2010-2011
News Release
REF NO.: 111
SUBJECT: Memorial University Researcher to be featured on Land and Sea
DATE: February 4, 2011
A professor from the Department of Earth Sciences will be featured this weekend on CBC Television’s Land and Sea. The show, True Blue will focus on the rock they call Blue Eyes – Labradorite.
Last June, Dr. Derek Wilton travelled with CBC reporter Jane Adey to Taber Island, just outside of Nain, to visit the Grenfell Quarry, where most Labradorite comes from.
“I had always thought the quarry had been developed in the 1960s, but when we got there ‘Grenfell Quarry’ was carved in the rock,” explained Dr. Wilton. “It turns out the quarry was developed in the 1930s by a group of geologists from the States who were trying to make money for the Grenfell Mission.
“They found this place and blasted it and when you go there you can still see some of the equipment they used to pull the rock out,” he added. “Apparently most of the Labradorite in major museum collections in the United States came from that expedition from this one little quarry. So it was nice to go there and find out a little bit of history I didn’t know about.”
Airing on CBC Television at 12:30 p.m. (NT) on Sunday, the Land and Sea episode will also be archived online at www.cbc.ca/landandseanl/.
REF NO.: 111
SUBJECT: Memorial University Researcher to be featured on Land and Sea
DATE: February 4, 2011
A professor from the Department of Earth Sciences will be featured this weekend on CBC Television’s Land and Sea. The show, True Blue will focus on the rock they call Blue Eyes – Labradorite.
Last June, Dr. Derek Wilton travelled with CBC reporter Jane Adey to Taber Island, just outside of Nain, to visit the Grenfell Quarry, where most Labradorite comes from.
“I had always thought the quarry had been developed in the 1960s, but when we got there ‘Grenfell Quarry’ was carved in the rock,” explained Dr. Wilton. “It turns out the quarry was developed in the 1930s by a group of geologists from the States who were trying to make money for the Grenfell Mission.
“They found this place and blasted it and when you go there you can still see some of the equipment they used to pull the rock out,” he added. “Apparently most of the Labradorite in major museum collections in the United States came from that expedition from this one little quarry. So it was nice to go there and find out a little bit of history I didn’t know about.”
Airing on CBC Television at 12:30 p.m. (NT) on Sunday, the Land and Sea episode will also be archived online at www.cbc.ca/landandseanl/.
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