Structural Geology Field Trip

Appalachian Mountains

October 5-10, 2000


Fall 2000 Structural Geology Class
From left to right: Jake Barnes, Bryan Warner, Elysia Plotka, Dr. Sarah Hanson

 

Day 1. We departed from the Adrian College campus and drove to Morgantown West "by God" Virginia
Day 2. We looked at rocks at Cheat River Overlook, Seneca Rocks, Germany Valley and a few other places. Then we camped along a beautiful little creek in the George Washington National Forest.
This was home for the night - our camp in George Washington National Forest.
We cooked and ate awesome burgers, Rock found a fine 3 legged chair which he sat in all night and Sarah entertained us (although she suspects that no one was actually listening).
Day 3. We entered Shenandoah National Park in Virginia from the Swift Run Gap entrance and headed north. Here the students learned all about greenstone; again. We just don't understand why they can't recognize it from the van traveling at 55 mph.
Here's the group at Dark Hollow Falls. After a 1 mile hike we saw these falls cascading over the Catoctin Formation. We also saw an interesting conglomerate, a zone of amygdaloidal in the basalt in the stream bed and sandstone dikes below the falls. Really cool!
Columnar jointing in basalt at Indian Run Overlook, Shenandoah National Park. Jake, Elysia, and Bryan measure the strike and dip of basalt feeder dikes at Little Devils Stairs in Shenandoah National Park.
We camped on the northern end of Massanutten Mountain in the George Washington National Forest and ate lots of spaghetti.
Day 4. We went to Harpers Ferry National Historic site and took a geologic tour of the park, looked at the building stones used in the construction of the historical buildings, saw the confluence of the Shenandoah and the Potomac Rivers, and looked at some thrust faults.
Students also examined the type section of the Harpers Phyllite in Harpers Ferry NHS. And Rock made a new friend in Harpers Ferry.
Then we headed up into Maryland near Catoctin Mountain State Park and looked at the Weverton and Harper formations.
Rock quizzes the students about the Weverton Quartzite.
Students measuring strikes and dips of bedding and the axial planar cleavage of a fold along the road.
Rock giving the class hints about measuring strike and dip.
Then it started raining…. and getting colder… and raining harder….and getting still colder. Then it started snowing. We were wet. We skipped camping at the state park that night and headed home.
On the way home we stopped at Sidling Hill (below), a beautiful syncline exposed in a roadcut along I-68, 6 miles west of Hancock MD. It was raining there too.
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