WEEK 7: Geology: Yellowstone REU

Well, we have just completed my 1st week of the Yellowstone REU and my 7th week of geology for the summer! 3 More to go, hardly any time at all.

Let's see...highlights from the first week.

ROCKS: The rocks are really cool. We are hiking around Yellowstone's northern border near Gardiner, MT. We are in MT some of the time and WY some of the time. We are mostly looking at over 2 billion year old rocks. OLD STUFF. I'm learning how to look at metamorphic rocks, see new minerals, see foliations and lineations, intrusive contacts and so forth. I'm beginning to be able to differentiate between different granites! I am looking closely at metamorphosed sedimentary rocks in order to try to determine their depositional environment some 2.5 billion years ago. They have been interpreted as turbidites previously and it seems like that is pretty likely because you can still make out sand and mud layering and graded bedding (the grain size changes within the layers). Since these rocks are pretty dang deformed the clues to the past are inconsistent throughout outcrops, it's just piecing observations together rather than on tell-all outcrop. It will be interesting to see how it develops over the next three weeks.

ANIMALS: We've seen 4 bears! 2 grizzlies crossing the road (one a tiny cub) and two black bears off the side of the road. We've walked head on into bison on the trials we hike a couple of times, and seen some herds. We've seen snakes, osprey, elk and ground squirrels.

HIKES: The first couple of days were small hikes, only a few miles, but with a lot of vertical elevation gain. Everyone is in pretty good shape but we were beaten up after those. By the end of the week we hiked 14.5 miles in one day, and upwards of 8 or so the others. It's been awesome.

WEATHER: The beginning of the week was very stormy. Every night were giant thunderstorms and rain and hail. One morning we hiked right into a big rain/hail storm and waited it out for the 15 minutes that it lasted and had beautiful weather for the rest of the time. Overall we've been lucky, mostly sunny. It can get pretty chilly even at this time of year.

PEOPLE: It's funny because in field camp I was one of the most fit people. This group is full of fit people that I'm most certainly average. This group also has a lot more strong personalities, but everyone is really cool and nice. Definitely no problem makers. I think it makes a difference that we are all from different schools, whereas the Kansas people all knew each other more or less.

WEEKEND: We spend Saturday nights at Bozeman and stay in the MSU dorms. Last night we went out with about half the group to Mexican dinner, a treat for sure. Taco salad + Corona. Then we bar hopped for a while until the groups re-split and some of us went to a dance club and got to country dance on an empty dance floor. I wish you all could have seen me, I was flipped, dipped, spun, twirled, lifted. It was a lot of fun and really low-key. This morning we all met up to work on preparing our samples. We take the rocks we collect in the field, trim them down with saws and then polish them and label. We did some 20 samples in a couple of hours, and we are supposed to have 200 by the end of the REU. :0 That will be a LOT of sample prep for Sundays. Then I went for a 40 minute run around Bozeman (really great trails), and around 4-5pm we will head to prof. Dave's house for a bbq and fireworks later.

CLOSING REMARKS: Overall, I am having a really good time. I'm definitely getting warn out by all the group living and hard work, but I love constantly learning and discussing geology plans with people. I've discovered that I have a good eye for rocks in the field. I am looking forward to relaxing in August.

Denver Airport- Field Camp DONE

I'm sitting in the Denver airport waiting for my flight to Bozeman, MT to begin my Yellowstone REU. The past three weeks have been intense and long and also rushed so there is a lot to catch up on, maybe I will go in reverse order.

I had my friend from camp cut my hair last night. I really wanted to shave my head, it's the only time I'd ever be up for it. But I didn't have the proper equiptment. Instead, I had her cut it in a way that I wanted, it definitely needs to be fixed up a bit but it is super cute. I have a photo on facebook.

Last night we also received prank awards, and I got a first-aid award because 2 weeks ago I used my Wilderness First Aid skills to wrap up a guys ankle in the field. I ended up using an ace bandage, a towel, my shirt, my hat and duct tape. Yup, that's what they prep us for. Anyway, everyone was really grossed out that I put my had on his foot as a splint so that followed me the past three weeks.

Otherwise, we drove all the way from Dyer, NV through UT back to Canon City, CO in a day and a half. It was a marathon, and rough, but it was also gorgeous and a treat to drive by Great Basin National Park again.

The past two weeks we were based out of Dyer, NV where we each were in pairs and got to map our own square kilometer. These were mainly miocene tuffs and they had never been mapped before. We got to figure out the stratigraphy (rock units), name them and then map them. There were 8 groups and all of our maps fit into a piece of a bigger puzzle. Then for the past 7 years the field camp has been doing the same thing and all of those areas fit into an even larger map. I thought it was super cool to be able to do an actual project. My partner and I did a great job in the end and got solid grades.

