Pilot Valley

In October Eric, a visiting Hydrogeologist from the Czech Republic named Brutus, and I all packed up a van and ATV's to go the flattest place on earth:  

Pilot Valley, NV.  Located here:  

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The video is of us four wheeling across the most narrow part of those salt flats on the map.  We had to locate a few wells on the west side of the valley and collect some electromagnetic conductivity data with the EM equipment BYU had rented which we strapped on the the ATV's with bungee cords.  While going across we encountered what looked like the remains of a poor cow, from a nearby ranch, that had got caught on a hot day in the middle of the desert valley.  Even though there was a layer of mud under the salt crust it's one of the driest places in summer.  Eric's survey area seem to be plagued by dead things haha.  We set up a similar study by Utah Lake a few days before this trip located here (dead center):

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We went to check on the wells we had augerred the day before and in the middle of Eric's research site an old geriatric racoon decided to call it quits during the night apparently.  It made data collection not the most pleasant experience.  Especially when Eric, who is a TA for the 3D Seismic Visualization class, took everyone to the lake for some hands one instruction.  By that time the stench of this rotting animal was awful.  So awful that the professor told the class he would give extra credit to who ever removed the carcass.         These kids better get an A.                              

Good times being a geologist for a week.  SCIENCE! (whew)