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Friday, May 24, 1996

Editorial

And so the Spring Issue of another Wat On Earth rolls around again. Like most other Ontario universities our department has lost faculty and staff due to the cutbacks in the Provincial budget. Waterloo lost 140 faculty and 200 staff to "early retirements" as many senior members decided to head out into the great pasture before something less attractive appears on the horizon. This fall will see us with four less faculty and four less staff members.

Elms in Victoria Park, Kitchener in 1897
Elms in Victoria Park, Kitchener in 1897. The trees in the photograph became waterlogged and died due to the rise in the watertable due to the creation of Victoria Park (Photograph courtesy of Joseph Schneider House, Kitchener.)

Friday, May 24, 1996

A work term in South Africa

David Eden

For my eight-month work term in the Co-op Geological Engineering programme at the University of Waterloo, I was employed by ISS International Limited in South Africa. ISS (originally standing for "Integrated Seismic System") deals in seismic monitoring systems, primarily for use in deep mines. ISS systems are being used in Australia, Canada, Chile, England, Poland, South Africa and Zambia.

Friday, May 24, 1996

Microbes to minerals

The ability of living organisms to form minerals is the fundamental tenet of biomineralogy. Among plants and animals, this process involves the production of cystolith inclusions in leaves and hard mineralized body parts like bones, teeth, and shells. This process, biological mineral precipitation, is not exclusive to higher eukaryotic organisms. Prokaryotic microorganisms, or bacteria, are remarkably potent agents of biomineralization, too.

Niagara Escarpment
The Niagara Escarpment is the most prominent of several escarpments formed in the bedrock of southern Ontario. It is traceable from the Niagara River to northern Michigan, forming the spine of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin and other islands in northern Lake Huron. It also extends into New York State and Wisconsin, roughly encircling the Michigan structural basin in the bedrock.

Cavemen drawing of a mammoth
If you asked average Grade 6 students about animals that lived in the geological past the chances are that they would talk about dinosaurs. However, I am sure that following close behind would be some contemplation of those fabulous "Ice Age" mammals the mammoths and the mastodons.