Pisgah Crater Jan 25

Every time I teach the hundred-student intro geology course I offer an optional field trip to give the keener students a chance to get out of town and ideally spark some curiosity, fascination, and interest. Over the years I've adapted the strategy somewhat, stepping back from more ambitious field trip itineraries and moving the trip towards the start of the quarter to get the students to open up in class and labs earlier. My go-to has become Pisgah Crater and the Lavic volcanic field, which is well suited for covering topics covered in lecture and allowing open exploration. At about a 2 hour drive from Riverside, it makes for a manageable day trip and a unique experience for the students. Typically I get about 20 students sign-up and 10 that actually show up but this time I managed to get 20 students appear. This time around the mine at the crater seemed inactive with plenty of boy scouts camping nearby, but we still parked near the gate and walked around the cinders then worked our way across the lava with some lecture stops along the way. Though the lava flows here are thousands of years old, the desert environment preserves the intricate flow features well enough that the students can directly relate what they see to footage of recent Iceland eruptions. I led the way to SPJ Cave, one of the longest lava tube caves in the field where I deployed the extension ladder I brought for students to climb down into the tube to explore. 

The students seemed to have a good time branching out to explore some of the different passages in SPJ in both the downstream and upstream directions, with a few students managing to find the small manhole-sized backdoor entrance upstream. The light beams coming into the main SPJ entrance were the best I had seen and students seemed to enjoy taking their selfies and poses.

Once they were satisfied with SPJ, we snacked on the surface and I gave the students a choice of what to do. Surprisingly this crop of students was keener than previous years, with all opting to explore more of the lava field. Two groups set off with one group more interested in checking out some of the other lava tubes and summiting the crater rim and the other group nearly as ambitiously circumnavigating the crater following rough wasteland flows. I followed the lava tube group past Suicide Bridge, into the back of Glove Cave, and up to the crater rim (windy!). 

Around 2pm we all assembled at the car and worked our way back, the traffic mostly forgiving thanks to my decision for a Saturday field trip. All in all the trip seemed a success and everyone seemed to have a good time. One student even made two more trip out there on their own with friends since! Thanks especially to the grad student helpers I had.

Salton Trough Oct 14-16

This field trip has been years in the making as I planned the rough outline of this three day field trip way back in 2018 as a field trip that all new graduate students could take at the start of the school year to build a cohort and gain common knowledge about this region that hits on so many of our department's research interests. That effort led by myself and other early career faculty faltered due to general faculty enthusiasm. Fast forward into the pandemic years and there was an opportunity to apply for funding to trial this field trip as a department-wide endeavor. I planned extensively and got fairly mild interest and then had to cancel a little over 24 hours in advance in May because of covid concerns. I rescheduled for October and this time got even less graduate student interest, ultimately taking more undergraduates. About half those that expressed interest dropped for various reasons and in the end all these efforts resulted in a trip for 14 people. So that's my cynical backstory. Fairly par for the course with my efforts in my department: a well intentioned mostly waste of time.

Anyway the trip was good and the participants had a great time. We started with an icebreaker exercise straddling the San Andreas Fault and then drove up Painted Canyon to see its textbook folds, faults, unconformities, and 1.7 billion year old basement. We had lunch near the shores of the Salton Sea and discussed its interesting history and unfortunate present as we walked over the beach of not sand but barnacles and fish bones. We then stopped to see some of the art installations at Bombay Beach, a new stop for me. We found the mud volcanoes to be mostly dry, then stopped at Obsidian Buttes for shiny obsidian and frothy pumice. We settled into the research station at Borrego Springs, which we were fortunate to have all to ourselves. A few of us drove out to check out some of the iron sculptures sprinkled around the desert before dinner. After dinner many checked out some planets with the telescope. Tomorrow's forecast was for unseasonably cool weather and strong chances of afternoon thunderstorms.

We started Day 2 with a visit to The Slot, which the students seemed to enjoy. Then we went up Split Mountain Gorge, enjoying the classic geology outcrops as the cool skies darkened. We drove through the badlands for Sandstone Canyon, which I thought would be a great lunch spot. We made it a little up the canyon when quite abruptly it started to rain, hard. In no time at all we turned around and started driving down the canyon. The rain picked up to full thunderstorm as waterfalls poured in from the canyon walls. Thankfully the wash floor was sandy not muddy and so we actually had increased traction driving through the muddy water that formerly was our road. It really was quite an unusual phenomenon we were witnessing. We would drive down the flooded wash fast enough that we outpaced the flood pulse such that we would reach the flash flood front and drive a dry wash for a couple minutes, only to have the next tributary reflood the trunk wash. We then would drive out this flow until we reached its front. This continued for over a half a dozen times. The floodwaters seemed to be getting more mature as the catchment area increased and so at one point where there was a nice high and wide terrace I decided we should stop and see how it played out. We had lunch and marveled at the waters and rain and thunder. The waters surged up and then dropped below what they were when we started and so we decided to continue on down the wash. Only a mile or so further the waters sunk into the wash and we saw no more. The flood was certainly the highlight of the trip for all of us. Afterward we got a tour of the state park's paleontology museum. We were all a bit wound up from the flood so the museum pace was hard to adjust to. 

