A lovely site to hold a meeting
May. 27th, 2015 05:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaYesterday and today was a meeting for our division at the university. This time, rather than having it on campus we did an excursion.
24 of us boarded a bus yesterday morning at 08:00 and we drove out to the site of the old Laver mine--a mine that was built in 1936 and was in operation till 1946. They built a small town there to house the workers, and even a school for the children. Apparently it was an ultra modern town, with electricity, central heating, modern stoves, etc. The children who grew up there were surprised when the mine closed and their families moved away to discover that the rest of Sweden didn't have those conveniences yet.
After the mine closed the houses were all moved to other locations (and, indeed, and been built to be movable, since the only expected the mine to operate for 10-15 years), and all that remains today are the foundations and dirt roads between them, and, of course, the old tailings pile from the mine.
After that stop we went a short distance up the road to where they are hoping to open a new, larger mine. The part of the deposit they mined in those days turns out to have been the richest part of a larger alteration system. These days it is possible to do mining in areas of lower concentrations of ore than used to be required. It will be interesting to see if they get the permits approved to open the new mine. No matter where a natural resource is located there will always be someone who loves the spot and hopes that no one comes in with heavy equipment.
After that stop we went to Hotel Storforsen, which has one of the prettiest views I have seen since moving to Sweden. Storforsen is Europe's largest undeveloped rapids, and a location I try to visit at least a couple of times a year.
We had a couple of hours between arriving at the hotel and the scheduled dinner, so I took the bridge from the hotel across one of the two rivers that meet there and went up to the pretty area by the rapids. I didn't dawdle, just walked there, did a quick loop around the area admiring the rocks, water, and spring growth of vegetation. While it had rained earlier in the day that had stopped, and the rocks were dry and I was able to do the adventure in my birkenstock sandals.
I didn't, of course, eat dinner that evening, since we didn't sit down till 19:00, and I am never hungry that late--instead I had brought my own food, which I ate at a time my tummy wanted food (16:00 for half of it, and 17:00 for the rest), and when food was served at dinner I tucked the things that looked like they would be good the next day for lunch into a plastic box and chatted with people. I had never spoken to the PhD student who was sitting across from me, and he was quite interested to hear about the SCA any my hammer dulcimer. He plays piano and is interested in the dulcimer, which he had never heard of before.
This morning we had the actual formal meeting, at the end of which I gave a short talk about the new laser ablation ICP-MS lab, briefly explaining what the machines do and what they might want to use the lab for. Then we had lunch at the hotel and we all went up to the rapids as a group. Today it was raining, lightly, so I opted to wear my hiking boots, and even so was very cautious wandering over the rocks, which can be quite slippery when wet. I was very surprised to find out that no one has ever studied the geology there, despite all of the beautiful outcrop. Several of us talked about it, and we agreed that it would be good to turn some students loose there to do some projects that would also result in some information signs for the tourists--the part has lots of signs about the birds, wildlife, and the history of the river as a way to float logs from the timber industry to the saw mills--they need some geology signs, too.
Then we returned to town just early enough for me to have the energy to tidy up a bit and to cook up a yummy soup (to which I added more nettles from where I am hoping to evict them from behind the strawberry patch) and a delicious cornbread.
24 of us boarded a bus yesterday morning at 08:00 and we drove out to the site of the old Laver mine--a mine that was built in 1936 and was in operation till 1946. They built a small town there to house the workers, and even a school for the children. Apparently it was an ultra modern town, with electricity, central heating, modern stoves, etc. The children who grew up there were surprised when the mine closed and their families moved away to discover that the rest of Sweden didn't have those conveniences yet.
After the mine closed the houses were all moved to other locations (and, indeed, and been built to be movable, since the only expected the mine to operate for 10-15 years), and all that remains today are the foundations and dirt roads between them, and, of course, the old tailings pile from the mine.
After that stop we went a short distance up the road to where they are hoping to open a new, larger mine. The part of the deposit they mined in those days turns out to have been the richest part of a larger alteration system. These days it is possible to do mining in areas of lower concentrations of ore than used to be required. It will be interesting to see if they get the permits approved to open the new mine. No matter where a natural resource is located there will always be someone who loves the spot and hopes that no one comes in with heavy equipment.
After that stop we went to Hotel Storforsen, which has one of the prettiest views I have seen since moving to Sweden. Storforsen is Europe's largest undeveloped rapids, and a location I try to visit at least a couple of times a year.
We had a couple of hours between arriving at the hotel and the scheduled dinner, so I took the bridge from the hotel across one of the two rivers that meet there and went up to the pretty area by the rapids. I didn't dawdle, just walked there, did a quick loop around the area admiring the rocks, water, and spring growth of vegetation. While it had rained earlier in the day that had stopped, and the rocks were dry and I was able to do the adventure in my birkenstock sandals.
I didn't, of course, eat dinner that evening, since we didn't sit down till 19:00, and I am never hungry that late--instead I had brought my own food, which I ate at a time my tummy wanted food (16:00 for half of it, and 17:00 for the rest), and when food was served at dinner I tucked the things that looked like they would be good the next day for lunch into a plastic box and chatted with people. I had never spoken to the PhD student who was sitting across from me, and he was quite interested to hear about the SCA any my hammer dulcimer. He plays piano and is interested in the dulcimer, which he had never heard of before.
This morning we had the actual formal meeting, at the end of which I gave a short talk about the new laser ablation ICP-MS lab, briefly explaining what the machines do and what they might want to use the lab for. Then we had lunch at the hotel and we all went up to the rapids as a group. Today it was raining, lightly, so I opted to wear my hiking boots, and even so was very cautious wandering over the rocks, which can be quite slippery when wet. I was very surprised to find out that no one has ever studied the geology there, despite all of the beautiful outcrop. Several of us talked about it, and we agreed that it would be good to turn some students loose there to do some projects that would also result in some information signs for the tourists--the part has lots of signs about the birds, wildlife, and the history of the river as a way to float logs from the timber industry to the saw mills--they need some geology signs, too.
Then we returned to town just early enough for me to have the energy to tidy up a bit and to cook up a yummy soup (to which I added more nettles from where I am hoping to evict them from behind the strawberry patch) and a delicious cornbread.