More random pictures

The workload has been fairly intense and I haven't been able to add as many photos and posts as I was originally hoping. This is a collection of misc photos I've been wanting to put up.


Ode to my dad: Sorry, just small white flowers right now...but I have a new "x" to put on that infamous map











The field area doesn't all suck. This is zoomed in, but I had some nice views of Mt Shasta and Mt Ashland on a couple of my days out.









I had to put this one in for Luther in particular. After my miserable day mapping landslides in Field Methods, I had to show what I had to climb through in my mapping area. These bushes were 4-6 feet high and actually smelled good! My allergies up here have been doing well. My eyes don't itch and I'm able to wear my contacts every day, although I am Sneezy Dwarf most days.




Jara, one of my team members, taking measurements on a fault surface. My team up here has been awesome! I couldn't have asked for a better one. Now I just hope the remaining match-ups will be just as good.

Mountain Goats

Up until now, all the pictures posted have been taken while we've been working on our BIG project of field camp: Hilt Mapping Project. The write up was due this morning at 8am.

I haven't pulled such a late night writing a paper since the first round of college! We had Friday and Saturday off to write the report and it wasn't enough. Us Hayward students went to bed around 2-3am, except Kevin who didn't sleep at all.



The entire class looked a little ragged this morning as we headed out to work on a stratigraphy section for the day.

I snapped this photo of Kevin at one of our stops before arriving at the field area. Looks like a nice place for a picture, right? Smelled like an outhouse. We were explicitly told not to pick up anything from the ground and not to touch the rocks below eye height.

Today we did a stratigraphy section of an area that has 10 man-made terraces of difference volcanic rocks. The first few terraces weren't bad to climb, but by #4 we were going through paleosol layers that were extremely loose. It was like running up hill in loose sand. I think the profs think we're all mountain goats...

The other wonderful element of today was that we were on south facing slopes with very little cover and today's high was 94. FUN!



I'll give it this much though, the view from the top was awesome:

And yes, that is smoke. There's a large forest fire burning in this county. Isn't affecting us or the field class, yet.

Random pictures...

It has been a few days since the last post. We have all been hard at work. We spend approx 1 hour in the morning in lecture then head into the field for about 8 hours. The days are hot and long. By the time we return to campus, eat and shower, I haven't had time to keep up on the blog and finish my homework each night. Consider this a "catch-up" entry :-)

Dr. Bill Elliott showing off his sedimentology skills.

These are molds and casts of fossils found in a bed from the early Cretaceous period, 99-144 million years ago. The fossils are largely molluscs (clams, oysters, etc).

Amanda using her hammer!!!! We were looking at a contact between a sandstone and granitic member. She is hammering away at the rock to get a fresh piece to look at. By looking at a freshly broken side of a rock, general composition can be determined. Knowing what rock units are in the area, you can use this composition to determine which unit the outcrop of rocks belongs to which will tell you its age. This is basically how you map an area.

This is a shale layer of one of the rock units. We needed to take strikes and dips on it for practice as well as future use in our mapping projects. Looks like nice bedding planes right? WRONG! We are working in groups of three. Myself and one of my partners took multiple strikes and dips, thought we had it correct and were completely wrong. Ends up to be a tricky spot. And the ground sucks! We spent more time trying to keep ourselves from sliding down the hill than actually taking data.

A group of students working on their maps standing on a set of railroad tracks that run through part of the area. Thankfully, there's maybe one train/day.

I'm off to read a bunch of journal articles on rocks in the area. I will try to upload more pictures tomorrow night.

Rattlesnake Day

Today we split into two groups to map areas in our assigned project areas. The group I was in, which included Rachel and Kevin, got to beat the school's record for number of rattlesnakes seen in one day. We saw at least 9 in approx 8 hours in the field today. That's about 9 too many for me.


Considering it was a 90+ degree day, the only active snakes were in the morning with most of them being super lethargic by noon. The "den" of snakes below didn't even rattle at us and we were 6-8 feet away. This is also why the count is "at least 9" snakes: we for sure saw 3 rattles in this mass of snakes, but none of us were positive that we counted all the snakes. The general consensus was that it was very likely that there was 4-5 snakes total hiding in the shade here, but we only counted 3 of them.

Day 2...

We all made it here safely on Sunday and settled into our rooms. We spent Monday gathering whatever supplies were forgotten or ended up being needed. (The beds here are hard as a rock so we all ended up buying foam pads for them.)

