Southwestern US Geology Field Trip

New Mexico and Arizona
February 22 - March 1, 2008

From left to right: Heather Piehl, TJ Brown, Ben Kaczmarek, Jeremy McKinney, Jeremy Sell and

Dr Forest Haines. Dr. Sarah Hanson is in the front

You can click on the photos below to view them at a larger size.

Day 1. We left Adrian Friday afternoon and began a 25 drive hour around an ice storm and then west and south toward Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Day 2. Morning came while we were somewhere in west Texas; and still driving...
That afternoon our first stop was Carlsbad Caverns where we, in a rather sleep deprived state, took a tour of the cave and saw all of the cool speleothms that Ben told us about us in class.
These speleothems included stalactites and stalagmites as well as cave popcorn (forming on the tip of the stalactite to the left) and flowstone (right). This cave is unique as it formed from dissolution by hydrogen sulfide rich water derived from nearby petroleum deposits rather than dissolution by carbonic acid.
When we FINALLY got to camp at Brantley Lake State Park, Jeremy cooked us burgers and dogs while Heather and TJ chopped vegetables. We ate and then we slept!!!
Day 3. After a good nights sleep we woke to a beautiful sunrise over the dam at Brantley Lake.
After a fine repast of bagels for breakfast, we headed to White Sands NM where we climbed on the sand dunes.
These dunes are unique because they are composed of gypsum sand, forming world's largest gypsum dune field. This sand weathered out of nearby mountains and was deposited in Pleistocene Lake Otero, the precursor of today's Lake Lucerne.
From White Sands we headed to camp early at City of Rocks State Park where we took a short evening hike in the Kneeling Nun Tuff. This volcanic rock was deposited during LARGE volcanic eruptions 34.9 million years ago.
While the students cooked up some fine tacos, Sarah tood a break and watched the sunest.
Day 4. We headed up NM 61 toward the Santa Rita Mine. We stopped several times on the way to look at cool volcanic rocks associated with the Kneeling Nun episode of volcanics.
Jeremy is standing in front of a series of pyroclastic ash deposits along the side of the road. Just down the road, the volcanic rocks changed dramatically as basalt is dominant.. TJ and the 2 Jeremys are checking it out.
The Chino Copper Mine, also known as the Santa Rita Mine (the name of the town it eventually swallowed up), is a large open pit copper mine. This huge hole in the ground is still being mined by Phelps Dodge, thus is is still getting bigger! On our visit it was cold and windy so we marveled, took a quick photo, and fled.
When we returned to a lower elevation and less wind, we stopped to look at some granitic rocks (notice Sarah has her favorite impliment - a rock hammer). Since it was much warmer Sarah insisted on lecturing here too. We learned much about copper porphyries, volanic systems and mining...
We arrived at Saquaro NP in the afternoon. Our primary interest was the Catalina Gneiss that is exposed in the Catalina Mountains. The mountains expose a metamorphic core complex which is host to high grade metamorphic and igneous rocks.
Sarah explained the local geology and made the students identify all of the nearby boulders. We also spent some time learning the local flora. And which ones hurt the most. Here, the group is standing next to a stately Saquaro.
We camped at Molino Basin Campground on the Mount Lemon Road. The two Jeremy's tried to climb a cliff while the rest of us relaxed and prepared a feast of spaghetti, salad and garlic bread.
Day 5. We began our journey from the warmer southern Arizona to the cooler and higher elevation northern Arizona. Our goal was to enjoy the sunset at Grand Canyon.
It was more than a 5 hour drive to the Grand Canyon so we stopped for a short walk and lunch ar Montazuma's Well NM. This "well" is actualy a sinkhole. T

View of the Grand Canyon from Desert View Overlook (left) and Yavapai Point (right) at sunset. In the photo on the left you can see the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon and the confluence with the Little Colorado River (upper right of photo).
We had a wonderful dinner at Cameron Trading Post. Most of us dined on Indian Tacos or Navajo Stew. Rock had a cheeseburger. The area here is at a high elevation, thus too cold to camp, so we spent the night in a cheap motel next to the railroad tracks in Flagstaff. At 7000' the nights low temperature was in the low teens. Brrr!
 
Day 6. We spent the morning at Sarah's summer paradise, Sunset Crater Volcano & WupatkiNational Monuments.
Sunset Crater Volcano (left) is one of over 600 volcanoes in the San Francisco Volcanic Field. Strombloian eruptions only 900 years ago formed this cinder cone. The Bonito Lava flow (right) was extruded from the base of the volcano. O'Leary Peak, a dome volcano is in the background.
Just to the north, Wupatki NM was home to the ancestors of the pueblo Indians from AD1100-1250 Citadel Sink, a sinkhole formed from dissolution in the Kaibab Formation is present at Wupatki NM
Lomaki Pueblo is located on an earthcrack. This earthcrack is one of many that formed during the Laramide Orogeny. Box Canyon ruins are located on a large earthcrack near Lomaki Pueblo. TJ for scale.
Dr. Hanson explains the stratigraphy and the Doney Fault at Wupatki. From Wupatki you have a wonderful view of the San Francisco Volcanic Field
That afternoon we visited Meteor Crater to marvel at yet another huge hole in the ground. This one formed naturally about 50,000 years ago when a large iron-nickel meteorite crashed into the earth.
The Painted Desert is a vast region in Arizona where the upper Triassic Chinle Formation is exposed.
Students examined the Chinle formation and collected fossils from there. The group: Ben, Jeremy M, TJ, Heather, Jeremy S, Sarah and Rock
We camped at Homolovi State Park where we had a fine repast of burgers and dogs.
Day 7. We woke up cold - the water was frozen in Sarah's water bottle! Sarah was kind and got up early and made coffee and warmed up the van. From there we headed to a local rock shop where many of us bought petrified wood.
This is the crew sitting on a petrified log at Petrified Forest NP. We hiked the Crystal Forest trail where we saw many petrified logs.
Another petrified log... We also saw the Painted Desert from here.
We camped at Cochiti Lake Recreation area and were happy that it was SLIGHTLY warmer than the night before (Sarah's water bottle was not frozen in the morning)
Day 8. We spent the morning hiking at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument.
These ususual formations are erosional remnants that formed in 6-7 million year old volcanic rocks. Boulders on top ot the "tent" formations prevent weathering of the softer volcanic rocks below. Eventually the boulder will fall off and the "tent" will erode away.
Jeremy M, Jeremy S, Sarah, TJ and Heather on the ridgetop at Tent Rocks. We sat at the top and enjoyed the view for as long as we could. We did not want to go down and face the 25 hour van ride home...
Day 9. We finally arrived back in Adrian late in the afternoon on Saturday.