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.