Tuesday was a short day but we did go into the field and map a contact. Some of us were lucky and this contact is in our official map for the project, but most of us were not. 

Yes, we were all split up into different groups upon arrival and everyone is envious of our map boards!

Today was a rather crappy day. We began with a 90 min lecture in the morning, then went to the field where were mapped from approx 10am until 1715 with a single 30 min break for lunch. It was hot, but not sweltering, but the hardest part was that there are 27 students for 2 professors. The last half of the day was walking a fault line as a large group. Yeah, didn't work. There was too many of us: we couldn't hear the professor talk due to the wind and being "far" away and when the aerial photo was looked at, unless you were right next to the prof, you couldn't see it (it was an 8x8 photo). Hopefully we won't have many other projects where we're working in a group this large. 

On a positive note, no rattlesnakes were encountered and no one injured themselves. 

Ellie discussing slickenlines with Dr D'Allura (blue hard hat).

Dr. Jad D'Allura is one of three professors for this session. 

Water is essential

Finally, the last equipment post...

One of the best investments that can be made is in a good pack to hold all your equipment for a full field day. With the invention of water bladders, or Camelbacks, it's also possible to carry your water on your back as well. This frees your hands for other things, like catching yourself before you slide down a hill!

This North Face pack has a 100 oz water bladder that sits in the back of the pack in its compartment. This is approximately enough water for a day in the field, as long as it's under 90 degrees. One trick: fill the bladder 1/2 full and freeze overnight. Then fill it the rest of the way with fresh water in the morning. You end up with cold-cool water all day, plus, if you strategically place your lunch in your pack, it acts as an ice pack for your lunch allowing things like string cheese to come into the field.

The other nice thing about this pack is that there are a lot of outside pockets/netting and elastic stretchy things. This allows a lot of equipment to be put on the pack instead of in pockets or on a belt and still be within hands reach. Also, this is a relatively small pack which keeps me from overloading myself and carrying 50 pounds into the field.

One draw back: the mouthpiece on the water bladder is secured to the pack with a magnet. This makes the mouth piece easy to find and keeps it from constantly knocking your arm or back or whatever. It's great if you're hiking or biking, but when trying to use a Brunton, it can cause problems. Thankfully North Face made this movable and I have found a place on the pack to put the magnet that doesn't interfere with my Brunton, but does make getting to the mouth piece a little difficult, but I'll live.

That's it for equipment. If I mention something that I didn't describe, ask and I'll add additional descriptions. For the geo freaks: did I miss any essential equipment? I hope not since this is what's in my box to bring with me to field camp and it means that I didn't bring something...

Because geologists like cool things....

Yes, one reason to get into geology is that there a lots of cool tools to use. To the left is a selection of rulers (white things) and the bright yellow field books commonly used.

The two types of rulers in the picture are used for putting your strikes and dips on a map as well as for assisting in creating a cross section. (We'll go into that later, I'm sure.) The long skinny one is useful, well, EVERYWHERE! Because we live in backwards America, these are in 10ths and 20ths of inches. Thankfully, most topographic maps are still in feet so this actually limits the conversions. The protracter looking one is called a "Zip a Dip." We found out about this one during the Landslides class this spring. It has a slightly different function than the skinny one, but one that's boring and only freaky geologists would be interested so I won't bore you with the specifics.

The yellow books are the coolest things around. The are called Rite in the Rain field books. They come in different styles: from full page to pocket sized to memo books, they can be stapled, spiral bound, book bound. (For more info: writeintherain.com) The ones we use are pocket sized, stapled ones. I also have a bound one for permanent notes since we'll need to hand in our small ones from time to time for grading.

I know this bottle looks like a normal small squeeze bottle, but inside, has a very simple tool: acid. Dilute HCl is used to determine if a rock has any carbonates in it. If there's carbonates, the rock fizzes, no fizz = no carbonates. Rudimentary test that works wonders and it's easy to do.

Tomorrow...back pack and water...last equipment post

The Map Board...

The map board...a relatively crude piece of equipment that is invaluable. Our field methods professor made us make one of these for the class. It's simply 2 pieces of plexi-glass duct taped together with velcro stickers to keep it closed. A strap was added onto the top, largely with velcro, so that the whole thing can be hung around your neck or over a shoulder.

