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.

V-Neck Cave

So yesterday my buddy Billie (fellow geologist) and I traveled up to a cave. The cave is about thirty minutes up Little Rock Canyon, the canyon south of Slate Canyon. It's not a popular canyon and the cave is only a small v-shaped crack, barely big enough to slide through. I therefore name the canyon, V-Neck Cave. When I see a male wearing a v-neck t-shirt, I feel a little bit uncomfortable, especially the deep ones. This cave made me feel uncomfortable, because it was deep, dark and narrow. We went a good 100 meters deep and it required all sorts of crawling, maneuvering, and climbing and a head lamp.

Who is the White Bible?

A few matters of business:

• My blog will now be focusing on my travels, whether they be to a foreign land or to my imagination.
• The White Bible is me. This was my "rapper" name in high school. I put quotations on rapper because I do not rap with style, but I rap nonetheless. The name was given to me by my friends, because I was white and religious.

This is why I am a geologist

Geologic Map of Middle Earth
Just in case you wanted to know.....

1. Frodo cast the ring into a rift zone basaltic volcano.
2. Gandalf fell to his apparent death within an ancient subduction zone granitic batholith.
3. The Shire is located on an ancient pelitic metamorphic continental craton.

Otter

Yesterday I went on a field trip. Yes, a field trip. I saw an otter amongst the rocks. I love otters. I also love rocks.

Poet Schleiffarth

The Giants Lair

The ever-looming presence of a giant

Looking down from above

I feel the penetrating gaze

The view I only dream of

As I approach the mysterious wonder

Something blocks my view

The fortress is hidden deep within

Anxiety was due

The castle walls are steep and green

Rising to the clouds

Rivers flow from the heights

The pristine source it shrouds

Ascending slowly in the mist

I was almost there

The sun broke through, the view was true

In the giants lair

2010

It is 2010. If this is the future, where are the flying cars? and hover boots? I thought the future was supposed to be better. The performance of Lady Gaga and Green Day on the NBC New Years Eve show confirmed that the future is very much worse. At least I don't have a neighbor named Biff.