2024 marked a few big changes for the Penn State Geosciences Field Camp. As part of a transition to make Field Camp more accessible for students, the capstone course was split into two sections: a two-credit class in the spring semester focused on field methods, data analysis, and geologic mapping using GIS; and a four-week trip to the intermountain west in summer 2024. Thirty-four students flew into Salt Lake City, and then took a road trip through the spectacular geology of Wyoming, Montana, and Utah.
Associate Research Professor Erin DiMaggio led the first exercise out of the Yellowstone Bighorn Research Association in Red Lodge, Montana, where students investigated the late Cretaceous sedimentology and stratigraphy of Elk Basin. Next, the group stayed at Colter Bay campground in Grand Teton National Park, studying the Quaternary history of Jackson Hole, Wyoming with Associate Professor Roman DiBiase.
Assistant Professor Max Lloyd and Professor Kevin Furlong then led the students through exercises based out of Alta, Utah. The group braved a heat wave to look at rocks associated with the Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth at Antelope Island; set up a makeshift garage lab to analyze water samples collected from the Great Salt Lake and streams draining the Wasatch Mountains; and analyzed the Sevier and Neogene deformation expressed in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
Postdoctoral scholar Leila Joyce Seals joined for a second year to implement a contextual co-curriculum focused on engaging landscapes and field sites in the context of modern histories, including visits to Fossil Butte National Monument and the Wind River Reservation.
The graduate teaching assistants for this course, Charlotte Connop, Sarah Jonathan, Young Kim, and Leonie Strobl, were key to its success both in terms of education and logistics—including a heroic campground grilling effort!