THE GRAND CANYON AS AN UNDERGRADUATE FIELD LABORATORY

Few natural landscapes on Earth match the Grand Canyon of the American Southwest for scenic beauty; and fewer yet, rival its precipitous depths for the sheer magnitude of geological features on display or the profound nature of the story revealed. An undergraduate geological field course in the Grand Canyon taught at Hanover College by Dr. Kenneth Bevis offers unparalleled opportunities to observe, map, describe, and discuss countless phenomena that most students of geology see only in text books; and a life-changing experience for many of those lucky enough to participate. This presentation highlights the geology I experienced firsthand in May, 2016 on a backpacking adventure along the South Rim’s Hermit, Tonto, and Bright Angel Trails, as well as portions of the South and North Kaibab Trails. This trek has it all, featuring the geological characteristics and history of the entire Paleozoic sedimentary rock sequence of the Grand Canyon region, the 1.2 billion-year-long Great Unconformity, sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Late Proterozoic Grand Canyon Supergroup, and the igneous and metamorphic rocks comprising the Middle Proterozoic Zoroaster Granite, Vishnu Schist, and Rama and Brahma Schists; as well as a multitude of younger geologic structures that disrupt these rock units. The true appeal of this course is that geological observations are made firsthand, in the field, and the processes that formed these features are pondered while you are witness to them. Features and formative processes are described here as they were encountered, in a travel-log fashion; a synthesis of observations and discussion is included; and a summative explanation placing them in the context of the southwestern Colorado Plateau’s geological evolution concludes the presentation.