After safely landing in Port-of-Spain the group had a good amount of down time to get local currency, get breakfast and change into field clothes. Exactly as promised, our mini bus arrived and before we knew it we were on our way. The drive to our first stop took us along the south side of the Northern Range all the way to the East Coast. We drove through gravel territory with quite a few quarries. Our first stop was an introductory stop at Salybia Bay. With the Caribbean sun beating down on us we reviewed what we knew about the Exhumation of the Northern Range. The Northern Range consists of Jurassic Metasediments that have been exposed through erosion at rates that vary from coast to coast. There has been more erosion in the west than the east. The reason for this still debated but some suggestions include climate cycles.
Next we stopped at the Balandra Point to examine some low grade metamorphism where we were able to measure some strikes and dips and identify some greenschists.
We then moved on to Rampanalgas Booster, a level cricket field on top of a raised beach with a beautiful view of the coast where we see more raised beaches along the north coast.
Continuing northwards we finally arrived to the north east corner. Although the skies seemed pretty clear Tobago was nowhere in sight . Nonetheless this location let us examine and look for evidence to challenge some published works.
After a short lunch stop our last stop was a Tompire Bay, a long stretch of bay where our challenge was to see if we could identify a difference in lithology from one end of the bay to the other but we identified the whole stretch of beach to be the same . With a relatively quick stop at the supermarket, off to our guesthouse we went for a good night's sleep.
This was a very coastal day, with beautiful ocean views and an excellent breeze to combat the overwhelming heat. Hopefully, tomorrow will be just as great, although hopefully we'll be less tired.
Yours truly,
Naomi and Betka
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