COMING OF AGE IN DEATH VALLEY, CALIFORNIA

Columbia University’s tenth nearly-annual geological excursion to Death Valley, California for first- and second-year undergraduates took place over Spring Break, 2014. The purpose of the trip is to introduce students with little or no prior experience in Earth science to a broad range of phenomena, and to the scientific approach to inquiry in a field setting, with emphasis on the creative interpretation of the students’ own observations. The course is graded pass/no pass, and fulfills no formal requirement. Our objective is to provide a stimulating experience attractive to students who may have been discouraged by the rote learning of high school classes or who are reticent to venture beyond more familiar sciences. New York is not an obvious magnet for students predisposed to geology. Among the themes on which we touch: the interpretation of process and depositional setting in diverse sedimentary facies, the Neoproterozoic icehouse Earth, the emergence of complex life in Cambrian time, the mechanics of crustal deformation, and the varied expression of volcanic phenomena. A subtext for much of the trip is how large-scale extension of the crust since the mid-Miocene is partitioned across a series of faults and tilted fault blocks.

Preparation consists of required weekly seminars. Students are expected to have completed assigned reading in advance: e.g., chapters from Grotzinger and Jordan (2010), Understanding Earth; and Sharp and Glazner (1997), Geology Underfoot in Death Valley and Owens Valley. We make liberal use of web materials, animations and video clips, and refer to current events – this year including the 50^thanniversary of the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake. The opening of the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi was marked by a segment on the geology of the Greater Caucasus.

Twenty students are selected from an average pool of 44 applicants (20 in 2002; > 50 from 2004-2008). Women are represented disproportionately (69% overall; 84% in 2014). About 24% of the students are of Asian heritage, with lesser numbers of Hispanic, Black and Native American ethnicity (~7% combined). About one-third of the students have declared majors or concentrations in the Earth and environmental sciences or engineering. Graduates include a Rhodes Scholar, a Udall Scholar, and a Goldwater Scholar. About 10% of the students have gone on to PhDs.