FIELD VOLCANOLOGY IN THE CENTRAL ANDES: A CAPSTONE VOLCANOLOGY AND IGNEOUS PETROLOGY FIELD COURSE

A group of eight geology and geography undergraduate students along with one faculty member and one TA from Missouri State University spent 14 days in the Central Andes of northern Chile as part of an international short term study away program. Logistical support and sponsorship of the trip was conducted through the university Study Away Programs office with the instructor planning the trip based on previous experience in the area. The faculty member focused the trip around an ongoing research project area and made extensive use of backpacking hostels and local experts for logistics while in country.

This course was designed for upper level undergraduate students and graduate students who have completed igneous petrology and volcanology, but was opened to non-geology science majors. The course was capped at 10 students and was a blended classroom for three months prior to departure to learn the basics of the geology of the Central Andes. Timing of the coarse offering was in succession with the undergraduate volcanology course to teach the basics of volcanology. The course was broken down into three parts focusing on two volcanoes with historic eruptions and a third with signs of activity. Part one of the course focused acclimation to the elevation. Here, the faculty member used local tour guides in San Pedro de Atacama to lead geologic tours where the students were exposed to higher elevations each day for four days. This was capped with an ascent to 5600 mts. Part two focused on volcano geology and evolution. This consisted of two projects focusing on the morphology and petrologic variation of lava flows at Volcán San Pedro and sector collapse deposits at Volcán Ollagüe. The final project focused on volcano monitoring and hazards at Volcán Lascar.

For each tour and each project the students were assigned to write blog posts of their experiences. Each student wrote one post for the tours and project groups wrote a post of each project while in the field and were posted on the Missouri State University GGP webpage. In addition, at Lascar the students were assigned an area to create a hazard map based on the known and identified hazards. Stratigraphic columns of lava flow morphology and debris flows were created for San Pedro and Ollagüe. Blog posts and field books confirmed the gain in cultural awareness and the interaction with the environment.