Geologists from Planet Earth

Geological fieldwork: the ultimate adventure - Kristopher Szilas

• Julie Hollis

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Kristopher Szilas's geological journey began by abseiling down a 500-meter cliff face. In this episode, we hear how his rock-climbing prowess landed him a dream job sampling for gold in Greenland – an experience he'll tell you felt more dangerous than climbing the infamous North Face of the Eiger! Kris's is a thrilling glimpse into the wild, outdoor life of a hard-rock geologist, exploring ancient Earth while living in a summer camp dream. 

Teaching resources (questions prompts) for 12-16 year olds can be found here: https://www.tes.com/resource-detail/resource-13276404

Julie:

What do you know about geology? What does a geologist do? And who are these people who are so interested in rocks? In this podcast, I ask geologists from around the world to tell the stories that mean the most to them. And well, it turns out they're not who you might expect. the remarkable things they've done, the experiences they've had, and the passion that every one of them feels for the planet that we live on. But it's not about what I think. You decide for yourself. My name is Julie Hollis, and you're listening to Geologists from Planet Earth.

Kris:

My name is Kristopher. I'm a geologist. My research is focused on the geology of Greenland, so I've spent 15 summers so far in Greenland.

Julie:

Welcome, Kris. What are you going to tell us about?

Kris:

I'd like to go back all the way when I had just defended my bachelor's thesis. It was in 2006. And I had then been hired for a summer job by a mineral exploration company in Greenland called Nuna Minerals. So they wanted me on as a junior climbing geologist because I'd done a fair bit of rock climbing at that point. And they wanted me to sort of target some areas that were not really accessible without having ropes.

Julie:

So this was your introduction to working in Greenland?

Kris:

Yes. Basically, my introduction to Greenland was that I almost literally got there, got dropped off by helicopter on a mountaintop and then had to rappel down like a 500-meter cliff face and sample for gold on these really terrible rocks, really. It was all hydrothermally altered. It was quite loose and dangerous. When you climb as a rock climber, you always seek out the best quality rock, like really solid granite and nice, safe cracks where you can place a lot of good protection. But in this case, you kind of had to go where... They wanted you to go where they had some potential targets. And most of it was really crumbly and falling apart. And we weren't placing drilled bolts. We had to use natural features. So hammering small pitons and that kind of stuff. So it was, yeah, very exciting, I would say.

Julie:

And this was on the island of Storo near Nuuk, right?

Kris:

Even though it's so close to the capital of Nuuk, so it's, I mean, it's... the most civilized you can get in Greenland. Then just, you know, I think it's maybe 20 kilometers north of Nuuk. Then there's this beautiful island in the middle of Gotthard Pure, this very deep fjords that are carved out from the glaciers. And then there's several mountains on the island. And then basically on the saddle between two of the mountains, that's where we had the base camp. It's a really spectacular area. Steep rock faces all around.

Julie:

So how did you get around in this steep terrain?

Kris:

They had a helicopter to take up the climate geologists, but also they had a So they had to bring up the drill rigs and everything. And there was actually a Swiss pilot, Marcus. Apparently he was involved in the Red Bull helicopter flying competitions back home in Switzerland. So he was very good, but also very aggressive. So whenever we would fly up there, sometimes we would have to bring a rock saw for doing a channel sampling up on the cliff face. And he had this like, you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger-like accent. And he would just like fly up to the mountain and then hover just in front of the mountain cliff face. And then just say on the radio, get out, like the Schwarzenegger-like thing. And then we had to open the door, we had to crawl out onto the side of the helicopter and then get a rock saw in the back of the helicopter and the whole thing was sort of wobbly and then jump you know a foot or two over on the cliff face to get established and start working from there so so after that experience that summer climbing on all the crappy hydrothermally altered rocks i actually in wintertime i went to switzerland and climbed the north face of the eiger so it's 1800 meter cliff face and then it's just iced over and you have to climb pretty much everything with crampons and ice tools and that's infamous for being very dangerous but actually Relatively speaking, it felt safe compared to the work I had done over the summer in Greenland. So that's kind of ironic. It was all very exciting. It was all like the Wild West and working with local Greenlanders. They were like teenagers. So it was just like a summer job for them. They didn't have much experience with climbing or geology or anything, but they could carry these big rock saws around on cliff faces. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, so because it was a fairly well-funded exploration company, we had this base camp where everybody was sleeping in. There was all these weather-having tents, so really big, solid tents. There was a functional kitchen and toilet and everything. So it was a village-like atmosphere. Everybody was sleeping out in tents around this small village. We were well-fed. There was... breakfast and lunch and dinner. Everything was very good. Yeah, I mean, it was a lot of fun to work with the local Greenlanders. Some of them were mostly a bit younger than me. It was like almost like a summer school. I remember the senior geologist at the Noonan Middle School was almost like a, reminded me of some sort of the scout camp leader who was like yelling at the kids to wake up in the morning and eat your breakfast and out in the field. So it was pretty much like a summer camp. A lot of these guys, they had no experience with anything. So they just went out there and just to earn a bit of money. It was great fun. It's a very simple life. You're there for maybe a month, and then you just wake up in the morning, eat your breakfast with the other guys, and then you head off into the field. And it's a bit like being on a hiking holiday. You see all this great nature and explore the mountains and work at the same time. So it's really a nice way to spend your summer.