I got the golden hammer. So, there is an individual award given out every year to the best all around field camper. This means that they were consistently solid in mapping and helped with camp life. The award is the coveted golden hammer (picture to come). I was pumped, I definitely worked hard, learned a lot and did my best to keep positive and help out. It totally paid off.

Before we were in Nevada, we were in Utah for a week. We went to Capitol Reef National Park for a few days and looked at the stratigraphy there, learned it in detail and then did a small mapping project. Then we went to the Henry Mountains and did a couple day mapping project. It is absolutely awesome and beautiful there.

Also in the past three weeks: I got my first stitches out, I went on my first motorcycle ride, and I saw my first tornado. :)

END OF FIRST HALF (of field camp)

June 6
My first course in field camp is done! Geology 560 was a three week course where we were based out of Canon City, CO and mapped for two weeks by hand and one week on the computer. It was super challenging in the beginning but now that it’s over it was a great experience. I did well and learned a lot.

The big updates for the week are:

I sliced my finger with my knife while cutting an avocado and had to go into the emergency room to get four stitches. It’s on my left middle finger, between that finger and my pointer finger, right on the knuckle. Now I have to wear a splint during the day to not bend my knuckle. It’s my first stitches experience. They shot me up with lidocaine which was a local anesthetic, it felt like intense pressure and numb, then I watched the nurse practitioner put in the stitches and it was gross but cool.

We are getting Japanese food tonight, our last night in Canon City. We leave for Utah early on Sunday morning. I’m not sure what the internet access will be like, I don’t even know what we are doing in Utah, other than the ambiguous “day projects” and “moving every night”. I will definitely update when I get the chance.

Mid week Update

It’s Tuesday. Starting yesterday we are using toughbook laptops that we are able to take into the field and have them survive. They can fall down mountains, be rained on, you name it and still function. We are now mapping with these mini laptops on ArcGIS. It’s a whole new monster but it will be cool to learn the program better. We know how to look at contacts, outcrops and structure in the field now, it’s just a new manner in recording it. It takes getting used to because you have things that you know are there, and ideas about what is there. By hand it’s much easier to play around with your ideas on paper, look at it, erase. On the computer it’s more of a pain.

So Doug (new professor) let us know what the next weeks will look like. Basically, the camp is split into two courses. The first one ends with this week and is 3 weeks long. We learned to map based out of Cañon City, CO. On Sunday we will begin the next 3 week long course. That one will take us through Utah for a week with day trips and day projects, camping out at night. The last two weeks we will be in Dyer, NV camping and mapping around there with the computers. Then we will drive back across NV and UT to CO and pick up our stuff and disperse. That’s when I will be catching a flight up to Montana to begin my REU in Yellowstone. So I’m not sure how much internet I’ll be getting after this week since Utah and Nevada are much less stable conditions.

It’s gotten really hot and still is super dry here. Today my partner and I ran out of water towards the end of the day and had to be thirsty as we walked back to the vans. The views have been spectacular though. I keep forgetting to bring my camera to the field. I’m usually forcing my partner to hike to the top of the mountains to look at the views. They usually don’t mind. There are a lot of cacti and everyone gets pricked, stuck and poked. I’ve done pretty well. I like to think it’s because I had so much experience in NV avoiding them. Also we have had a lot of snake sightings. Some rattlers and some non-venomous.

The stars at night are finally beautiful because the full moon doesn’t show up early. I’ve definitely been an early to bed type because I hate getting up in the morning. Luckily my cabin-mates are the same.

I bought Basin and Range by John McPhee and am getting through it pretty quickly. I also bought a practice GRE book that I opened last night only to close very quickly because everyone around me was telling me the answers and not letting me think. I’d say that I’m looking forward to having more alone time, but I don’t mind being with people a lot. There is a lot of space out here at least to kind of get alone time. But even then, it’s really obvious when someone goes off on their own so I feel like it’s not as anonymous and personal as I’d like.

That being said, the only reason I really want to get off sometimes is because everyone is in complaining or gossip mode at this point. Both of those suck and aren’t my bag. I don’t think I do much complaining other than at the fact that others complain too much. I don’t gossip as much either because I don’t really know people as well.

That’s it for now. Overall I am very tan on my arms/shoulders/face/neck. I am hiking pretty well and am still in relatively good spirits. I can’t believe how much I lined up for myself this summer but I’m almost done with the first section. I’m glad to have the service to keep in touch with everyone.

2nd week of field camp complete: Road Trippin through CO

Just had an AWESOME day.

This past week we mapped Twin Mountain, which is an awesome folded Mountain further deformed by a big thrust fault. I did well on my map and cross section and I’m feeling pretty good about it. Next week everything changes because we move from Mike Taylor as our Professor to Doug Walker and we start using GIS and toughbooks (outdoor laptops) to map. It will be a new monster to deal with since I’ve never done it before but I’m sure it’ll be just fine. At least I have more practice with what I’m looking at.

