Field Camp Week 5

The Beaver Dam Mountains: Good for Nothing is Good for Me

Field Camp Week 4

Diamond Fork Canyon: A great place to herd cattle

By Kirk Schleiffarth

Field Camp Week 3

This week we went to Capitol Reef National Park located in south central Utah. The park is pretty awesome. Our group stayed in the park field station which is run completely on solar power. The facility was really nice, simple, and clean. We were instructed to limit our use of energy, water and trash. It was refreshing to live so simply and comfortably in an essentially impact-free facility. I feel motivated to live more simply and get over the American or generational mindset that I can't make a difference.

The geology of the park was a lot of fun to study. My group of 3 was assigned a certain formation in the Triassic period and we spent 3 days finding exposed beds, analyzing, and measuring the entire unit, which represented over 100 million years of deposition. Based on the composition of the rock and sedimentary features we could interpret the environment and climate of the past.....Anyways, I think it's sweet.

Field Camp Week 2

We went to Yellowstone this week.

It was practically vacation.

Field Camp Week 1

Field Camp is what I like to call geology camp. We spend each week of 6 in various areas around the intermountain west studying different geologic subjects. This past week we studied the ground water system surrounding Pilot Valley out near the Utah/Nevada border. We learned how to analyze groundwater systems, drill our own wells, use geophysical techniques to decipher the water table depth, etc. Next week we will be focusing on geothermal systems in Yellowstone.