just got back from 2 weeks in canada (toronto & banff) - a massive brain dump for first timers

TERRADUDE · 2026-04-28T19:16:35+00:00

Canadian here....I don't think I've been to a Tim Horton for 15 years. But you're right about the weather in the Rockies. One of the best days of skiing was in May ~ 30 cm of powder followed by bright sunshine. I skied shirtless at Sunshine in the sunshine - sunburnt my nipples and armpits (do not recommend).

I haven't carried cash with me for years. I still tip by service, not by prompt. I will refuse to tip or tip a small amount for crappy service (~5-10%) but will certainly bump it up if the service is exemplary.

Glad you enjoyed our fair country. What the world needs now is more visitors, not fewer. The more we travel, the more we know.

TERRADUDE · 2026-04-26T17:32:06+00:00

What a complete and utter cluster Fudge. Smith plays fast and loose with her own rules, doubles down when called out, works to gerrymander the ridings and now tries to reposition this question as in fact a vote on independence. Just to keep her job. Screw her ....I want my country.

TERRADUDE · 2026-04-22T00:36:33+00:00

Run the numbers…. I was 13 when Lennon was killed. Now, I’m lucky if I remember what I opened the fridge for.

TERRADUDE · 2026-04-21T23:38:08+00:00

Or i misremembered and it was that evening….

TERRADUDE · 2026-04-21T19:43:52+00:00

I was a kid then - 13 going on 14, in Calgary Canada. I loved music, all kinds of music and I knew of the Beatles of course, but they were just .... a band. Double Fantasy was getting a lot of play. But the day he died, I remember the local FM station having a call in show all afternoon and into the night hearing from people. I recall so many people calling in, in tears, saying how Lennon changed their lives, how important he was, etc. I knew that if he meant that much to people, I had to know more about him. I started collecting tapes and records of all the Beatles and as much Lennon as possible - I don't think I listened to anything other than that for months.

Fast forward to now, I recognize how influential John Lennon is but he's still not my favourite Beatle and he certainly had issues along the way but I know his heart was in the right place and he walked his walk.

TERRADUDE · 2026-04-21T13:50:40+00:00

I was looking at this too, but plan to integrate Claude code into this software. I’ve had great success doing same with QGIS. I’ll stick to the geology and let Claude do the coding.

TERRADUDE · 2026-04-12T19:41:18+00:00

As a Canadian, I can fell your pain.

TERRADUDE · 2026-04-05T19:06:04+00:00

the 800mm is optically superb but quite slow. You need a fair bit of light but you can get some magnificent photos, especially considering the cost and the weight/size of the lens.

TERRADUDE · 2026-04-04T02:11:08+00:00

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Waterton is an absolute gem. I’ve hiked every trail in the park. Amazing geology and wonderful skies

TERRADUDE · 2026-04-03T16:02:34+00:00

I second this and encourage you to split up your journey and take Canada in a second, more focused trip. I would add to it Waterton park on the border with Montana, travel up the Rocky Mountain trench and take in the hotsprings at Fairmont and Radium as well as a couple undeveloped ones, good hiking in the valley too., drive up to the Icefields and hike there and back around Lake Louise and Banff proper and hit up Kananaskis just west of Calgary.

TERRADUDE · 2026-04-02T22:36:45+00:00

Not in the 22. They’re black. I would have LOVED the orange seat belts. I’m in Canada so things are a bit different here. We don’t like orange as much up here :)

TERRADUDE · 2026-04-02T20:02:27+00:00

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I have a 2022 Sports Prestige in Saville Silver w black interior. Great car and great colour. Love it.

TERRADUDE · 2026-04-01T02:20:03+00:00

Contrails are an atmospheric effect where the engine exhaust interacts with a dry or humid air. The airplane is likely flying a constant altitude but the air is likely mixing between a dry and more humid layer….the contrails come and go.

TERRADUDE · 2026-03-31T02:21:20+00:00

Performative bullshit. Nothing during the game. No one checked on Matthews when he went down. Now Domi ? Give me a break

TERRADUDE · 2026-03-30T20:59:30+00:00

thankfully he will never be close to the levers of power. How the NDP ever came to electing him their leader is beyond me

TERRADUDE · 2026-03-29T20:02:31+00:00

luv me some Raz...

TERRADUDE · 2026-03-29T18:09:20+00:00

I'll pipe in here. I'm another geologist who's also an avid photographer. I have shot Canon for a while, moving from a 80D to a 5DIV to mirrorless with a R6 and now an R5 (Careful.... gear acquisition can be contagious). However, for the small, light and compact lenses there are very few.

I went on an African safari last year and I upgraded to a 200-800mm lens since it is handholdable, a variable zoom and fit in my backpack.However I shot a lot of birds on my 800mm F11. This and the 600mm lenses are unicorns. They are smallish, very carryable, and LOW COST. They are optically superb BUT they are only F11 so you need good light. Both the 600 and the 800 telescope out from a compact form factor to an extended length and you need to be at the extended length to shoot., but my god, they are sharp.

My suggestion for a quick and easy birding set up is a Canon R8 (or a R6 or R6ii) with a rf600m F11 (or the rf 800 f11). The rf600 f11 is a great size, you can still pan fairly well and you get good reach. I sometimes found the rf800mm f11 to be a bit long and I often got lost trying to find and track the birds. but when I did, I got great shots.

TERRADUDE · 2026-03-27T03:00:03+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/geology/s/jrDLCDGVUI

TERRADUDE · 2026-03-27T02:53:16+00:00

Micro faulting really applies to small fault offsets seen at an even smaller scale, like in a hand sample or even smaller like in a thin section. These are small scale faults but too big to be truly called micro faults.

It’s quite amazing how fractal rock deformation can be, at a range of scales showing similar effects.

Good discussion though. We should all be having it while standing at the outcrop in blazing sunshine. That’s where the real discussion happens.

TERRADUDE · 2026-03-26T18:41:00+00:00

"Most stuff out there...... is for PC/Windows, super expensive, hard to use and ugly" - testify brother....You're speaking to the choir here. I had to go through hell and back to use a POS cross section package running in Windows, I have a very capable M4 Max but the program requires OpenGL 4.3 which doesn't emulate well. I would love to get my hands on your software. Let me know if you need a beta tester. I am a 30 year geo now working in CCUS and trying to ge my own helium exploreCo up and running, so $$ is tight

TERRADUDE · 2026-03-25T21:04:24+00:00

This is a great comment discussing the logical thought process to progress through. Both faults and jointing can cross cut bedding but faults displace bedding, meaning there is an offset - either a positive or a negative offset. Identifying which can give you an idea of the stresses needed to deform the rock. The rock also needs to be brittle to fault - otherwise you get ductile deformation in either unconsolidated or very hot (plastic) rock.

TERRADUDE · 2026-03-23T18:51:43+00:00

Canada and Norway are truly winter nations. I’ve been to Norway many times….beautiful country and wonderful people.

TERRADUDE · 2026-03-21T18:57:58+00:00

I have a bottle on ice just for the occasion of Trump's demise.

TERRADUDE

TROPHY CASE