This past week on Monday night our TA’s Joe and Richard and my cabinmate Samantha and I all went on a small adventure after work. We drove up a windy road through Cripple Creek (an old mining town) and up the back side of Pikes Peak. We were cut off by a road closure so we made the best of it. It was beautiful.

We actually have a whole two days off for our weekend this week. Today we went to Waffel Wagon and got a delicious sauce-smothered breakfast. Then we drove about two hours through Salida and Buena Vista and checked out some beautiful creeks and mountains and forests. It was so incredible to be in real forest again. Where we are for field camp is high desert with few trees. The smell of pines and real rushing mountain streams felt like medicine.

It totally helps realize my priorities and what I enjoy in life. It reminds me of the other ways to live and other things in life, other than school and constantly rushing forward in one direction. I need to get out here.
I’m really thinking UC Boulder for grad school, or Arizona if I could get in. It depends on the programs and the research being done. Regardless I think I need to live in CO for a while in life.

I really just feel hiking and high elevation forest withdrawal. It’s like missing something when it’s right in front of you because you know one day it will be gone.

Being here makes me want to be a park ranger again. Being here makes me want to visit Sequoia and Kings Canyon again with more time.

Also, brunches here are all smothered in some sauce whether it is gravy or chili relleno. That’s a difference from the East Coast.

First week of field camp!

The first week of field camp is now complete. Within one week I have done a 66m of stratigraphic section and about a square mile of mapping, probably more. Then I turned in the final product of my map and two cross sections, projecting what we saw on the surface to the subsurface. There were only a couple of faults and one small/obvious fold, otherwise a bunch of stacked layers, generally dipping in the same direction. I know that doesn’t mean much of anything to anyone.

Basically the strat. section made us walk through three different formations (Manitou Limestone, Harding Sandstone and Fremont Limestone), look at them closely and recognize their diagnostic characteristics, like fossils, colors, unconformities, etc. Then in the field when you see an outcrop you should be able to determine what it is, even though you are just seeing a portion.

So basically we have a topo map and a transparent paper on top, we hike around and look for contacts between formations, bushwacking across mountains and trying to not get lost or confused. Definetly got lost and confused MOST of the time. It was kinda painful. I love the hiking around, hands down I love running around for 10 hours a day, but understanding the geology is way hard and not the most rewarding yet.

Otherwise, I’ve surprisingly not had coffee or alcohol since being here. I’m thinking that I will try to abstain and drink tea and party sober for the summer (until San Antonio). But I’m not going to be crazy about it, I’ll be open to changing my mind for sure if I’m out, but for now I’m holding strong and I feel so healthy. I’ve been running twice this week after work, which is also awesome. I feel like I’m getting super healthy and that is definitely worth it. Especially after being sick for a week (since last Friday), where I couldn’t function well without a sinus headache and a cough. (Thanks B).

Everyone is really nice. The atmosphere is very different from Columbia/Columbia students. Everyone is just as smart it seems, and is on top of their knowledge, but it’s still different. Lots of partying and booze, but that’s normal for field stuff/geology.

Now we’re in Cañon City, spending our day off. It’s our only day off this week and I was originally hoping to get out to a swimming hole, but I haven’t even been downtown yet so it’s good to be here.

Right now I’m not totally in love with field geology. I know it’s the beginning and I will come a long way and maybe begin enjoying it more, but I don’t see what I’d want to research in the future with these methods. I’m not as stoked on the prospects in earth science as I was a couple of months ago. I don’t think it’s bad, I think that I’m in a more open place, less sure about what I want to do, but I think things will become clear as time passes, there is so much out there to do.

I think I just had such a rough semester, I don’t feel like I’m as good at this as I’d like to be if I were to do it forever. I want to find something that I’m really good at and feel fulfilled with, I’m just too much in the dark right now. It’s a hard lesson to learn.

Also I love being in magical places during my summers. Colorado is gorgeous. Brazil was absolute magic last summer. They have similar exiting feelings, especially while running.

CUTE IN KANSAS

First BLOG EVER.

This is inspired by my "out and about" summer plans, which I realized today is going to take me through: New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming and Texas (at least!). That's so exciting to realize.

As of now the plan is to attend geology field camp (through CO, UT and NV) through the University of Kansas, before flying to Montana and doing an REU in Yellowstone. That will take me to the end of July, when I will fly to San Antonio to hang out with the madre and that grandma (Prudezilla).

After finishing the best 6 months EVER I chopped off my hair and hopped a plain in Westchester, changed flights in Chicago and now I'm sitting in a Best Western in Lawrence, Kansas. Looks like a fun college town, today was their graduation and so campus looks empty but the bars look full.

Unfortunately I am feeling pretty sick, my throat has been totally killing me all day so I'm taking it easy.