Day 3 - Brazetas

Guil began the day by saying "The present is the key to the past." With this in mind, we returned to the Farol de Santa Marta mountainside to synthesize some of the concepts we had learned over the past two days to understand the new topic of sedimentation.

Our steep trek up the mountainside included a surprise: a friendly, 3-legged stray pooch from town followed us into the field. The 3-legged hound (or Trooper, as we affectionately called him) seemed to be out hiking all of us. Especially showing off to our 1-legged friend, Andrew (who had injured his toe in a football match with some locals the night before).

Our first stop of the hike took us to the high altitude Sambaqui lookout where Guil gave us the basics. Sedimentation is a lot like a bad relationship: complicated and lasts for way longer than it should. It's a process that involves almost every part of the landscape and relies on complex interactions between energy, distance, and density. 

After bioturbating all over the place and coming to a conclusion on the regulation grain size of sand (.6 - 2mm), the group ascended one of the large dunes. Little did we know that climbing this dune would result in one of the greatest geological showdowns this Maymester has ever seen. 

"How did these dunes form?" Guil asked innocently. The dune, shaped like the top half of a capital letter "D", proved to be more complicated that originally predicted. After investigating the morphology of the dune and the direction of the wind, two strong opinions formed. Virginia and Carsen contended that the wind was depositing the sand on the curved side of the "D" while Nick, Emmanuel and Sam contended it was being deposited on the straight side. 

And thus began The Great Dune Debate of 2016. On which side was the sediment being deposited? Were the deposits vertical, giving rise to the sheer, cliff-like side? Or were the grains being deposited along the horizontal, gradually sloped side? After a bloody battle of words and a cracker-filled lunch, Guil revealed that in fact the women were correct.

Funny how two of those in the winning camp authored this blog post. But we suppose it's the victors who get to write the history books.

Just as the present is key to the past, we ended our day in the field by returning to the Sambaqui lookout and proceeded to absorb the entire landscape: the ocean, dunes, interdunes, vegetation, our beloved first outcrop and everything in between. It was a nice way to end the day, synthesize the geological concepts, and say goodbye to the landscape.

As our time comes to an end in Farol de Santa Marta, we are looking forward to the countless adventures and fish dinners that lie ahead.

ZLAM, 

Ali and Carsen