News

By: Kelly Snyder and Peter Russell

Calcite

A mineral consisting largely of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃ ). Next to quartz, it is the most abundant of the Earth's minerals. Crystallizing in the hexagonal system, calcite is noted for its wide variety of crystalline forms.

By: Mario Coniglio

By: Xanxin Wang, Ph.D., 
China University of Geosciences (Wuhan)
Visiting professor at the University of Waterloo (1998-1999)

The element fluorine, ranking thirteenth in abundance in the Earth's Crust, is used by higher life forms in the structure of bones and teeth. The importance of fluoride in forming human teeth and the role of fluoride intake from drinking water in controlling the characteristics of tooth structure was recognized during the 1930s. Fluoridation of drinking water since then has been a common practice in many countries.

Peter Russell

Maurice Dusseault, PEng 
Department of Earth Sciences

Over the last ten years, new options for permanent disposal of noxious or toxic wastes have been developed in the Earth Sciences Department at the University of Waterloo.

A four-ton grey syenite rock striped with deep blue sodalite arrived on the Waterloo campus by truck last May, and settled into the Geological Garden among 50 tons of other rocks, mainly from Ontario locations. Tended by Peter Russell, the rock garden has been growing since 1986. The new rock was donated by Andy Christie, owner of the Princess Sodalite Mine, east of Bancroft. It will be dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth Edwards, an Earth Sciences staff member who died in 1997.

Dave Young, reporter for The Saint John Times Globe (with some editing by Randy Miller, Curator of Geology and Palaeontology, New Brunswick Museum).

For more than a century, New Brunswick has played a key part in giving scientists a sense of how things came to be as they are today.

If you strolled along the base of the cliff it would be virtually unnoticeable, a shallow hollow in the miles of rock along the Bay of Chaleur.

What you are looking for is sedimentary rocks. These are the ones that look like they have layers. They do. The rocks were created layer after layer as dirt or animals fell to the bottom of a lake, marsh or sea. Granite and rocks that were formed from volcanoes generally do not contain fossils. It was just too hot.

I joined Earth Sciences about 8 months ago, moving back to Waterloo from Sudbury where I worked in Klohn-Crippen's Mining Group for several years, consulting on a variety of issues related to Rock Stability Assessment and Improvement, as well as Mining and the Environment. Prior to that time, I worked for a number of years in Geological Engineering Research with the University of Toronto, CSIRO in Australia and the Geomechanics Research Centre at Laurentian University. I have also dabbled in permafrost research and highway construction and design along the way.