Field Trip Class 2010: Adventures in Eastern-Central California's Geology

The "Pink Postpile" - Devil's Postpile was inaccessible due to snow, so we found this in the Fish Slough Volcanic Tablelands instead. It was fantastic!

The group at the newly named "Pink Postpile".

Wheel changes were a multi-time-a-day occurrence: the pit crew at work.

Bodie Ghost Town.

The wooden ones I get, but the iron? Can you even imagine? (Bodie)

I'm not sure what this magical powder for men is. (Bodie)

When in Bodie, gotta get in a stamp mill.

An impressive balancing erratic at June Lake. Naturally this calls for tagging - not by our group of course.

Paper cranes at Manzanar cemetary.

Typical menu at Manzanar Internment Camp. The thing that puzzles me is the 4oz of curry powder available.

Heart-shaped arch at Alabama Hills, inclement weather in background.

Silly attempt at towing by hand... totally worth it for entertainment value.

Inclement weather + slow driver + two wheel drive van = getting stuck in a ridiculously small snow pile. *sigh*

Ascending the 680ft high Eureka Dunes, they too "sing", and are the highest in California and rivaling for the highest in the USA.

Teamwork and a little creativity means that anyone can go anywhere. Even at 9500ft.

The group at the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest - trees over 4000 years old!

The Chaflant Group Petroglyphs (Fish Slough area), some of the largest (5ft diameter) petroglyphs around.

Two little brine shrimp from Mono Lake.

The group at the scenic vista overlooking Mono Lake.

Gotta love "xing" signs. (Gull Lake)

Why is this whole sign in quotes? (Mammoth Geothermal)

Foxy Brown and Troy Pliocene on the Eureka Dunes. These two were trip mascots; unfortunately Foxy Brown escaped at the ammonite site in Union Wash and was never seen again.

It's amazing how many people go in anyway, and end up receiving the $175 ticket. (Hot Creek Geologic Area)

And of course several other places were visited too - but these constitute my favourite images of the trip.

Meganeura? Megaproblem.

In lieu of the norm (heinous exam answers) for this time of year, I would like to share with you my final research assignment that I did for my Historical Geology class.

Historical Geology: Megafauna

The term “megafauna” translates to “giant animals”, of which (even excluding dinosaurs) there has been an incredible variety in the geological past. For this assignment you are to create a profile on one of the extinct megafauna listed below. You will have to sign up for your megafauna of choice, as there is a limit of 7 spots available for each animal.

• mastodon
• woolly mammoth
• Megatherium (cousin to the giant sloth)
• Titanis walleri (giant bird)
• Dragonfly of the Carboniferous
• Jaekelopterus (giant lobster-like eurypterid)
• Dunkleosteus (giant armored fish)
• Liopleurodon (sea reptile of “Charlie the Unicorn” fame)
• C. megalodon (the big guy from Sharktooth Hill)
• Diprotodon (largest marsupial that ever lived)
• giant ground sloth
• woolly rhinoceros
• Indricotherium transouralicum (largest mammal to ever walk on land)

Please feel free to get very creative for this assignment, a rough guide to writing profiles is available here. For another approach, check out TMZ for a tabloid approach on profiles.

The BC library has research materials on megafauna; additionally Natural History museums should have lots of information to guide you (i.e. Buena Vista Museum, La Brea, etc.)

Your profile should be 500-1000 words, typed (12 point font, 1.5 spacing), and will be graded using the following criteria:

1. Content (depth of research, references are cited)
2. Creativity (writing/presentation draws the reader in)
3. Clarity (writing is clear, logical, flows, and is free of errors)

This assignment is due by April 29^th. You may turn it in earlier, but late assignments will not be accepted.

Additional advice from my partner in Elvis exploration; English professor extraordinaire and former journalist: “Since this is a fun assignment, you should ask your students to interview extinct megafauna as if the students are reporters from some tabloid journalism outfit, such as TMZ, E, or The National Enquirer. Their mission: Find out the REAL reason this particular animal went extinct. As with any profile, they should do a background check on their subject first to learn about the animal's life and death. Usually a profile has these elements:

1) A creative beginning or feature lead (first paragraph). This can be an anecdote told by the animal, the reporter capturing a moment of description during the interview, or what I call the human hook: a cryptic beginning that makes the reader hunger for more.

