Hey guys! Today we started
off with a cultural home run, visiting the temple of Hanuman the protector and
then the Temple in the Sea where active cremations were occuring! After which
we had a tour of the industrial area of Point-A-Pierre where a major refinery
is located.
The Paria basin is to the
west of the Temple of the Sea and is curentlying causing the north west of
Trinidad to sink into the sea at approximately 2 mm per year. This can have
huge impacts for the country, as most of it is below sea level.
After our drive through
the industrial complex, we continued our journey south towards the Central
Range Fault. In order to explore John Webers theory that this is a creeping
fault, we set out to see traces of right dextral movement along the Southern
Main Road. Unfortunately, we didn't find signs of creep, but we did find some
delicious roti!
Following lunch, we set
out to our next stop, the mud volcanoes! However, this wasn't our main reason for
visiting. At up to 7km of depth, clays experience overpressure which force the
fluids up and out in the form of mud volcanoes. Due to the salinity of the this
fluid, the tassics remained unvegetated creating a flat top topography that is
easily identifiable.
Although the mud field had
dried substantially, we saw evidence of more recent small ejections. These
could potentially be related to the creeping fault squeezing out more fluids,
but more accurate GPS measurements would be needed. We look forward to what
tomorrow has in store for us!
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