July 20, 2004 I like to think of early humans as the very first
geologists. They liked rocks, they hit them, they used the
results, and they knew a lot about the properties of different
rocks. The geologists on our project take that knowledge many
huge steps further, such as figuring out the age of sediments.
We also need to name the geologic features we see to communicate
with one another. OK, then, for today, more geology! I'll tell
you about the differences between the New Formation, where John
is working to uncover Middle Stone Age tools, and the
Olorgesailie Formation, where the other excavations are
uncovering Acheulean artifacts. The Olorgesailie Formation is
the name of the fourteen members we've talked about in previous
dispatches. It was formed during a time when a series of lakes
covered the Olorgesailie basin, and we can easily identify the
formation because so many of the strata contain the blinding
white diatomite, created by the bodies of the lake-living
diatoms. The Olorgesailie Formation is t