2) A physical description of the subject interviewed. Ideally a profile might involve hanging out with an individual at work and at home with the kids.

3) Background on the subject explaining what's happened up to now.

4) Great quotes. (These might reveal The Untold Story of the creature's demise.)

In the case of tabloid journalism, it also could include rumors, scandal, and a scene of chasing a Giant Sloth down the street with a camera crew from "Extra" or "Entertainment Tonight" simply because the sloth refuses to be interviewed. (This no doubt would prove the animal was guilty of causing its own demise.)”

Though it wasn't a "typical" profile, but rather a conspiracy-theorist's guide, this particular project really needs to be shared with the world. Enjoy! (I know, I never share the work of A students, but I got his permission first too, which is also a first)

Wine and Buddhists on a Sunday

In prospecting for how to spice up my Geology of Kern County (and wine) community class for the fall, I decided to add the "and wine" component. This came easily after being introduced to the wine of Sagebrush Annie's and the location of Triassic Legacy. Not having tasted any Triassic Legacy wines, and knowing that they only opened in December of 2009, it was imperative that I take a pre-field-trip field trip. That occurred today.

The place is charming and owned by a charming man, a retired geologist, and a conservationist. These three owners are in fact one person who decided to save a gorgeous piece of the Cummings Valley from strip malls by buying it and planting wine grapes. I was impressed before I even tasted the wine. The grapes used currently are grown in Paso Robles because their grape vines are still a wee bit young (and are being ravaged by gophers and blackbirds), but I hope they pull through and have a successful first harvest this fall. They are growing Zinfandel, Syrah and Viognier grapes, and I am thoroughly impressed with the creatively delicious Syrah-Viognier blend. So, if you're in the Tehachapi neighbourhood, you should definitely pop in for a taste, and tell Chuck & Sherry that I sent you!


After wine, a lemongrassy (read: yummy) lunch at Blue Ginger was consumed and followed up by a jaunt to find the mysterious Mountain Spirit Center; a Korean Buddhist retreat of some sort. Once it was found, there was nothing by silence and wind - it must have been prayer time or something. Perhaps "or something" means "poke around and take photos of stuff with your cell phone". Well, that's what I took it to mean anyway.

the sign for the road in... almost as cute as the map on their nearly indecipherable website

more signage...

apparently Buddha's birthday is coming up on the 16th... who knew?

peace bell - I'm interpreting based on their website where they list "peace bell" as a project - though it suddenly occurs to me that a bell of that size might not be all that peaceful

mural - there were lots, but I figured I'd just show this one

Paleo-trippin'

So I took a few students to tag along on SSU's semi-annual PaleoPalooza field trip (combined with other schools as well). Kiki and Loki made valiant efforts to come along too, but the trip started without them and with a remarkably horrid freak April blizzard en route to Nevada...

the view out the window from my Jeep-hammock on morning #1

After we awoke to a snow dump and packed up wet gear and pushed and pulled the vans out of the wet sandy snowy campsite, we moseyed on to see some Ichthyosaur action in Berlin-Ichthyosaur state park, also coated in snow.



The next day we ventured off to find some Redlichid trilobites, but that too was covered in snow. Amazingly, one of the SSU girls found this awesome specimen.


Then a few of us took a break from geology and took a romp through an abandoned brothel, check out the snazzy wallpaper!



After some snooping we continued on to investigate some archaeocyathid reefs, which took us into the next day and up Mt Dunphy (near Goldpoint), where some oddly angled stromatolites can be found.



On our final day, the weather had cleared spectacularly and we hit the fossil jackpot with some pretty fabulous ammonites.

Bridge

Extreme Chef decided that in order to prevent the onset of senility, we needed to learn how to play Bridge. Contract Bridge. One of these sessions occurred during the early afternoon, so I suggested that we do it with tea and scones and Devonshire cream. I volunteered to make the scones.


For some reason, our Devonshire cream source took it upon themselves to lemon and sugar up the cream, so the effect wasn't quite as authentic as we were going for, even considering the scones were fat little dinosaurs.


In completely unrelated business, except the photo of them was also on my phone, I received some delightful wildflowers from a student last week. So pretty!!! Naturally I did not have a vase to put them in, so I went with the tiki head mug instead. Thanks KM!