If your idea of heaven is noodles, then when you die, you will come to Taiyuan. In case you didn’t know, the Shanxi Province in China is the noodle capital of the world and the capital of Shanxi is the city of Taiyuan (at least in terms of noodles). I had come to Taiyuan to […]
The Groom, the Mine, His Wife and Her Lake
It was springtime in Xuzhou and the flowers were blossoming. Although not a small city by any measure – other than in China – the 8.5 million people seem a quieter type than elsewhere. Populated by parks, wide streets and relatively low buildings, the overall feeling one gets of Xuzhou is balance, politeness and a […]
Cipher Conducts CBM Workshop for the Geological Agency of Indonesia
Arriving in Bandung at 11pm on an early February evening the first thing I noticed was the coolness. Of course I already knew that Bandung, being over 750 m above sea level, is much cooler than Jakarta. But I was travelling from Brisbane, Australia where the temperatures had been above 35ºC and often over 40ºC […]
CIPHER RUNS FIELD TRIP TO POWDER RIVER BASIN, WYOMING, USA
It looked like machines and the weather were conspiring against us. The last flight from Denver to Gillette, Wyoming was ‘temporarily’ delayed (which in airport speak means “quite possibly cancelled”) and then there was the weather. I had flown the previous day from Brisbane, Australia to Denver to meet the field trip participants at one […]
WHY DOES INDONESIA HAVE SO MUCH COAL? – NEW PAPER OUT IN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COAL GEOLOGY
Why does Indonesia have so much coal? This might be like asking why is the sky blue? – but, like that question, it is fundamental and few seem to have considered it. A new paper by Mike Friederich, Tim Moore and Romeo Flores (“A regional review and new insights into SE Asian Cenozoic coal-bearing sediments: […]
Geological Time Travel in East Kalimantan (Borneo): Part I – Fresh Water Lakes
We sped across the surface of Lake Semayang with the bottom only inches below us. Using traditional long boats – with light but powerful engines – twenty-seven of us were headed for Semayang village, on the north central ‘coast’ of the lake. We were there as part of a geological field trip examining modern environments […]
The Society for Organic Petrology Conference – Starting Soon!
We are nearly there! – The 32nd Annual Conference of The Society for Organic Petrology will be held in a few days time. The Organising Committee wishes to thank all the speakers and poster presenters for all their hard work and for all attending participants for their presence. We know that during this current economic […]
FIELD TRIP – MAHAKAM DELTA, EAST KALIMANTAN (BORNEO), INDONESIA
The Society for Organic Petrology Annual Meeting: Hydrocarbons in the Tropics – On the Edge Field Trip The 2015 TSOP Post-Conference field trip is scheduled to take place from Thursday, 24th September to Sunday 27th September. SEE LINK: www.tsop.org for more about the society, the 2015 Annual Meeting in Yogyakarta and the field trip to Kalimantan We […]