Snow

—The Everlasting Snow.. And Its Glacial Deposit —

 

My colleague sent me an email couple days ago.. I’m so surprised.. He is a geologist, almost superintendent (I’m not sure..perhaps) in Freeport, Papua. I had two supervisors when I did my thesis in Grasberg, Papua. One of them joined another company in Australia and another one is who sent me the email. Thanks God, I said. After more than 2 years, I’m still impressed by the magic snow in the peak of Puncak Jaya.

 

“Dumex yang imut, saya dan Julius ngga libur Lebaran ini, saya normal kerja dan sekarang disini ada banyak GDP baru Batak semua lagi, jadi hari ini GRS Geology dikuasai oleh GEROBAK PASIR kata anak2 ITB ya,, dan semuanya kenal Dumex lagi, ada si Iko Angelino ada si Agus Mauliate.. wah pokoknya meriah lah..

OK Dumex, ini ada sedikit foto2 yang saya ambil di GRS sini biar mengobati rasa kangen suasana disini dan juga si ganteng Felix…”

Felix Sitohang

have you ever seen Puncak Jaya? find it here..!

…through Grasberg.

Before leaving Papua in 2006, I asked the company to give me a chance to explore Puncak Jaya, unfortunately they couldn’t give it because some safety reasons…Oh, I really want to see the magic snow and touch it by my hands. I could touch snow in Europe but not the everlasting snow of Puncak Jaya.

When I did my thesis, I found the glacial deposit in Grasberg.. Its age about 1 million year ago (1 Ma). In geologic time scale, said as Pleistocene. Looked like debris deposit layer, grey until to dark grey, with some rock fragmens and very poorly sorted which showed that the source of glacial very closed. The last collision of Australian Plate and Pacific Plate is about Early Pliocene that produce Sorong Fault. So..I think the glacial happened older that what people said.

The glacial and present day snow in Jaya Wijaya Ridges are two kinds of geological record to prove there is everlasting snow since collision of Australian Plate with Island Arc System of Pacific Plate that created the Central Range (Pegunungan Jaya Wijaya) of Papua. Great!

Acknowledgement

Pak Ferdy, hatur nuhun pisan yah atas kiriman fotonya. I want to see you and family in Tembagapura some time (numpang di West Residences trus sekalian biar dapet izin kalo mendaki ke Puncak Jaya.. ..), May the Lord keeps you all, thanks.