Credibility, also paraphrased as "common knowledge", is a
detrimental issue in many situations. Simply because a certain thing
is NOT widely known, nor often seen in photos or movies or on
TV, the general public does NOT know. Even many businessmen and
educated persons do not know, because they do not have daily
visual contact with it.
There is
a very famous tourist park in the mountains of Monterrey, Mexico,
called Chipingque. Many people go to Chipingque, and enjoy the
spectacular view of the valley of Monterrey from about a 3,000 ft
mountain top. As you drive up the winding mountain road, you can
see Chipinque shale, as shown in the photograph above on this webpage. ( I
purchased the Yashica camera in Khobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in
2010, took it to Venezuela in 2012 and dropped it as I was taking photos of
the CumanA beach, and brought it back to Mexico -- and it is still
taking good photos late 2013! ) So in order to facilitate teaching
many people in various countries, I am publishing my photo of
Chipingque shale. (spellling may not be exact, but sounds good ).
Indurated ( hard and brittle ) shale is definitely NOT
clay. In Mexico, there are many erudite and many local names
for clay ( barro ) , but not that many names for shale ( lutita).
So when the professionals add another name that "sounds" strange
to a US ear, then my opinion is that the unusual name does
NOT help anyone understand shale gas shale.
Most of the oil and gas industry in the US and China and Russia and other countries
are catching on pretty fast. And in Mexico, the new Energy Reform
Laws of 2014 are starting to take effect. However, I still say to the
people I meet on the street, that more education is always a good
thing. I guess that Hollywood will have to make a movie, and
a country singer will have to make a country-western song, about
shale gas shale, before more people learn what it is.
I will ask my son William Wiegand to name one of his
Santana -style softrock songs, "Chipingque Shale" to make it more popular.
Cheers. Frederick 24 February 2014
