ADVANCED SUMMER FIELD GEOLOGY STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO

The UNM Earth and Planetary Sciences Summer Field School involves a required 3-week-long introductory course. Building on this, we recognize the importance of more advanced field training for many of our students with two elective courses offered for either graduate or undergraduate credit. The 3-week-long Advanced Field Geology course teaches advanced field mapping methodologies in the context of a collaborative effort to solve current high profile research problems. As researchers, students work from published maps, then make primary field observations and improve the map to solve problems. Visiting scientists, mandatory evening seminars, and group and individual research presentations add to the collaborative effort. The course is entirely expedition-style, with 3 exercises, two of which change each year. The constant is a one-week raft trip in Grand Canyon that researches diverse problems within a world-class laboratory of Paleoproterozoic to Quaternary rocks and structures. Subsequent exercises are related to ongoing research of the instructors, TAs, and visiting researchers in the Rocky Mountain region. Digital mapping components are being incrementally incorporated into the course. This course has spawned numerous graduate theses, published maps and journal articles, and has been a successful recruiting tool and a springboard for incoming graduate students. The course serves national as well as local needs. The Volcanology Summer Field Course is the capstone course of the UNM-LANL Program in Volcanology that takes advantage of the spectacular volcanic record preserved in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico, and the unique expertise at the two institutions. This 3.5-week class is offered in even-numbered years. The nine field exercises start with basic instruction in pyroclastic fall, flow, and surge deposits, then progress towards hydrothermally altered, intra-caldera resurgent dome and moat deposits in an active hot spring and fumarole system. Evening lectures, study time, lodging, and meals take place at nearby Young's Ranch. About 120 students from 12 countries have taken this class; former students have pursued advanced degrees in the Geosciences and taken jobs with academia, research laboratories, volcanology observatories and/or the private sector.