1. EXPLORATION IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC
Areas where I worked
Polynesian
Melanesian
Micronesian
FIJI
260,000 Fijians
293,000 Indians
4,700 Chinese
5,000 Europeans
500 Islands (250,000 sq mi)
100 Islands Inhabited
Settled since 2000 BC
2. City life … to jungle village
Suva (Capital) has a population of 103,000
9. EXPLORATION in a Third World Country
Bring what you need …. Need what you bring!
Be prepared to get wet…..
Its work for those with an open mind --- food --- accommodations --- travel
No trails --- machete and compass
As a geologist you are carrying out more than you carried in --- rock samples!
Be prepared for the unusual --- once found >20 bodies dumped in an overhanging outcrop
from long ago cannibals
12. Mostly we were hiking and cutting our trail with a machete
13. Goals: Map Geology, identify faults, date rocks and formations, identify tectonic setting,
create a useful Stratigraphic Column, and map geological units that could be tied to
offshore seismic survey.
14. Geological / Geophysical Surveys
• Hundreds of miles of offshore seismic
• Aeromagnetic survey (for Heat flow)
• Gravity survey
• Aerial Photography
• Field Mapping
Experimental electrical resistivity
survey conducted offshore to
search for oil/gas seeps.