We got very use to these on mapping excursions and I ended up going on a field trip without one. I regretted it. They get in the way, you sometimes get caught on things (hence the velcro handle), but beyond all limitations, they are incredibly useful.

Thanks Luther!!!!

This image shows the map board open. There's a field book and pencil on the left hand side and a color map on the right hand side. Your notes and maps are usually secured using draft dots or masking tape. The velcro allows for easy opening, but it also allows you to close the whole thing and not lose your papers or field book. (Pencils do not fit.)

Oh yeah, the pink tape. That's from Rachel...it helps to locate your map board when you put it down somewhere like in a bush. Thankfully hot pink is not a common color in nature. (Also why this tape is around my rock hammer and will be put on my Brunton before I go into the field.)

Tomorrow...other tools

The Hand Lens....

Obviously named because it's a lens that fits in your hand.

Also known as a loupe. The most common one used in geology is the Hastings Triplet 10x. These are used to look at rocks up close to help determine common minerals in the field.

Tomorrow...map board

Household items, meet science

Now that school has calmed down a bit, let me get you all caught up on the tools of the trade:


Household goodies that
work great in the field

Off: for keeping away ticks, mosquitos and other annoying things. Doesn't work on classmates or professors.

Sunscreen: cause we'd like to live a while and none of us want cancer.

Ziplocs: great for storing rocks. You can label them here and match the label up with your field notes. Also great for keeping your Off and Sunscreen from ruining your lunch. And they are one of the greatest all around things invented.

Misc office supplies:
Micron or rapidograph pens: these are technical pens that have felt-like tips in varying sizes. They allow very precise drawing in different thicknesses. Awesome for inking in items on a map (like strikes and dips or stations).

Compass, the art kind: can be helpful in mapping

Colored pencils: because life needs more color, and rocks aren't black and white. Helps distinguishes different formations of rocks in your notes and final geologic maps.

Leatherman: always helpful no matter where you are.

Eraser: because you always make mistakes. I think the Brunton, hand lens and an eraser are my "essentials."

Misc items not pictured: pencils (I am hooked on the 0.3mm points from Japanese manufacturers), graph paper, tracing paper, topographic maps

forgot to mention: if you're like me, please add some kind of allergy medication, tissues and Visine-A (allergy eye drops). Sometimes nature sucks

Tomorrow...the hand lens

Rock Hammer

Now that school has calmed down a bit, let me get you all caught up on the tools of the trade:


Rock Hammer

Because geologists like to beat shit up!

The best way to tell what kind of rock you're looking at is to knock off a piece of weathered rock and look at a "fresh" surface. Using a hand lens, you can usually determine grain size, grain type (i.e. quartz) and color (based on a standardized chart). Using this information coupled with knowledge of the area, you can determine what kind of rock you're looking at.

Plus, it's FUN!

Tomorrow...household tools

The Brunton

Now that school has calmed down a bit, let me get you all caught up on the tools of the trade:




The Brunton Transit Compass
aka "The Brunton"

This is the big "work horse" for the geologist. Yes, it's a compass but it's much more than that! This is what geologists use to determine the angles on rocks. In simplest terms, if you look at a mass of rocks on a mountain, there's usually some kind of linear look to the rocks. This is known as a bedding plane. A geologist is interested in finding the strike and dip of this plane. (This works for other geologic structures such as folds, faults, etc etc etc.) Strike and dip basically refers to the orientation of the plane in 3D. If you want a longer explanation, ask...or go to wikipedia. (I can't believe I just wrote that!)

Bruntons are used primarily by geologists, engineers, archeologists and surveyors.

It takes a little getting use to, but it's very valuable once you get it. There's two major challenges:

1. See the little yellow levelers, from here on known as "bugums," you need the bubble in the right place for different measurements. It's like those stupid games when we were kids where you had to make one bb stay in the eye of the guy while you try to get the next bb in his other eye and then the other 12 bbs somewhere else...yeah, sucks!! Especially when it's windy.

2. Like all compasses, this works on magnetic north. Or magnetic leatherman, or magnetic belt buckle, or fracking magnetic mouth piece holder for my camelback (description on a later blog entry). You'll be going along getting great readings and then get something odd and, usually after banging your head for a bit, realize that you didn't put your cell phone back in your backpack but put it in your front pocket where it's interfering with the Brunton. Experience...don't knock it!

Tomorrow...the rock hammer