Far North Rambles: Busted
Interesting geological features remain a life-long draw. It is hard to resist their calling. But sometimes, the cool geological feature sits on private property, or on posted land, or on the side of an airport runway. These are places where you should not go! Right?
For 5 years, every time we landed at one particular far north community, I would look out the plane’s window at a low rounded rock that contained some very interesting, uncommon minerals. You might be thinking “why didn’t you just walk over and look at the rock?” Well, the rock was located inside a fence that was erected to keep people (and dogs) from crossing onto the airport property. The rock was on the airport property. It was “bad” to walk around fence onto the airport property!
One evening, while out for an walk with a good friend from the community, I asked if we could visit the rock. There were no scheduled flights; but, there was always the possibility of an unscheduled medical flight. After a brief discussion, we were on our way to finally see the rock. Not just any rock, but THE ROCK.
We walked through the bush to get to the old, low fence. It was easy to climb over. I felt like a little boy who was doing something “wrong”. We were 30 metres away from the runway and no planes were scheduled to arrive. It seemed safe.
The rock was exciting! The minerals were definitely uncommon. They were minerals that I knew about, but had never seen in the field. We were on hands an knees, bums up in the air, and nose to the rock - a standard geologist pose. We were so excited with the rock that we did not see the yellow airport truck driving down the runway with its flashing yellow light. The truck stopped. The airport operator walked over to us. BUSTED. He asked what we were doing, and reminded us that we are not allowed on the airport property. I looked at my community friend expecting him to “make it right” because he knew the airport operator. My friend looked at me, and I suspect he thought “the airport is run by the Ontario Government and you are a Government person - YOU make it right”.
We explained what we were up to. Together, we all looked at the rock and its cool minerals (Photo 1). We were joined by another community member and his son, who had been walking down fence line. We were all excited - I think.
Photo 1: We are gathered together to look at a very cool rock called a pegmatite. The pegmatite rock forms as a last gasp of granite crystalization. In geological speak, the pegmatite contained some uncommon minerals that suggested its origin was related to crystallization of an S-type granite. That is an important chapter related to the geological history of this area. Photo by Andy Fyon.
I did acknowledge that it was bad to have crossed the fence. But that rock had been calling out for attention for several years. Now that we had seen it, there would be no more incursions into airport “air space”.
What was special about the rock? In geologist speak, it was a pegmatite and it indicated something about the processes involved in forming an unusual type of granite, called S-type granite, and its pegmatite children. These are not common rocks. Its presence told a story about the last chapter of the geological history of this area, which closed about 2,650 million years ago. Exciting, eh? Worth the trespass? To a geologist - you bet.
We all came away with a different understanding of the land beneath our feet. No incoming flights were disrupted. Neither I nor my community friend were summoned to account before the Chief and Council or the Regional Director of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. I wonder if there is a statute of limitation?
Sometimes it is just too hard to resist the calling of a cool geological feature.
Andy Fyon, Nov 27, 2020 (Facebook Nov 27, 2020)