Keenan's Blogiddy Blog

CBC News Posted: May 11, 2011 9:15 PM AT Tiziana Trabucchi is excited about being chosen to work with NASA this summer in Houston.Tiziana Trabucchi is excited about being chosen to work with NASA this summer in Houston. (CBC) A Nova Scotia woman has been chosen by NASA to help evaluate future landing sites on the moon. Tiziana Trabucchi, of Truro, is one of 10 people chosen from around the world to spend 10 weeks this summer at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Originally from Italy, Trabucchi was a young child when NASA launched its last manned mission to the moon in 1972, but she has developed an excitement for the program and the need to return. Trabucchi has a master's degree in geology and is working on her PhD in Martian geology at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. "I'm really, really excited about this. I'm really happy," she said Tuesday of being chosen. "I mean, it's something that I wouldn't dream." Trabucchi said she d...

Hi guys! Got my rock hunting fix last Saturday (May 14th, 2011) when I had the opportunity to join an interpretive guided tour organized by the Joggins Info Center . I told myself that this summer I would take the opportunity to visit as many different sites and take part of as many tours possible. I did some digging and checked the popular sites in Nova Scotia and Joggins offered the earliest scheduled walking tours. On their guided tours they were offering 3 different walks: Logan (30-45 minutes tour); Lyell (90 minutes to 2 hours); and Dawson (4 hours). I picked the Dawson Tour (55$ incl. tax and museum access at the Info Center) as this would give me the opportunity to maximize my learning experience of the area and its history importance. Hard hats are provided by the Center and so are lunches. I mentioned to a couple of my friends that I was planning to attend the guided tour offered at Joggins and my buddy Craig offered to come with me. Craig work in the geology field ...

Here's a few pics I took last weekend of one of the oldest cemeteries on the East Coast. The cemetary is located near the fossil site in Rockport. Getting there can be quite challenging. Commemorative plaque recognizing the early settlers of this area from the mid-1700's. Fluffy! Old stone grinders

The Bouctouche Dune Eco-Centre got hit pretty bad last Winter due to the freakish storm of the century they had in the region. Me and my buddy Phil drove from Moncton to Bouctouche to check bad the damage was. What was a 12 kilometer trail was cut down to 800 meters or so. What was also interesting was the sand and rocks that buildup higher, actually reinforcing the dune with new plant growth. At some spots the sand was pushed on the other side of the walkway, dumping in the water at the other side of the dune. First section of the walkway Water now under the pathway, sand was pushed on the other side. Nearing the end of the salvaged walkway. Notice the crippled remains on the right? That's pretty much it. They fixed up the end of that short walkway. There wasn't any steps going down the sandy beach but we assume that they will add those soon so that people can at least walk on the sand the rest of the way. The rest of the wooden structure is pretty much looking like thi...

Brrrrrrr!!! Fossil hunting in March is damn cold, especially when you spend a few hours at the beach. I've been cooped up for months indoors, doing a lot of reading and studying geology and paleontology, but there's just so much you can take! I could feel the air changing and I was very anxious to get out there in search of new things to discover. The snow has melted and I knew that there would barely be any ice in the waters of the Bay of Fundy. So I packed up a lunch and hopped in my Rabbit! Little shortcut leading to the spot I'm heading to in Lower Cove. Parked my car by the small bridge on Lower Cove Road that crosses over Little River. There's more snow that I thought, but the water is clear of ice! You can see snow close to the cliffs, but as I made my way north along the cliffs, the snow dissipated. With my camera and hard hat, I proceeded down the slippery slope! I guess I'm not the only one checking these cliffs. =P Two coats and...

A few weeks ago I went fossil hunting around Joggins, Nova Scotia. Last summer I was looking for other sites close to the famous Joggins Fossil Cliffs that could yield interesting fossils. One of the spots I found last year was not too far south off the 209, on Shulie Road. I parked my car on the side of the road near the small bridge and walked down a path leading to what was left of the old train tracks. If I remember right there used to be a train that carried the coal they mined in the area. I decided to tackle the cliffs on the south side first. For this I made sure to bring my hard hat. Nothing more worrisome than to feel rocks hit the top of your head. The cliffs are a continuation of what you'd see at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs. Same type of strat layering with your sandstone, shale, mudstone and coal seems. The goal I had set that day was to spot fossilized trees in situ, or as they lay, on the cliff face. The hunt was on. The pic above shows one of the...