This is Russian?

Due Friday:

640 / 5,816 (11.0%)

One of the really nasty aspects of Russian geological texts is the (for me) peculiar mode of expression that is sometimes assumed when describing strata and various rocks, e.g.,

Песчаники кварцевые разнозернистые массивные глинистые.

The best I can do and still try to make any kind of deadline is

Quartz sandstone exhibits grains of varying size and is massive and clayey.

Back to, um, the face of, um, the oil well.

Cheers...

On top of the world...

I just love it when one third of the words in a source sentence do not appear at all in Google (and only once or twice on Yandex):

Литокластовая часть представлена среднеокатанными обломками перекристаллизованных, нередко микритизированных, известняков.

Thank goodness that transliteration works in two of the three cases ("lithoclastic" and "micritized").

Ye gods.

Cheers...

So many names for... rock!

Due Friday:

3,058 / 5,816 (52.0%)

Yeah, I know. If we don't plant a name on it, we can't tell what it is (and more important, whether it ever comes around again). One of these days I shall sit down and attempt to definitively figure out how, for example, "суглинок" (given as: argillaceous sand ground, loamy soil, clayey loam, sandy clay, sandy loam, or weak clay) differs from "супесь" (given as: sandy loam, loamy sand, sandy clay, fine sandy loam, or loamy light sand).

Dunno 'bout you, amigo, but I see a little overlap in the proffered meanings, yes?

There's not really much one can do in such cases, barring painstaking expertise (and even that won't save your bacon in most cases), except to follow what has to be one of the top-10 rules of translation: Pick the best term you can and stick with it. Consistency makes friends among editors. Conversely, inconsistency (translating "суглинок" as "loamy sand" in some places, "sandy loam" in others, and something else in still other locations) will drive editors to seriously consider putting out a contract on you in short order.

* * *I didn't fall asleep immediately upon retiring yesterday, probably the result of having slept in until nearly 11 am. However, once I did fall into the arms of Morpheus, I slept soundly until about 9 am this morning, interrupted briefly only by the ringing of my alarm clock at my best-of-intentions wakeup time of 7:30. I'm sure I got a good night's rest (heck, even my wakeup BP was lower!).

Well, since I am currently up-to-date on work and thoroughly sick and tired of staring at my screen, I should probably go unwind upstairs.

Cheers...