FORT RILEY GEOLOGY TRAIL: AN OUTREACH PROGRAM TO BRING AWARENESS OF GEOSCIENCES TO MILITARY FAMILIES

This outreach project focuses on creating geoscience awareness and providing educational content about the rocks exposed along existing hiking trails. It aims at improving science literacy within the Fort Riley community, showing that science can be seen, touched and felt. Four outcrops along the Moon Lake, Governor Harvey Ft. Riley and Whiteside Loop hiking trails were identified and logged individually to describe the rock succession, along with photographic documentation to create 11" x 8.5" and 17" x 11" plaques to be placed close to each outcrop. The plaques will also include QR codes with supplementary information for each outcrop. Results from the described sections indicate that at the Moon Lake trail, geoscience communication can focus on the fluctuations in climatic conditions from humid to arid and back to humid, as well as sea-level changes from terrestrial to marine. At the Governor Harvey trail outcrop the variation in water depth during deposition can be explored. At the Ft. Riley trail, the variation in water depth, the partial dissolution of limestones by acid rainwater and the formation of silica nodules used as artefacts by Native Americans. The succession at the Whiteside Loop trail stratigraphic unit tells a story about sea-level changes as well as dissolution of limestone and formation of vugs. We anticipate that this information will allow the Fort Riley community to see the fascinating stories written in the rocks and fossils while walking through the nature trails, appreciating the magnitude of an ever-changing world that is intertwined with historical events.