Field Trip, Finally

The mineralogy class I T.A. for finally got out into the field this weekend.  It wasn't the two-day, fully-loaded, mandatory trip originally planned, but it also wasn't -4 degrees F and snowing either.  We had a good time visiting outcrops in the Butte area with a small group of dedicated students.

Stop 1.  Boulder Batholith.  A lovely biotite granite.  This outcrop was very weathered - the power of rock crumbling at your touch! - note the grus (weathered granite) debris at the base of the outcrop.  Also nice exfoliation and spheroidal weathering.

 Above, left: Granite of the Boulder Batholith.  Above, right: Weathering in the batholith.

Stop 2.  Rader Creek Granodiorite.  An older, slightly more mafic intrusion.

Stop 3.  A skarn associated with the batholith.  Mineralogy includes garnet, calcite, tremolite and epidote, as well as possible apatite and rhodochrosite.

 Above: Skarn minerals (brown is garnet).

Stop 4.  An abandoned railbed passing through the contact between the Boulder Batholith and older Elkhorn Mountain volcanics.  Along one segment the railbed is built on what appears to be mine tailings (no shortage in and around Butte!).  The students enjoyed scrambling along the steep incline looking for nice sulfides - mostly pyrite and bornite.  One sample found also contained a bit of malachite.

Above, left: View of the Tobacco Roots from Stop 4.  Above, middle: sulfidic minerals of the tailings that form this rail crossing weather yellow.

Above, right: Students hunt for sulfide minerals on the steep slope.

Stop 5.  Ringing Rocks is located on BLM land.  Our 15-passenger van did fine on the good dirt road (including the last little bit with rough road and a steep drop off the hill).  The reward is pile of gabbroic boulders (containing lovely little blue labradorite grains) that are perched just-so.  When struck with a hammer, each boulder emits its own ringing note.  It would be fun to get a crowd to play out a short melody.

Above, left: Sign at Ringing Rocks.  Clearly, this formation came together very quickly!  Above, middle: Mineralogy students make noise.

Above, right: View of the Anacondas from atop Ringing Rocks.

Stop 6.  Our adventurous crew headed for a Proterozoic/Archean exposure in the Highland Mountains.  Here we found intermediate-mafic garnet-bearing rocks exhibiting class melt-reaction halos.  Lovely!  We were well-timed for a gorgeous view of sunset on the Tobacco Roots. 

Above: The setting sun glows on the Tobacco Roots, as seen from the Highlands.

The Missoulian, September 27, 2009

The story I find most interesting this week continues to be the local wildfires, particularly the Kootenai Creek wildfire.  The Missoulian had two updates today, here and here.  I had been on a field trip yesterday; when returning along I-90 smoke from the Kootenai Creek fire was obvious in the Bitterroot Valley to the south:

Smoke from the Kootenai Creek fire.  View from I-90 E.  Downtown Missoula is just barely visible above the trees on the left side of the photo.  Stevensville, the town nearest the fire, is a little more than 30 miles from this vantage point.

When I got home I decided to go out and take a few pictures.  I traveled south on Route 93, which follows the Bitterroot Valley.

The view from Lolo, just south of Missoula.

As I got closer to Stevensville, the clear, blue sky was no longer visible.  What appears to be a cloudy or overcast sky is entirely smoke.  The plume of smoke continued from here across the valley to the east.  The mountains on the east side of the valley were either extremely hazy or entirely invisible.

I drove only a couple miles or so beyond this sign.  It was late, I was tired, and I didn't think I needed to see too much more.

I pulled off Route 93 to take this photo (below), and then I headed home.  Again, this fire was sparked by lightning in early July.  I can't imagine being one of the residents dealing with this.  When I stepped out of my car, it smelled like the biggest campfire ever.  Their hair and clothing, their homes, their cars - everything must be invaded by the burning smell.

The horses didn't seem to mind.  This photo was taken just south of Florence, about 3.5 miles north of Stevensville.

Pre-evacuation orders have been given, and some livestock have been moved, but there is no mandatory evacuation now.  As you'll see from the links above, firefighters are optimistic for the cooling weather and a shift in wind direction.

