Creek quarry. There we found pretty much the same
thing, except that Jan Smit found a whole rudist, which is rare but necessary
for proper age analysis. We moved on to Blue Creek itself, where Brian Holland
gave us a lesson on the K/T boundary before we headed off to the Moho River.
There Al Fischer, Adriana Ocampo, and Kevin Pope found a discontinuity layer
and some sediments that need to be analyzed.
On the way to the next site, we paused to look back at the mountain range
we had just come from. The view was striking as we looked at a huge gorge
in the mountains where a cave system had collapsed.
Next up was the Santa Theresa quarry where we found several curious lenses
of green blebs which are quite possibly devitrified glassy spherules from
the impact. We took MANY bags of samples for analysis and, of course, iridium
content. We couldn't find distinctive layers, however, since the quarry had
been bulldozed quite a bit and was virtually scraped clean, so we moved on
but hoped we would return. Several fossils were found however, including a
large piece of a (probably) Cretaceous clam found by Tim Herman.
We drove down the road and stopped along the roadside for three more sites,
where we found more green blebs and took more samples. However, these green
blebs appeared to be more weathered than the ones at the quarry, so there
is still a mystery here. This was the road to San Benito Puente.
Finally we ended up at Corozon quarry near San Antonio Columbia (a different
San Antonio as compared to the town up north near Corozal). Several children
followed us up the trail to the steep outcropping, and we attempted to explain
our mission to them. The main discovery was the conglomerates at the top of
the quarry, which may be similar in composition to the ones in the other San
Antonio, or which may contain Pook's Pebbles or other interesting things.
By this time, the troops were pooped, and the sun was rapidly setting in
the west, so we headed back to the lodge for an evening of "Pigs," a
dice game where the dice are small rubber pigs that roll. And so endeth another
day in Belize.
January 30 Report -- Exploring New K/T Sites
by Tim Herman, Sandy Miarecki, and Bob Cozzi
Today we were able to return to several sites from yesterday that needed
further investigation.
We first went back to Santa Theresa quarry where our heavy equipment (picks
and shovels) were used to clean off as much of the debris as possible to try
to find the green bleb rocks in place that were found yesterday (see yesterday's
report). Juan Carlos Fernandez (aka, "Sergeant") was responsible
for much of the muscle required to find the bottom of the debris pile. More
green blebs were found in place, and it was the group's initial hypothesis
that the site was a redeposit of material instead of the original bedding.
More samples were taken, however, hoping to find iridium or shocked quartz
in the laboratory, in the hopes that we have at least found an area with possible
K/T layers still in place. This site is one of the farthest from the impact
crater and would help explain the mechanics of the impact itself.
Several individuals braved the jungle, trying to find undisturbed deposits,
and some tried to reach the rock face visible about 1/4 mile away from the
quarry. The bush was pretty thick, however, so it was difficult to see much.
Many in the group enjoyed the chance to explore, however.
Next we drove back down the road to San Benito Puente to reexamine the small
road cuts that we looked at yesterday. We saw the same weathering in the green
bleb rocks that we saw earlier, which fits the hypothesis that the rocks have
been redeposited.
Lastly we moved on to the quarry near San Antonio (this is a third town called
San Antonio in Belize) which was next to a river bed. Since it is the dry
season, the river was empty, which allowed the team to look at the underlying
bedrock unimpeded. Everyone had a great time finding fossils all over the
place, including gastropods, foraminifera, and especially rudists, which were
literally everywhere. Jan Smit was really excited when Sandy Miarecki found
a huge rudist leaf fossil. It was a complete segment from a rudist estimated
to be 12 inches in diameter, truly a giant.
The quarry was unbearably hot, however, and so the group decided to find
a swimming hole. They found a place near San Antonio that had a pretty waterfall
and a waterlogged yellow Nerf volleyball for a game of water volleyball (sort
of). Then we moved to the Blue Creek where we hiked the short trail to the
cave that feeds the creek. The team doffed their gear and clothing and swam
into the cave, which was quite large. We wished we had brought along head
lamps and inner tubes since the water was quite deep but extremely clear,
and delightfully cool, and the cave was worthy of further exploration.
After dinner, we headed for the "big city," Punta Gorda, to use
Brian Holland's electricity (since we had none at the lodge) to put together
this report and send it to you. After we send it, we're headed for some night
life at a local restaurant called "Mangrove Inn."
This is your webmaster team, signing off for the evening and for the expedition.
We will be on "holiday" tomorrow exploring more of the countryside
without our geologist hammers and hand lenses. Then we leave on Sunday, so
for now there's nothing more to report from Belize. It's been a pleasure writing
to you all.
February 1 Report -- Final Day
by Lu Coffing
The final day.
All of us left Falling Stone Butterfly Ranch today. Most of us were going
home, although six of the team were staying in Belize for a few days of vacation.
Adriana, Kevin, and I had a 4:40 afternoon flight out of Belize City International
Airport and had to return the vehicles and get the rocks ready for shipment.
Although it is only about 150 to 170 miles (about 240 to 270 kilometers) to
Belize City, we figured it would take 5 to 6 hours to get there because of
the roads. We also wanted to allow extra time in case something happened.
In fact, it did take us 5 hours of driving to reach the airport. I refuse
to describe the dangerous roads; I do not want to think about them.
We intended to leave at 7 a.m. Of course, we didn't. Goodbyes took at least
a half hour.
I think everyone would agree that the expedition was a success. I know I
am grateful for the opportunity to be part of it.
But now it time for us to return to the real world and tell everyone about
our discoveries....
This geologic expedition is sponsored by the Planetary Society, with additional
support from Epson digital imaging products and TNT Express Worldwide international
distribution.
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