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Field trips from Hawaii to the Grand Canyon
Geology provides many opportunities for students to observe and study in the field.
This begins for first-year students with GEOL105: Introductory Physical Geology in the Rocky Mountains. It is a 3-credit lab science course that takes place in August in the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming.
The department also offers three major field trips each year to places of geologic interest. Winter and spring break trips usually venture to some place distant, exotic, and warmer than Illinois. Field trips provide a great way to learn geology, enjoy nature and make new friends around the campfire.
Departmental field trips
Every year the department takes students to the Geological Society of America North Central meeting and the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in Arizona. In addition past trips have included:
2019 Spring break geology of Death Valley, Calif.
2018 Spring break backpacking the Grand Canyon
2017 Tri-State Geological Field Trip, Wisconsin
2017 Spring break geology of Hawaii
2016 Spring break geology of Death Valley, California
2015 Spring break backpacking the Grand Canyon
2014 Spring break geology of Hawaii
2013 Spring break geology of Death Valley, Calif.
2013 Spring break geology of South Eastern Missouri
2012 Spring break backpacking in the Grand Canyon
2011 Spring break geology of Hawaii
2010 May in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado
2009 Winter break in the Florida Keys
Dr. Mike Wolf's mineralogy class traveled to Arizona to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in February 2019. It is the largest gem, mineral and fossil exhibition in the world. Here the group is against a wall of 180-million-year-old crinoid sea creatures. (Even though crinoids are nick-named "sea lilies," they are marine animals, not plants.)
How low can you go? In this case, about 270 feet below sea level! The geology department spent spring break 2019 studying the rocks of Death Valley, California! (Photo by Matthew Harrington '19).