Field Trip to Glacial Lake Missoula

Last weekend (September 12) I enjoyed the first of many weekend geology field trips scheduled for the fall semester.  This field trip was part of the Winston-Thompson symposium, honoring UM Department of Geosciences professors emeriti Don Winston and Gray Thompson.

So, those of you in the know (um...GeoGuppy?) will wonder if I've taken possession of a time machine, as Glacial Lake Missoula no longer exists.  Much like the former Glacial Lake Hitchcock in the Connecticut River Valley or Glacial Lake Cape Cod in Cape Cod Bay, Glacial Lake Missoula was created during the Pleistocene period when the advancing Purcell Lobe of the Cordilleran ice sheet dammed the Clark Fork River (which runs through Missoula) near Pend Oreille, Idaho. The impounded river, as well as some of the melting ice, filled the valleys from Hamilton to Polson.  At its greatest extent, GLM had a depth of 600 meters and occupied a volume of 500 cubic miles!

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/ColumbiaPlateau/summary_columbia_plateau.html

Of course, most of you are probably more familiar with GLM as its waters were the source for the floods that created the channeled scablands of Washington and Oregon.  See Nova's "Mystery of the Megaflood."  Of the many scientific controversies surrounding GLM, the number of "megafloods" produced is probably the greatest.  It is thought that the lake filled and then catastrophically drained multiple times.

So, our field trip was to visit the many landforms and deposits found in the area once occupied by GLM.  Sadly, we are too many hours away from the scablands to have visited those - a different trip, perhaps.  We also did not visit the mega-ripples created as waters catastrophically drained westward, but I understand that they are more spectacular in aerial photographs and maps than from the ground.

What we did visit: diamictite deposits (clay, silt, and gravel) interpreted as glacial till due to the presence of striated boulders, overlain by paleosol (ancient soil), then silts with climbing ripples and layers with syn-sedimentary deformation, and finally laminated layers (interpreted) as varves, with dropstones.  Was that a sentence that made you go, "hmmm....?"  What we saw: the gravelly deposits of an advancing glacier, followed by soils, and then by thin layers of sediment that were deposited in a deep, quiet lake.  Those layers have "dropstones," literally pebbles and cobbles that dropped through the water from icebergs floating in the lake.  We also visited an area of the lower Flathead River thought to be where floodwaters burst through a canyon, depositing rock debris.

Photos: Top, left: The group at an "outcrop" of unconsolidated sediment north of Arlee, Montana.

Top, right: Diamictite overlain by fine sediments; note soft-sediment deformation at elbow level; also climbing ripples; grading up into varves.  Bottom: Striated boulder in diamictite allows for interpretation of glacial till.

The weather was lovely (80+ degrees, clear, blue skies) and there were dozens of happy geologists to share it with.  The field trip was followed by a barbecue at Professor Winston's legendary home along the Jocko River.  As I have summarized for those of you on facebook, we enjoyed: beer, bison burgers, a bonfire, and banjo music.  It was great company, a beautiful, warm night, and good music (the banjoist was accompanied by guitars, bongos, flute, and cello!).

Photos: Left: The Lower Flathead River as it flows away from the Kerr Dam, south of Flathead Lake.

Middle: Dropstones in varves.  Right: Geologic hoe-down around a campfire.

The next field trip: A geomorphology class data collection trip to the Mattie V Creek.

Sunday Missoulian - September 20, 2009

The Missoulian is the primary local newspaper (although I dare say it is smaller than the Cape Cod Times).  I've been reading it every Sunday to get a better feel for my new community.  I've found that land resources issues are very important in Montana - timber production, grizzly habitat, open space, and big game hunting (wolf season is now open in Idaho and parts of Montana).  My favorite section of the Sunday Paper, "Territory," focuses on life in Montana.  In any case, I thought I would share an occasional story from paper to give you a better sense of the area too.

• "Recruiting on the Rez," Chelsi Moy, September 20, 2009.  There is a lot of concern for American Indian students at UM, as they often have difficulty acclimating, and have lower retention and graduation rates.
• The Kootenai Creek wildfire, Betsy Cohen, September 2009.  It is no wonder the sky turned a dark, cloudy brown when a cold front moved through Missoula yesterday.  Stevensville is just 30 miles southwest of Missoula.  I may be studying rocks from the Bass Creek area (after the fires are out).
  

One more week...

