Thrivikramji & Camera footloose, Trivandrum, India

Dr Chacko and Dr Yageen in my office trying to sell their good smiles. These are some light moments teachers enjoy in their daily other wise serious life.

Given right conditions polygonal joints can form on Laterite.

“Earth Pillar” left behind by the earth borrowers. The pit is in a Tertiary sedimentary rock out crop.

Wall of a stone quarry- Garnetiferous sillimanite gneiss is the country rock

Drs. Roy Chacko and V.N.Nair, my own colleagues posing for a picture in a rock quarry to the east Univ. campus, Kariavattom..

Drs. Roy Chacko and V.N.Nair, my own colleagues posing for a picture in a rock quarry to the east Univ. campus, Kariavattom..

A rock quarry to the east Univ. campus, Kariavattom, in Garnetiferous Biotite gneiss…

The joint surface stained by limonite wash

The joint surface stained by limonite wash

A fresh rock face in the quarry.

A fresh rock face in the quarry. Also note joints running nearly diagonally from left to right.

Fresh rock face in the quarry. Also note joints running nearly diagonally from left to right.

Jotter Parker pen is roughly 4″. Note the continuous, broken and stretched mafic mineral bands.

Fresh, but for limonite stain (brownish) , rock face in the quarry. Also note joints running nearly diagonally from left to right.

Fresh, but for limonite stain (brownish) , rock face in the quarry. Also note joints running nearly diagonally from left to right. Stains coming out of biotite or even rarely from altering specks of pyrite .

More stains. The basic bands in the centre field is folded sharply into a triangular fold. So is the case with the basic band in the second quadrant.

Banded garnetiferous gneiss.

Notice the banded aspect of the rock.

Notice the banding of mafic and salic minerals giving a banded aspect to t he rock. Banded garnetiferous biotite gneiss.

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Slopes in the background do have some thickness of soil and supports a vegetation. Here it is natural rubber.

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Camera case sits over a quartz vein.

Un cut rock. This is the natural look of any crystalline hard rock in the heavily moist climate of Kerala.

My friends engaged in a light mood.

Easterly from the hills are always more ridges and hills that fill eyes and minds.

This water logged quarry is one sample of hundreds, catching and retaining monsoon rain water. No one yet thought of any good use of this water or of an abandoned quarry with some or more modifications, as a water storage tank.

Take note of mafic mineral rich bands in the quarry face trapping another contorted band in between

Note the perched land and plants surrounded by the stone quarry. Also the diagonal mafic -coloured- bands as well as a pool of water trapped in the deeper floor.

Mafic bands trapping another contorted mafic band. The light coloured rock is garnetiferous biotite gneiss.

Interesting exposure. Note the sharp contact between laterite and unaltered rock. Also the diagonal joints separating the otherwise nearly massive rock body.

This wind mill used to pump water from a shaft well near the School at Kariavattom.At least 3 taps used to supply drinking water for the public.It all happened in the early sixties. Assistance came from the Indo-Norwegian Project. The horizontally turning shaft during air turbulence pulled up and down a piston that worked much similar to the hand pumps in vogue in India and Africa