LEARNING GEOLOGY ON FIVE CONTINENTS, THREE OCEANS, AND MANY ISLANDS

Teaching occurred on field trips to Costa Rica (3 times), the Antilles (twice), the Galapagos (twice), the Andes (3 times), East Africa (twice), the Queen Charlotte Islands (1999), Iceland and Greenland (2002), Bulgaria and Italy (2004), Tibet (2005), and Patagonia (2009). Classes met Sunday evenings the semester before the field trips, which took place during vacations. Students earned 1 geology credit and 1 environmental studies credit (for biology, social science and culture) for each trip; students made maps, listened to faculty from a variety of disciplines, and gave PowerPoint presentations. Highlights of trips included mountaineering (e.g., Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Etna, Camp I above Mt. Everest’s Rongbuk Glacier, Cerro Bonete next to Mt. Aconcagua), glacier study (e.g., Torre Glacier in Patagonia, Lewis Glacier on Mt. Kenya), erupting volcanoes (e.g., pyroclastic flows from Soufriere Hills volcano, a spatter cone on Oldoinyo Lengai), plate boundaries (Iceland, Trinidad), snorkeling (Costa Rica, Galapagos, Antilles), animals (e.g., the Serengeti), and total solar eclipses (Zambezi River 2001, Mongolian Altai 2008). Two voyages on Semester At Sea provided the opportunity to teach oceanography and environmental geology on three oceans and in a dozen countries.

Faculty-student research trips included 5 expeditions (4 with the Keck Geology Consortium) to study Quaternary glaciation and tectonism in Mongolia. Limited additional research opportunities were discovered in Costa Rica (stratovolcanoes), Tanzania (an eruption of Oldoinyo Lengai), and Tibet (dunes, Rongbuk Glacier moraines). Instruction abroad allows students to confirm that the present is the key to the past; an example is comparing the Perito Moreno Glacier blocking an arm of Lake Argentina with the Cordilleran Ice Sheet damming glacial Lake Missoula.

Important logistical considerations include safety, travel agents and guides, passports and visas, permits (e.g., Mt. Everest), insurance, communication, vehicles, adequate pure water (e.g., the Gobi), food, lodging and campsites, topographic and geologic maps, and getting samples back to the USA.