Arizona & Grand Canyon Field Trip - May 2005
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Malaspina
University College - Geology
390 - Special Field Studies
Arizona & Grand Canyon Field Trip - May 2005 |
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Click here to see approximately 400 of Steve's photos from our trip |
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| Instructors: | Steven Earle | K. Maggie McColl |
| Office: | Building
360, Room 304A |
Building 370, Room 118 |
| Telephone: | local
2756 |
local 2334 |
| e-mail: | earles@mala.bc.ca | mccoll@mala.bc.ca |
Introduction:
More of Earth's history is revealed in the canyons of Arizona than anywhere else on Earth. We will travel through time from the metamorphosed pre-Cambrian basement, up to the recent volcanism capping the Colorado Plateau. The objective of this course is to learn about the evolution of the North American continent through the examination of the rocks and structures exposed in northern Arizona.
Course schedule
| Date and time | Event | Location |
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Wednesday, March 9
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Information session |
370/107 |
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Tuesday,
April 12 |
Introduction
to the Geology of the Southwest / Topic
selection |
370/107 |
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Tuesday,
April 26 |
Oral Presentations 10 minutes each (10%) |
370/107 |
| Friday,
April 29 |
Research Paper due 4 pages maximum (15%) | 360 |
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Monday, May 2 (7:41 PM) |
Depart from Vancouver to Las Vegas |
YVR (be there by 6:00 PM) |
| Tuesday May 3 to Friday May 13 | See detailed itinerary below | |
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Saturday, May 14 (3:11 PM) |
Return,
Las Vegas to Vancouver |
Las Vegas (arrive YVR at 5:54 PM) |
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Field presentation (10%) |
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Journal - Field Notes Due (35%) |
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Final Essay Due (30%) |
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Final Grade 100% |
Links to some useful information:
| Descriptions of what you are expected to do for the various assignments. |
| A map of our route and stops. |
| Grand Canyon Paleozoic stratigraphy and an annotated view of the canyon's strata |
| A stratigraphic section and map of the Grand Canyon in the area of Grand Canyon Village (The routes that we will be hiking are shown in red. We'll be going down via the Kaibab Trail and up via the Bright Angel Trail) |
Updated Arizona itinerary (as of March 31st)
| Date | Day | Destination | miles/km | Driving time | Overnight | Accommodation | ||
| May 2 | Monday | pm | Las Vegas (dep. 7:41 pm, arr. 10:18 pm) | Las Vegas | Hotel | Circus Circus | ||
| May 3 | Tuesday | am | Hoover Dam | 28/45 | 0.5 | Prescott | camp | Watson Lake |
| pm | Chino Valley | 250/400 | 5.5 | |||||
| pm | Thumb Butte | |||||||
| May 4 | Wednesday | am | Jerome | 100/160 | 3.0 | Sedona | camp | Chavez Crossing |
| pm | Sedona | |||||||
| May 5 | Thursday | am | Montezuma's well | 90/144 | 2.0 | Flagstaff | hostel | DuBeau hostel |
| pm | Red Rock/Oak Ck. | 30/48 | 0.5 | |||||
| May 6 | Friday | am | Walnut Canyon | 20/32 | 0.5 | Flagstaff | hostel | DuBeau hostel |
| pm | Meteor Crater | 70/110 | 1.0 | |||||
| May 7 | Saturday | am | Sunset Crater | 60/96 | 1.0 | Grand Canyon | camp | Mather group site |
| pm | Wupatki | |||||||
| pm | South Gate | 85/136 | 2.0 | |||||
| May 8 | Sunday | Rim / Bright Angel Trail | Gr. Canyon | camp | Mather gp. site | |||
| May 9 | Monday | Rim / Kaibab Trail | Gr. Canyon | camp | Mather gp. site | |||
| below rim | ||||||||
| May 10 | Tuesday | Hike out | Gr. Canyon | camp | Mather gp. site | |||
| May 11 | Wednesday | am | Cameron | 67/107 | 1.5 | Page | hostel | Lk. Powell hostel |
| pm | Antelope Canyon | |||||||
| May 12 | Thursday | am | Lee's Ferry float trip | Page | hostel | Lk. Powell hostel | ||
| May 13 | Friday | am | Kanab | 77/123 | 2.0 | Las Vegas | hotel | Days Inn |
| pm | Zion | |||||||
| pm | St. George | 75/120 | 2.0 | |||||
| pm | Las Vegas | 116/186 | 5.5 | |||||
| May 14 | Saturday | pm | Vancouver (dep: 3:11 pm, arr: 5:54 pm) | |||||
| Possible Research Topics (or suggest one of your own) | |
| Volcanism: San Francisco Volcanic Field, Sunset Crater | Groundwater: Montezuma's Well |
| Meteorite Impact: Meteor Crater | Paleozoic Stratigraphy |
| Colorado River (Hoover Dam, Glen Canyon Dam) | Buttes, Red Rocks of Sedona |
| Uplift of the Colorado Plateau | Karst |
| Formation of the Grand Canyon | Unconformities |
| PreCambrian Granites: Granite Dells, Prescott | Palaeontology |
Some useful web sites (more to come)
| National Park Service - Grand Canyon site | http://www.nps.gov/grca/ |
| National Park Service - Grand Canyon webcam | http://www.nps.gov/grca/grandcanyon/ |
| Arizona Geological Survey | http://www.azgs.state.az.us/ |
| Arizona geology map | http://geology.asu.edu/~sreynolds/ azgeomap/azgeomap_home.htm |
| Grand Canyon explorer | http://www.kaibab.org/geology/gc_geol.htm |
| Meteor Crater | http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/SIC/impact_cratering/ Enviropages/Barringer/barringerstartpage.html |
| 100s of references on Arizona & Grand Canyon Geology | http://www.library.uiuc.edu/gex/bibs/geol315-415y2004.html#iic |
| Grand Canyon Explorer | http://www.kaibab.org/home.htm |
Some reading (more to come)
| Grand Canyon primer by A. Foos, U. of Akron | grand.pdf |
