Field Seminar in Geology and Tectonics

GEOL 4717/5717

2 credits, Spring 2023, Organizational meeting: TBA, for what class meetings there are during the term, but most of the class will be a week long field trip over spring break (3/23-4/1 2023 CORRECTED). If you cannot make that trip, you cannot take this class. The trip is a lengthy van trip (so lots of driving) over a lot of geology with occasional short hikes. The exact dates will be confirmed at the organizational meeting at the beginning of the term, as will the few meetings we have prior to the trip.

Instructor: Craig Jones, BESC 440C, cjones@colorado.edu

The western U.S. has had a varied and complex geologic history providing considerable insight into tectonic processes important in earth history. The core of this class is a trip to visit many important sites where these processes are visible. Each student will present mini-seminars on the outcrop for a couple of sites. Students will pick these topics from a list to be provided. A set of references to get started will also be provided. After lectures on the regional geology and doing library research, students will research their topics and assemble the material needed for their field presentation. A couple of class meetings will precede the trip to establish logistics and go over the field presentations.

The first meeting will confirm the exact dates for the trip and the costs to students. Costs will include food and lodging in a motel halfway through the trip. Attendance at the first meeting is required to have any input on these decisions.

Prerequisites: GEOL 2001 or GEOL 2700 and one of: GEOL 3120, 3320, 3430 or 4241. GEOL 2700 is strongly recommended.

Some of the possible sites/topics to be visited and discussed include:

  • Highly-extended terranes (metamorphic core complexes), southern Arizona
  • Ocean floor? rocks of the Paleozoic Antler Orogeny
  • Active faulting and volcanism in Owens Valley
  • Deformation shear bands in Capitol Reef National Park
  • Mesozoic thin-skinnned thrust faults near Las Vegas
  • Rio Grande Rift normal faulting
  • Strike-slip and normal faulting in Death Valley region
  • Amargosa Chaos (tectonic thinning of sedimentary sequence)
  • Late Proterozoic tectonism (Kingston Range)
  • Tertiary drainage reversals on the southwest margin of the Colorado Plateau
  • Monoclines on the Colorado Plateau
  • Cenozoic erosion of the Colorado Plateau and Rockies
  • Cenozoic volcanism and its significance (several localities)
  • Samples of the mantle and their significance
  • Significance of stratigraphic units in late Paleozoic, late Mesozoic
  • Geothermal resources at Coso and its tectonic environment
  • Geologic markers of large-magnitude Cenozoic extension

Map of the southwestern U.S. with the approximate 2013 (blue line) and 2015 (green line) routes. Click on the map for a bigger version

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Please send mail to cjones@colorado.edu if you encounter any problems or have suggestions.

C. H. Jones | CIRES | Dept. of Geological Sciences | Univ. of Colorado at Boulder

Last modified at January 16, 2023 10:48 AM