GEOLOGY OF THE HUDSON VALLEY: A TWO-WEEK SUMMER FIELD COURSE

One challenge in teaching geology at a community college is that there are limited opportunities to bring students into the field. In addition, while most of our students are local, very few have ever been exposed to the geology of the area.

Geology of the Hudson Valley meets during the summer session for eight days over a two-week span from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm which satisfies the SUNY 45 hour requirement for a three-credit course (including time for transportation and breaks). While designed for geology and Earth science education majors, this course has no prerequisites and is open to anyone interested in the geology of our local area. It’s also taught entirely in the field – vans are used to transport students to a number of selected field locations throughout the Hudson Valley. Students are assessed by the quality of their notebooks, discussions in the field, and a final exam requiring them to synthesize the geologic history of the Hudson Valley Region.

The Hudson Valley is an excellent area for teaching geology with readily accessible exposures of Grenville metamorphic and igneous rocks in the Hudson Highlands; Cambrian passive margin sediments; Ordovician clastics and the Taconic unconformity; clastics of the Queenston Delta (sensu lato); extensive Devonian carbonates; deformed rocks of the Hudson Valley fold-thrust belt; clastics of the Catskill Delta; the Triassic Newark Rift and Palisades Sill; and widespread erosional and depositional evidence of Pleistocene glaciation.

In addition to regional geology, students learn much about the history and economic development of the region by visiting iron mines and furnaces in the Hudson Highlands; lead-zinc mines in the Shawangunks; natural cement mines, quarries, and kilns in the Rosendale area; bluestone quarries in the Catskills; and clay pits once used for brick making along the banks of the Hudson River.

Other topics discussed during the course include historical sites associated with the Revolutionary War (Hudson Highlands iron ore and locations of strategic importance along the Hudson River). In the Catskills, we visit and discuss sites made famous by the Hudson River School of art. There are also many opportunities throughout the course to discuss environmental issues as the Hudson River Valley is considered by some to be the birthplace of the modern environmental movement.