Geology and Cheese

  Hi again, once again we are sorry for the hiatus.  I just wanted to post something quickly so that you all know that we are well and fine.  Two weeks into the semester (students still just showing up) and all is well so far.  Today Jess and I went hiking with some friends (guiltily without the kids, but better off) across the river near Bagale Hills.  Present besides Jess and I were Ales, Charles, Darren, Jean-Marcel, Jasmine and Sesugh (also our guide for all things local).  The hike was great as it was nice to get out of Yola and into somewhat fresh air (the harmattan prevents completely fresh air...hack hack).  However, I was fixated on the local geology which I hope to present a bit during this post.  First some pictures:

Life is so tenacious!

Jess Scaling the Wall with Darren and Sesugh in the background

Jean-Marcel's turn

Darren with Ales up ahead

A view of the area

Another view

A Desert Rose

  Now I am sketchy on the geology of the area, but I have been trying to piece together some of it from different abstracts online (can't get the full pdfs).  It appears that the area is dominated by sandstone, more specifically Bima Sandstone dating back to the cretaceous period (somewhere around 100 to 125 mya).  Much of this sandstone exhibits cross-bedding, which essentially is the accumulation of sands from different directions that is eventually cemented into rock (sandstone) as layers build and extreme pressures develop.  If we look at what the world looked like during this time it might make more sense of why we see what we see here:

As you can see during the Jurassic Africa and S. America were cuddled up nice and close.  During the Cretaceous, the two continents  began to drift apart. 

If you can locate Nigeria you can see a large inland body of water, which I believe is part of the Benue Basin (the river that runs through Yola).  This spreading likely caused some thinning of the crust in this area and allowed for the formation of horsts and grabens along with seismic activity.  Now I don't know whether or not the sands for the sandstone was brought in by water or by winds.  

 All of this movement arranged some of the sandstone into the hills that we hiked through.  Now as for the strange weathering patterns I am not so sure.  It appears to be the result of running water, but many of the weathered rocks were in areas that really could not accumulate enough water (in my humble opinion) to form the weathering patterns seen.

Interesting weathering patterns in sandstone

From the little I have observed, I can only imagine many of these rock were either weathered when perhaps a much wetter climate persisted or occurred when this area may have been covered by water (which appears to be the case throughout much of cretaceous and beyond).  What is also interesting is that  typically in these areas where we have warm shallow seas we have a good chance for dense blooms of phytoplankton and zooplankton.  If you have a chance and can look through some of the maps depicting the Earth's tectonic activity you see that were many of these warm shallow seas once existed you now have oil deposits (ie. Saudi Arabia, the caspian sea etc...).  This is also the case for Nigeria.  This is the result of accumulations of dead and decaying biomass derived from the plankters mixed with some method of burial of these accumulations.   I have a hunch that many of the hydrocarbon deposits Nigeria owe their existence to this once inland sea and to the Benue Basin, only the hydrocarbons have made their way from the upper basin (Yola area) to the Niger Delta (I don't know how), I am sure the Lamido wishes this were not the case. 

Interesting Rock Formation

Crossbedding

More crossbedding

Now the cheese.  

  If you can see the resolution clearly enough, you could confirm that this is indeed a 2.894 kilogram (6.3 lbs) block of mozzarella cheese.  We purchased it frozen from Yakubu Market for the grand price of 7500 Naira ($50.00!!!!).  Now why would a family of four do such a thing?  Well for many of you that have lived in far off lands you may have experienced a dearth of cheese, or a complete lack cheese and or and appreciation for it (if not cheese I am sure these adventurers could substitute another comfort food).  Anywho, this is the case for our situation.  Among many other comfort foods cheese is scarce here, which has driven us to this sad state.  We buy frozen (more likely thawed, refrozen, thawed, refrozen...depending on NEPA (electricity)) and we store it frozen, chunked into individual baggies (thanks Pops and Lauren for the ziplocks!).  Is it worth it?  I guess, it just boggles my mind that we spend $50 for sub standard frozen cheese.  However when we calculate it, we will make nearly 20 pizza's so $2.50 a pop ain't so bad.  What is scary is that when I look at that 6.3 lbs block and compare it to the weight I have gained from the carb only diet (exaggeration alert) forced upon us I gasp and wonder about having any of those twenty pizzas.  Arghhh!!