KNOW YOUR OUTCROP!

This quick note is about keeping records. Tricks of the Trade.  As people and as scientists, we grow.  You have heard that "The unexamined life is not a life at all!", well that is why some people keep diaries.  Geologists are so busy and so wide-ranging that they should have some form of a diary. I find that keeping a notebook of my cross-sections, in a loose-leaf school notebook and arranged by nearby town is good for me.  I also learned from my years as a  geologist with Gulf Oil (now ChevronTexaco) that I needed to organize and recall my work.

Here are forms of record keeping that I learned at Gulf Oil:   1.Collection of well logs in a few loose leaf binders,  2.  "Scout Tickets" (glorified index cards with important well information, for me they are 3x5 cards), 3.  a rack of roll maps (there is NOTHING LIKE paper), and,  4.  pictures and notes on 5 x 7 cards.

Let's put it this way, "Where were you and what did you do?"  At how many spots have you worked in your career?  I mean the memorable places.  Several hundred?  That number can be fitted in one small box of 5 x 7 cards, .... you can draw a sketch or a map on the back of each card.  I have two sections in the box, to cross-reference where I was. I have an alphabetical section, of town and well field names, then by location; Township Range and Section.  I keep my project spots and  outcrops on these cards.