Sunday, June 23, 2013

Flaming Gorge (Manila, UT)

Back in Utah on Thursday, we went back to mapping out rock successions in road cuts and outcrops outside of Manila, UT. We donned yon reflective vests and mapped out channel successions on both sides of the road.


This cut might be multiple channel successions with a muddy over bank collapsing and depositing further downstream.


All along the rock faces, the cliff swallows have made their mud nests hanging up against the rock.  There's a beak poking out of one of them.  It's cool on the rock face, not so much on possibly the side of a house.


In the fields, the cacti were a blooming.  Pink buds but yellow flowers.  Also lizards, scorpions, marmots....


This was our last mapping exercise of the day.  Not a great picture since the outcrop is so extensive. My sketch is way better. Valleys incising marine shorefaces.  You can't see it.  I can.

We ended the day with a long drive through the Uinta Mountains and overnight in Vernal, UT.  Hot and dry.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Rock Springs, WY

It's our second night in Rock Springs, WY, and we are heading back to Utah for tomorrow's stops.  We left Salt Lake City on Monday, stayed over in Evanston, and then trekked over to Rock Springs.


Monday:  On our way to Evanston, WY, we stopped at a road cut.  The road cut was an example of proximal alluvial, but the train was more scenic.  


Two trains meeting and swapping engines was even more scenic (and loud, so we waited til they left)


Yesterday:  Coastal plains and coal seams and channel cuts.


 The start to our day today....before the super winds came barging through our geology hike through the outcrops.


An x-sec of a concretion caused by a log that was swept away by high flow (channel).


the length of the log (see ruler) that poked out the end of the out crop in the previous photo.


Peeps traversing through tight rocks to get to the top of the outcrop.  It was a tight fit so the backpacks were taken off and passed up through the narrow pass.

That's all folks.  Every night is late.  Every morning is an early rise.



Sunday, June 16, 2013

Field Notes

So I am going to attempt blogging while on the road with my iPhone laptop. This could go bad but I'll give it a shot since the blog has sat dormant for a while. And forgive the grammar as I can't see what I'm writing on a full screen...  I cannot download pics on my phone to my blog so I will hope there is free wifi at the next 5 hotels I stay at (here's hoping Best Western).

I'm on a Nautilus geology field course for 7 days. We (20 of us) are starting here in Salt Lake City, Utah, and I'm pretty sure we are travelling through parts of Utah and into Wyoming.  I haven't particularly mapped out our journey....many things contribute as distractions at the moment.

So here in SLC, we are hanging out at the Radisson by the airport (see below) preparing to start up bright and early tomorrow morning and head out to our next destinations (yes, multiple stops).

I did get my 10 000 steps in (went for a walk) for the day for those who are aware of my GCC commitment (I'm not explaining more than that on that topic).