{"id":144,"date":"2012-01-20T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2012-01-20T13:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/extinctsouthafrica\/?p=144"},"modified":"2012-01-19T07:57:25","modified_gmt":"2012-01-19T12:57:25","slug":"good-bye-ganora-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/extinctsouthafrica\/2012\/01\/20\/good-bye-ganora-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Bye Ganora"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Another<\/a>

A Karoo Sunset at Ganora<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s time to depart the Karoo and head back to Cape Town, leaving the gorgeous desert sunsets to JP and Hester, our friends and gracious hosts at Ganora.\u00a0 Saturday morning marks the end of our 4th extended stay near Nieu Bethesda, and it\u2019s always with some regret that we leave them to the peace and tranquility of the region.\u00a0 Without neighbors or roads close to the farm, and away from the light pollution of the bigger South African cities, a clear evening sky is an image to remember.\u00a0 Venus, the brightest shining object during sunset, appears at the horizon soon to be followed by the Milky Way which stretches from the horizon across from the house in the image, arcing overhead, and disappearing behind the sandstone outcrop behind the cottage.\u00a0 The southern cross makes its way into view to the East, and all of the other constellations make their way into view.\u00a0 Orion\u2019s Belt may look the same, with three stars aligned in a row, but, to us, the stars outlining his sword are upside down.\u00a0 Our African colleagues jest that this is the correct way to view Orion; we demure.<\/p>\n

Objects not normally visible even in a quiet area such as Waterville are now obvious.\u00a0 There are the satellites that orbit Earth, seeming to float across the sky at a low trajectory, glowing reddish.\u00a0 Then, there are the meteorites that streak the night, originating from any part of the sky and heading towards the planet, only to be vaporized in their descent.\u00a0 The more vapor, the better the show.\u00a0 The pitch black background makes for memorable evenings, allowing us to retain a mental image of how small our planet is, and how much more there is out there that we yet understand.<\/p>\n

Our two weeks in the desert examining the rock sequence that records the Permo-Triassic extinction event have given us some perspective not only on the vastness of the universe in which we live, but also of the immensity of Earth history locked away in the geological record, of times past that serve as models for how the planet has responded to times of crisis.\u00a0 If we can add a little more knowledge to this puzzle, we\u2019ll have been successful.\u00a0 We won\u2019t remember (or maybe some of us won\u2019t) the long hours, fatiguing conditions, and enormous effort to make small strides towards achieving our goal.\u00a0 But, we will remember the camaraderie, conversation, and intellectual stimulation that is Ganora.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s time to depart the Karoo and head back to Cape Town, leaving the gorgeous desert sunsets to JP and Hester, our friends and gracious hosts at Ganora.\u00a0 Saturday morning marks the end of our 4th extended stay near Nieu … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/extinctsouthafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/extinctsouthafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/extinctsouthafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/extinctsouthafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/extinctsouthafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/extinctsouthafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/extinctsouthafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/extinctsouthafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/extinctsouthafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/extinctsouthafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}