A Great (and Inexpensive) Opportunity to tour some of California's Most Incredible Geology: Far Western Section NAGT Fall Conference, Oct. 8-10

The Far Western Section of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers would like to extend an invitation to all geologists, teachers, and students who are interested in the geology of California. We are having our Fall Conference at CSU Fresno on October 8-10, and will be offering a wide ranging roster of field trips to Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park, Yosemite National Park, the Sierra Nevada foothills, Carrizo Plains National Monument, the Diablo Range of the Coast Ranges, and a look at the brand new Madera Fossil Discovery Center and the excavations of Ice Age faunas at the Fairmead Landfill. We will also have a vast array of California and Nevada geology field guides and other resources available for sale. You do not need to be a member of the NAGT to participate.

Special discounts are offered to students, and costs are low for this kind of opportunity. Information and registration forms can be accessed on the Far Western Section website. For questions and more information, please contact conference coordinator Paul Troop.

Cross-posted from Teaching the Earth Sciences.

A GREAT Opportunity to see some of the best of California's Geology

If you ever wanted to get out and see some of the great geological sites in California, and wished you had a knowledgeable guide and mentor to explain what you are seeing, check out this wonderful opportunity coming up on October 8-10, 2010: The Field Conference of the Far Western Section of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, sponsored by California State University, Fresno. You don't have to be a teacher or a member to attend, and students of the earth sciences are especially encouraged to join us. Here are some of the field trips that are lined up:

Saturday Field Trips:

Topographic Evolution of the Kings River Canyon: Fluvial, glacial and Hillslope Erosion in Response to Late Cenozoic Uplift and Climate Change (Greg Stock, Park Geologist, Yosemite National Park)

Coeval mafic-felsic magmatism in the intrusive suite of Yosemite Valley (Kent Ratajeski, University of Kentucky)

Emplacement of oceanic lithosphere into the western Sierra Nevada and its welding into continental basement by batholithic emplacement (Jason and Zorka Saleeby, Cal Tech)

Growth and internal evolution of Jurassic and Cretaceous magmatic plumbing systems: an examination of the tilted Jurassic Guadalupe Igneous Complex and comparison to the Cretaceous Tuolumne Batholith (Scott Patterson, USC, and Keith Putirka, CSU Fresno)

Southern Diablo Range geology: Recorder of past subduction and current active tectonics (John Wakabayashi, CSU Fresno)

Sunday Field Trips:

Anomalous subsidence and uplift along the southwestern Sierra Nevada in relation to underlying mantle dynamics (Jason and Zorka Saleeby, Cal Tech)

Ice Age (Middle Pleistocene) Fossils at the Fairmead Landfill, a Visit to the Madera County Fossil Discovery Center (Bob Dundas, CSU Fresno)

Geology and Natural History of the McKenzie Table Mountain Preserve (Craig Poole, Fresno City College, and Chris Pluhar, CSU Fresno)

Friday and Saturday Trip:

The San Andreas fault in Central California (Ramon Arrowsmith, Arizona State University)

Presenters:

Friday Evening:

Chris Pluhar (CSU Fresno), Table Mountains and Tectonics, What Canyon-Filling Lavas of the sierra Nevada Reveal About Miocene California

Saturday Evening:

Jason Saleeby (Cal Tech), Sierra Nevada Geology from the 225 km Mantle Seismic Discontinuity to Mt. Whitney Summit Elevations

Check out the Far West Section NAGT Website, the Far West Section blog, or contact Paul Troop for more details (registration information will be posted soon). Meetings of the Far West Section are economical ways to see a lot of California, Nevada and Hawai, usually less than $150, and lodging in the Fresno area is economical. Our invitation extends to anyone who is interested in learning more about California geology. These conferences are wonderful ways to get familiar with the geology of a fascinating region, the western coast of the United States.

(Cross-posted at Teaching the Earth Sciences)

The Other California: The Prairies of the Past

Photo from the San Joaquin Valley Paleontology Foundation

A colleague of mine in an earlier phase of my life at Santa Barbara City College was fond of saying to field trippers that "I wouldn't take you JUST anywhere!" And a great Peanuts cartoon talked about a field trip the kids went on, and how they went and saw...a field. And that's what we have today: not just anyplace, and it is ... a field. And not just a field, it's a real dump. Well, ok, more like a municipal solid waste landfill.

My home, the Great Valley geomorphic province, is, well, a field. A really BIG field, about 400 miles long, and roughly 50 miles wide. It ranges from sea level to at most a few hundred feet above sea level, and it is exceedingly flat. I wasn't too thrilled when I first moved here; we geologists like to have some kind of topography in sight. Little remains of the original landscape, maybe 5%; most has been altered by agriculture and urban development. I discussed some of the remaining grasslands in the original post of this series.

When Europeans first came upon the valley in the 1700's, they found a prairie/ savannah environment with tule elk, deer, pronghorn antelopes, wolves, coyotes, and grizzly bears. It could actually be dangerous to be out and about without weaponry. Today the big danger is to avoid getting run over by a tractor/combine on the isolated country roads.

I always tell my students that the geological story of your home is fascinating, no matter where you live. I was challenged to make our Great Valley interesting, but just like people, the most interesting aspect is inside, beneath the surface.

In 1993, Madera county was excavating a landfill at Fairmead (about 20 miles northwest of Madera) when the big shovels uncovered bone fragments at a depth of 40 or so feet beneath the surface. Because of state regulations, a paleontologist was called in, and an intriguing story unfolded. During the ice ages around 500,000-700,000 years ago, this landscape was cooler, with a more humid climate, and shallow rivers coursed across the grasslands. And a host of wonderful and strange animals lived out their lives here. In the last 17 years, some 14,000 bones, representing 37 species have been found at the site. Numerous horse and camel species, pronghorn, giant ground sloths (three species),and Columbian mammoths are included among the plant-eaters. The carnivores include coyotes, wolves, sabertooth cats, and the hulking short-faced bear. A wide variety of smaller rodents, fish, amphibians, and reptiles rounded out the ecosystem. It turned out to be the one of the most important Irvingtonian aged fossil assemblages to be found anywhere in California.

So what is a dump operator to do? Apparently, the right thing! A foundation has been established, the San Joaquin Valley Paleontology Foundation, and construction has begun on a Fossil Discovery Center at the landfill site that will serve as an education/research facility housing many of the specimens (most are currently at Berkeley and CSU Fresno). Science education opportunities are sorely lacking in the Great Valley, and this center will be a wonderful addition to the few resources that are currently available.

So, the next time you happen to pass through Madera or Fresno (presumably on your way to someplace else), check on the progress of the Fairmead Fossil Discovery Center. It's a unique part of the geological landscape of California.

Note: I haven't been there yet. All the photos are from the website for the San Joaquin Valley Paleontology Foundation and other online sources (credited below).

Camel bones at the Fairmead Landfill, photo from the California Integrated Waste Management Board

Painting by David Douglas for the San Joaquin Valley Paleontology Foundation

Resources:

Geology and stratigraphy information about the site: http://dundaspaleolab.com/index-4.html

Preliminary 1996 report on the site

San Joaquin Valley Paleontology Foundation