It is to help answer questions about Balabac town. You have to research and describe the geological formations, discuss possible man-made retaining walls, and detail the danger the people are in.
This is best suited for University students in civil engineering or geology. The prize is intended to assist with further education. A monthy sum of 2,000 Php for 2 years plus an initial 2,000 Php totals 50,000 Php. A trip to Balabac is needed to answer these questions. Sponsor Philip Maise is planning his next trip for late August 2015. Papers are to be prepared in PDF format and submitted by October 25, 2015. The award ceremony is November 1st, 2015. It is part of the IsDa Revolution celebration and will be held in Puerto Princesa.
Elements to be included in the paper shall at a minimum include:
A. Matters threatening life:
#1 The life threatening nature of hydrogen sulfide.
#2 How the hydrogen sulfide is produced. Hint: Serpentinization
#3 A description of hydrogen sulfide monitoring systems. The contest sponsor used to provide these systems when he worked as an instrumentation engineer.
#4 A recommendation to the town of Balabac to purchase and install 3 to 4 monitors, calibration gas, solar source power, and air raid warning alarm. The most likely source will be from just East of town where Maise observed recent mud-pot activity.
#5 A translation into English and most common language used by older residents is part of this requirement.
B. Matters threatening cultural heritage and research.
#1 Document the gold digging actvities Maise observed at the North inlet to the harbor as well as the top of the hill near the mud-pots.
#2 Prepare a short statement for residents to read that states to the effect: Balabac's history is the gold. Balabac and that hill on the North should have been the site of an intensive dig. Around a dozen researchers would have spent months examing that site. Maise is working hard by sponsoring this contest to help generate interest in doing more reaearch in Palawan. Specifically, Balabac as well as the small island to the North with the Sphinx.
#3 Photograph the retaining walls East of town and describe the wall condition, compositions, and areas the wall has already collasped.
C. Attempt to answer these questions:
#1 What did the port area look like during the last ice age. Consult depth charts and overlay with Google Earth. Include a description of the Sunda land bridge and outline its shape between Borneo and Palawan.
#2 Both Maise and T. U. John of the Geological Society of the Philippines have noted the sudden transition where Balabac sandstone appears between the mud-pots and town. Both Maise and John concluded this was a natural inclusion. However, consider islanders could have easily moved the slabs to make a retaining wall. Further John writes:
"It is of some interest in that hydrothermal wallrock alteration is almost entirely absent, with contracts between ore and barren country rock generally knife-edged. Some secondary enrichment occurs. Controls of localization are structural and lithologic, and the presence of ultramafic intrusions probably has genetic significance."
Translation, it is odd how clean the sandstone is since over the years some blurring of the line is normally seen. Both Maise and John saw there is something unusual and your task is to examine the slot. The slot is a section of the wall that is even more suspicious. It is both perfectly formed as if built by ancients and serves a logical purpose. It is doing exactly the function the wall closer to town failed to do. That slot acts like a weep hole and relieves pressures that have acted on the walls closer to town.
What can you add to help solve questions still lingering?
#3 Maise delivered to the Balabac engineer an inclusion from the sandstone he believes used to be alive. What is it and how did it die.
#4 Maise noticed another digging site above the questionable sandstone. Prepare a letter that the walls, if they are indeed man made, were built for the purpose they serve. They are retaining walls, or at best fortifications for a structure Maise searched for at the top and could not find. Therefore, the real value is keeping the walls as is for researchers that will stay in Balabac for months adding to the local ecomomy. Any destruction of these areas is a loss of future monies to the town.
Note: If no serious papers answer the questions here, no prize in this challenge will be issued. The challenge will be extended to 2016's contest.
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