Julie:

What was the day-to-day work like?

Kris:

During the day, we would just either hike out for the objective of the day. That could be, for instance, go out and do some channel sampling or just doing rock grabs for getting a baseline for the exploration targets. Or help with building up these platforms for the drilling rig. So the helicopter would bring up a lot of logs and stuff like that on the cliff face and we would have to hike up there. and then trying to build a platform so they could actually bring up the whole rig at some point. I mean, it wasn't every day like that, but there was certain targets where we had to go climb. Some of the cliff faces where we had to sample were so steep, so we would basically be dropped on the mountain, hike down a bit, and then use the ropes to rappel down the face and sample along the way. And sometimes you could find natural fault lines where we can do a traverse across the face So we could belay each other across and make it relatively safe. Rather than climbing on a steep face, we could sort of follow some terrain with a ledge.

Julie:

You were a climber on this project, but also a geologist, right? Where did that take you in terms of your career since then?

Kris:

I was actually also an assistant to a geologist from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Jeroen van Gool. He was hired also to help the mineral exploration companies with doing some structural mapping in the area. So I was assisting him with that and also learned a lot from him just seeing how a senior geologist works in the field and taking notes and sampling and all that observational work that is required. From that experience, I actually ended up working on my master's thesis on rocks from Storj. And eventually also did a PhD focused on these Archean supracrustal rocks in Greenland. So that first summer in Greenland really made a very strong connection and establishment for me and my connection with Greenland and geology in a broader sense.

Julie:

And your research is really focused on Archean rocks, which are those formed in basically the first half of Earth's history.

Kris:

Yeah, so Archean rocks are basically... Rocks that have formed from 4 billion years ago to 2.5 billion years ago. So that's the Archean Eon. And Greenland is particularly famous for having some of the oldest super crustal rocks, which are rocks that have been deposited onto the surface of the Earth. So these would be basically metamorphic lavas and... sediments, there's banded iron formations, so rocks that have been exposed to the surface either in an ocean or at the atmosphere. So that's what we mean by super crustal rocks. And these are particularly interesting targets also for mineral exploration in Enochian terrains because they usually host a lot of VMS.

Julie:

VMS is an abbreviation of volcanogenic massive sulphides, which are a kind of mineral deposit rich in metals like zinc, copper, lead and silver.

Kris:

Or orogenic gold deposits.

Julie:

which are gold deposits formed during the collision of continents.

Kris:

It's just a unique part of the globe. It's fairly remote, but being established in Denmark, I have fairly easy connections. And also working with the Geological Survey, the Natural History Museum, they have very large rock collections from Greenland. So Greenland being part of the Kingdom of Denmark, there's a very strong tie there. And that's really something where you, as a hard rock geologist, can get to do a lot of really interesting work that you otherwise couldn't in Denmark.

Julie:

So how do you see the connection between your climbing career and your geological career?

Kris:

So I started probably when I was 15 or 16 or so and gradually started first just hiking, then a bit of skiing in Norway in winter, then ice climbing and rock climbing and just building on to and eventually doing north phases in the Alps and going on expeditions in Alaska and Patagonia and the Himalayas. So it's sort of a sport you have to just progress very slowly and gain experience. There's no easy way to the top, so to speak. And it just fit very well with a career as a geologist. So being outside and being paid to hike, basically. So you get a very strong sense of mountains and just physically strong being in the mountains. So the two went very nicely hand in hand. In terms of climbing, I went on to also, you know, climb El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. So that's This is called big wall climbing or staying on a wall for several days. And I then used the same skills in Patagonia climbing also, big granite spires there, Saratorra and Fitzroy, where you basically also just sleep on the cliff face. So in that sense, it was part of the progression of developing as a climber. But also in terms of geology, yeah, I mean, I think it's the same for many people who choose to study geology, that they have some sort of relation with nature. They either like to hike or like to climb or just... Being outside, so a lot of geologists have either been climbers or in scouting or these kind of things. It's one of the last jobs where you actually have an excuse to go out and explore nature as part of your job. So it's really fantastic if you like nature and like to be outside, you know, on days on end. Sometimes you're just out there sleeping in a tent or you can be out very remote. Some of the places we've been doing field work basically have never been peopled before. So it really is like exploration and an adventure.

Julie:

Kristopher Szilas was previously Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen and is now continuing his research on some of the world's oldest rocks as Curator of Petrology at the Natural History Museum of Denmark. My name's Julie Hollis and you've been listening to Geologists from Planet Earth.