VOLCANOLOGY FIELD CAMP IN ECUADOR AND THE GALAPAOGS ISLANDS

The Ecuador Volcanology Field Camp takes students on a mapping journey from an elevation of 3500m to sea level as they investigate continental arc volcanics in the Ecuadorian Andes and hotspot volcanism in the Galapagos Islands. The Black Hills Natural Science Field Station, a unit of the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology hosts a number of internationally set field camp courses which are available to students of from any university. A Volcanology Field Camp has been developed in Ecuador as a part of this program. The Ecuador Volcanolgy Field Camp is a three week course which includes one and a half weeks in the Ecuadorian Andes as well as one and a half weeks in the Galapagos Islands. Ecuador is an ideal place for a volcanology course due to the ability to look at volcanic features and deposits in two distinct tectonic settings. The first half of the course covers continental arc volcanics in the Ecuadorian Andes. Two exercises are conducted during this phase of the course. They are the creation of a stratigraphic column at Pululahua volcano located to the north of Quito and a mapping and stratigraphy exercise focused on pyroclastic flows, debris flows, lahars and lavas in the vicinity of Cotopaxi Volcano to the south of Quito. The second phase of the course is dedicated to the study of basaltic volcanism associated with hotspot activity that created the Galapagos Islands. The two major exercises conducted during this portion of the course are a lava tunnel mapping exercise on the island of Santa Cruz and a mapping exercise of several lava flows and cinder cones on the island of Isabela. The course includes several short traditional lecture style sessions to introduce the regional geology of each of the localities that are studied, with the majority of the time spent in the field. Students are guided to make microscopic to regional scale observations. Lithologic descriptions along with mapping of spatial distribution of units leads the students to gain an understanding of the geologic evolution of each volcanic center as well as how it fits into the tectonic setting where it is located.