Tag: Geology field trips
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Bringing Back the Grenville! Preserving Virginia’s Geoheritage
Virginia has a rich geological heritage that stretches back well over a billion years to an era of geologic time known as the Mesoproterozoic. Rocks formed during the Mesoproterozoic are exposed primarily in the Blue Ridge Mountains and its foothills, as well as in curious inliers such as the Goochland domes and in the Sauratown…
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The Return of a Tradition – The Earth Structure & Dynamics Class Field Trip
An important tradition in my academic life is the Earth Structure & Dynamics class field trip. This weekend trip takes William & Mary students across the Piedmont and Blue Ridge Mountains to examine the geology underfoot in the Appalachians and, along the way, practice doing geology in the field. I’ve been running this trip for…
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Geological Field Tripping in Cyberspace
Early April is the time when my Earth Structure & Dynamics class ventures to the Appalachians for a weekend of learning and intellectual companionship. I’ve reported on these academic adventures in this blog many times1. Over the course of two days we roll across Virginia, from the Shenandoah Valley to the Blue Ridge and out…
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A Frenzy of Fall Field Trips 3: Going to the South Side
Moby, the American musician with a wide-ranging and stylishly downtempo sound, released an exceptional album entitled Play in 1999. My favorite song is South Side, here’s a short snippet of the lyrics … we ride all day looking out for a sunny day here we are now going to the South Side Two decades later,…
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From the Tunnel to the Temple
The W&M Geology Department’s spring field trip dashed out of Williamsburg on Saturday for a one-day jaunt from the Tunnel to the Temple. The tunnel is the Blue Ridge Tunnel that Claudius Crozet engineered beneath Rockfish Gap in the 1850s. The temple is the LOTUS (Light Of Truth Universal Shrine) temple that forms the centerpiece…
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A Flood of Fun: The W&M Geology Department Field Trip on the James River
Our Fall Geology Department field trip set out from Williamsburg to central Virginia, and the James River for a geological float trip down the river. The autumn weather was close to perfect, and our crew of 30+ students were ready for a fluvial adventure. We camped at Hatton Ferry, pitching our tents on a patch…
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Skerries and Moraines: W&M Geology in Norway
The Geology 310 course has been in Norway for nearly a week, and we are enjoying the diverse terrain of the Lofoten Islands. The weather has been suitably pleasant, it is downright mild by Arctic standards with an ever-changing mixture of clouds, bits of sun, and only a few spots of light rain (thus far).…
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North by Northeast to Norway: W&M Geology in the Lofoten Archipelago
W&M just finished its graduation celebration, and, as is a yearly tradition in the days after graduation, the Geology Department’s Regional Field Geology course (GEO 310) is off. This year we are headed in a different direction – as we’re traveling north by northeast to Norway, and we’ll be north of the Arctic Circle in…
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Explorations in Time-Depth Space: The Earth Structure & Dynamics Field Trip 2017
The Earth Structure & Dynamics class field trip rolled west from Williamsburg to the Blue Ridge Mountains on a near perfect early spring weekend in late March. Once again it was time for our annual class field trip to examine rocks and structures in the field and make sense of the Appalachian orogen. On the…
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What a Difference a Day Makes: The Fall 2016 Geology Department Trip to Virginia’s Eastern Shore
The Geology Department successfully completed its Fall 2016 Departmental Trip to Virginia’s Eastern Shore last weekend, but the difference between Friday and Saturday were striking. On Friday afternoon we rolled off campus amidst bright sunshine, warm temperatures, and a gentle wind from the East. We were bound for Virginia’s Eastern Shore — the southern end…
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The Long and Winding Road: The Geology 310 Field Course 2016
I’ve just returned from our 2.5-week field course in the Southwestern United States. The 2016 version of Geology 310 started and finished in Las Vegas, making a 3,200 km (2,000 mile) loop across the Basin & Range and Colorado Plateau provinces. All together there were 27 of us, and we (and our gear) filled 3…
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Comfortably Disoriented in the Blue Ridge Mountains
Note: this post was written last September after the Fall 2015 Geology Department field trip, however it never got posted. As the Spring semester comes to a close I thought it was time to stop being a slacker and post this long overdue field trip report! Last week I spent much time at administrative meetings…
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A Hard Freeze in the Basement: The Earth Structure & Dynamics Field Trip 2016
The Earth Structure & Dynamics class field trip is an annual rite of spring; when early April arrives it’s time for our weekend trip to explore the geologic structures of the Piedmont and Blue Ridge regions. A week ago Saturday, we were rolling deep with 36 students and two TAs. We departed from Williamsburg on…
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Over the Hills and Far Away: The Earth Structure & Dynamics Field Trip 2015
The Earth Structure & Dynamics class field trip is a springtime ritual; last weekend we headed over the hills and far away. At our apogee, we were 233 km west-northwest of campus in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. With 43 of us packed into four vans, this was the largest Earth Structure & Dynamics field trip yet.…
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Field Methods 2014: Wrapping It Up
The last day of classes at William & Mary is traditionally a celebratory affair, and on the last day of class this fall we wrapped up the Field Methods course with a rowdy poster session where the results from our three field projects were presented. As I noted earlier this semester, Geology 311- Field Methods…
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The Department that Floats Together…
The latest addition of the Geology departmental field trip rolled out of Williamsburg last Friday and then floated down the James River on Saturday. The weather in the Mid-Atlantic region was iffy. A stalled frontal system bolstered an on-shore flow of moist air, but a spot of rain here and there did not deter the…
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50 Hours in the Field: the Earth Structure & Dynamics Field Trip 2014
The 2014 Earth Structure & Dynamics class field trip left Williamsburg at 1 p.m. last Friday bound for the Blue Ridge Mountains and points beyond. We would not return to campus until 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, some 50 hours after our departure. The field trip is a spring tradition that’s been enjoyed by students…
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Dispatches from Oman: Wadi Jizzi – standing at the bottom of the Tethys Ocean
Our travels in Oman took us north from the capital region in Muscat to Sohar, a drive of some two hours along the Batinah Coastal Plain. This coastal plain is just that, a low relief plain sloping towards the Gulf of Oman and underlain by relatively young (Tertiary to Holocene) sedimentary rocks and sediments. The…