Starting next summer I'll be co-teaching a new summer field class at UCR. As a first step towards preparing, Andrey and I spent about five days in eastern California scouting some of the classic summer field locations and visiting some other schools' field camps. We started in the White-Inyos at the one and only Poleta Folds (frontispiece). Upon arrival we found the pull-out to be full to the rim with geology vans. We followed the geology student trails out to the main Poleta mapping area- it had been a solid ten years since I last was here as a student- geonostalgia. We easily tracked down some UC Davis students and then their kilted instructor, having good chats with all about the structure of their course and how it was going so far. I walked Andrey through some of the classic features: Bathtub, Cake Walk, Sudden Death, Racetrack, Sea of Green, M&M Meltdown, Sylvester's Incubus, Chevron Island,, The Scissors. We spent the evening with SBCC's group- notable for their palatial camp setup and overkeen and interested students. I even met a friend I didn't know I had and reminisced about my time at Santa Barbara. We caught an excellent sunset over the Sierras from the overlook at Grandview Camp.
Day 2 was also at Poleta. We drove rough and surprisingly wet dirt road past the dry lake and up a wash on the dark side of Poleta. Here we found two paired hills spanning the wash, perfectly suited for measuring stratigraphic sections through the Poleta Formation. We then had a look at the fault scarps of the Deep Springs Fault and some old debris flows before driving around for a look at Little Poleta. Then onto the long dirt road to Crooked Creek station where we would stay the next couple nights. I was not too surprised to find the same caretaker from ten years ago, but more surprised that he seemed to remember me. We spent about an hour before dinner driving on down the Crooked Creek road to where we started encountering plutonics.
Day 3 we scouted new areas near Crooked Creek for their mapping potential, turning up some interesting areas forming a nice contrast to Poleta. The weather was cooler and more pleasant to boot. We saw lots of interesting dolomite. We also drove up to the gate at White Mountain road, passing through some stunning alpine scenery but poor mapping potential.
Day 4 started with a quick visit to Poleta. Then down the hill and back up another to SNARL. We drove to McGee Creek and Convict Lake, evaluating them both for small mapping projects. After dinner we fit in a soak in Wild Willy's hot spring, nice but overcrowded.
Day 5 we headed north through the Long Valley Caldera to Panum Crater, the last volcano in the Mono Craters Range, apparently one of the youngest mountain ranges in the world at less than 40000 yrs. After a stop at the South Tufa preserve, we drove on to Black Point on the north side of Mono Lake. Black Point was even more interesting than I remembered and is a place I'm particularly excited to take students. After Black Point we drove the June Lake loop and then detoured to look at some of the Inyo Craters and Obsidian Dome. A visit to Hot Creek then back to SNARL.
Flowy obsidian
South Tufa
Soft sediment deformation of an ash bed
Interesting relationships on Black Point
One of the volcanic fissures
In a fissure
Fissure wall texture
Hot Creek
The last day was more or less just a drive back, though I remember not being able to resist the urge to detour to the Owens River Gorge or to look at the fascinating rock avalanche textures in the Poverty Hills.
Middle Owens River Gorge
The last day was more or less just a drive back, though I remember not being able to resist the urge to detour to the Owens River Gorge or to look at the fascinating rock avalanche textures in the Poverty Hills.
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