Day three we stopped at some of the other iron sculptures then headed for the Pumpkin Patch. This area was VERY muddy and so we bailed (wisely) after a very short distance. The crisp post-rain air meant that we could easily see the Martinez Mountain landslide and Lake Cahuilla lakeshores very well at a distance of several miles, saving us another detour. This gave us plenty of time at Thousand Palms for a hike and a nice picnic in the shade of the palm grove. Our last stop was the Palm Springs Tramway. Thankfully I reserved ahead of time and so we only had to wait about a half hour to get on the gondola, the perfect amount of time for students to wander around in the giftshop and check out the grounds. The students thoroughly enjoyed the tram ride and the views at the top. 

All in all it seemed to leave a favorable impression on the students that chose to attend. Many thanks to Heather for helping with logistics, especially food.

Pisgah Crater Jan 18

I cannot recall the last time I have been to Pisgah Crater but it certainly must have been on the order of 15 years. This quarter I am teaching a large 250 student Natural Hazards course online with pre-recorded lectures created by other professors. Because of this I have little to no interaction with the students. Concerned they may see me more as an IT guy than a teacher I decided that I should create a few supplemental video lectures of my own. A virtual field trip to Lavic Lake Volcanic Field (with its dominant feature of Pisgah Crater) seemed like a somewhat engaging choice given its easy access as the closest volcano to Riverside. I had mild interest in further exploring some of the lava tube caves, flying a drone around, and thought it could make a moderately successful kid-venture. The kids seemed to generally have a good time. About half my footage was unusable with kids shouting or screaming in the background but I managed to find enough material for a 20 minute video. 

The gate was open but we opted to park at it and walk in. We walked over cinders, aa flows, and then pahoehoe to arrive at the northernmost lava cave area. We thoroughly explored SPJ Cave then C10 as I stopped periodically to film. I shot more drone footage as the others snacked and then we worked our way back to the car. A nice little 3 hour tour across the lava. There is more to the Pisgah lava tubes than I think I recall and I can certainly imagine going on another trip out there soon to explore some more.

My virtual field trip for what it is worth!

Summer Field June 20-July 25

This year's 5-week UCR summer field course went exceptionally well. This time around I was the only instructor but fortunately had one teaching assistant helping each half. We had seven students which was quite a manageable number to keep track of in the field and thankfully despite their differences got along extremely well. We also stayed at four different UC field stations, three of them new visits for me. Although each move involved more time cleaning and packing it seemed to reduce fatigue and increase interest. A few projects were dropped from last year, a few were added or modified. A few projects were extended from last year. Fortunately every change I made seemed to result in a smoother field experience for the students. They genuinely seemed to have a good time and learned a whole lot. I'll forgo the full story suffice it to say that I could probably write a book on the experience given the action packed 16 hour days for 35 days straight.

I'll share perhaps one memorable experience (of many!) and then leave it to the photos to tell the rest. Temperatures were roasting hot while we were at Bishop Station but fortunately I planned ahead and brought a class set of inner tubes to float the Owens River near the station. This was a big hit with the students, especially considering this was their first time floating down a river. A few days later I had a structural geology lecture I needed to give the students. When they thought I wasn't listening I overheard a student joke to other students that they wish I could just give the lecture on the river. Challenge accepted! I gave a structure lecture (whiteboard and all!) from my Alpacka while we all floated down a two mile stretch of the Owens River. Although there was all sorts of antics as everyone spun around, drifted at different speeds, and avoided being swept into a bank, both the students and I gave it a solid effort and as a lecture it actually went really well. It was just the morale boost we all needed and a lecture they won't soon forget.

        Poleta Folds project

        Working out the Poleta stratigraphy

        Reward Mine project

        A structural geology lecture while floating on the Owens River!

        Digital Poleta project

       Great Basin Collared Lizard

        A Poleta Folds inspired menu

        Papoose Flat field trip led by Art Sylvester

        In search of the fabled outcrop below

        Poleta Formation attenuated by intrusion of the Papoose Flat Pluton

        UCLA + UCR class photo at Papoose Flat

        Bristlecone

        Snow!

        Thunderstorm at Crooked Creek

        Defining rock units

        Work!

        Hiking Blanco Mountain

        Scrambling lower Crooked Creek while students write reports

        Sabrina Lake on 4th of July

        Sheep Pass

        Clearing the path to Barcroft Station

        Barcroft Station (12,470')

        En route to White Mountain Peak (14,252')

        Food logistics

        Mono Lake tufa

        Fun with pumice at Panum Crater

        Obsidian Dome

        More fun with pumice

        Convict Lake glacial project

        Bishop Gorge geotechnical project

        McGee Creek fault scarp

        Wild Willy's Hot Spring

        Little Hot Creek

        Black Point project

        Crowley Lake

Yosemite!

        Floating through Yosemite Valley

        Forced perspective on the flat top of Devil's Postpile

Thanks to the TAs Charlie and Chris, the many people that helped with logistics, and the 2017 Summer Field students for a memorable and successful course.