...until classes start! The semester technically begins tomorrow (August 25), but the first day of class is Monday, August 31. Honestly, I'm ready to get started. I'm signed up for 11 credits (9 to stay full time): Fluid Dynamics for Geosciences (3 cred.), Tectonics Seminar (3 cred.), Process Geomorphology (4 cred.), and Geosciences Colloquium (1 cred.).

The first two courses are courses that apply to my interests. Fluid dynamics relates to the convection of the mantle and flow of rocks, as well as to streamflow. The tectonics seminar will be a study of the classic papers in tectonics. Process geomorph (surface processes) is not my thing at all, but course selection is slim pickings here, and I needed a course to stay full time. This was the most interesting of the choices, and may actually have some relation to my studies of the unroofing of deeper metamorphic rocks. Finally, there is the colloquium, which is essentially a department seminar, and I might as well get credit for going!

My three courses meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, making for two very busy days. In addition, I will be TA-ing a course taught by my advisor called "Rocks, Minerals & Resources," which is essentially mineralogy. The course is required for geology majors. There will be approximately 30 students taking the course, which meets three times a week (MWF) plus Wednesday afternoon for labs. I will be attending the labs, as well as most course meetings, and holding office hours. There are 30-ish students taking the course this semester, so there will be two lab sections to accommodate everyone. Approximately 30 students took the course last semester as well, which gives you an idea of the number of majors coming through the department.

In addition to my studies and TA duties, my advisor and I have begun to discuss preliminary research for the semester. She's looking at submitting a proposal in January, which would best be submitted with data to show what we're planning to do. This means I'll start looking at the available rocks and data, and will likely be collecting more samples to start processing.

Did I say I was ready for the semester to start?

Have Cats, Will Travel

So, I wanted to let you all know how Joey and Addie survived the trip west. Turns out that they are fantastic travelers! Fortunately, with all of the trips between Bedford and the Cape, the cats were already acclimated to travel. Typically, they would snuggle together in their carrier, while Addie would sometimes cry and talk to me.

All of the advice I read was to avoid medicating cats for car travel, unless they absolutely freak out. Instead, I read a lot of recommendations for Feliway, a product that mimics the pheromones released by cats when they are rubbing their whiskers against everything. Apparently this pheromone is calming. Feliway is expensive, so I purchased a similar product (No-Stress from Pet Organics) at PetCo. I wasn't going to tranquilize or sedate my guys, but I wanted to have something just in case.

I also didn't like the idea of them traveling in a small pet carrier for six days straight. They needed something that was more spacious, something that would allow them to stretch out, stand up and change positions. I picked up a small dog crate for the purpose. About a week before leaving, I had done some laundry and failed to put away a blanket. The cats took to sleeping on this blanket right away, making it perfect to line the bottom of the crate - something comfortable that smells like home.

Thanks to my mom's insistence, I also picked up harnesses and leashes for both cats. They wore the harnesses a few hours at a time at home so that they would get used to them, and then they wore them 24/7 on the trip. The harnesses meant that if I needed to open the crate during the day, I had a way of securing the cats - wouldn't want them jumping out of a car at a rest stop in Iowa! The harnesses were also very useful when we arrived at our nightly hotel.

All of the hotels we stayed at were pet-friendly. There is a lot of information about pet-friendly hotels online. For simplicity, I went with the Choice Hotels group (Sleep Inn, EconoLodge, etc.). Not all locations were pet friendly, and the requirements varied: $10 per night; $10 per night per pet; $5 per night per pet; etc. In all, it was fairly reasonable. Except for the low-end motels (Rodeway Inn), we found that all accomodations were clean and friendly. As the pet owner, it is your job to provide food, litter box, etc., but that wasn't a problem for us. Most rooms we stayed in were either drive-up or otherwise on the first floor, making un/loading all of the supplies pretty easy.

So, we started the trip with the cats in their crate, which was secured with a short bungee cord in the backseat of my car. They had their blanket, which I sprayed lightly with the pheromone spray before we left (just in case). My sister (who had first duty in the car) reported they talked a good bit, but settled down once we hit the highway. It turns out that they just snuggled in and slept whenever we were driving - which was a lot! Most days involved at least 10 hours in the car!

Joey and Addie get used to their new accommodations.

When we arrived at our motel each night, we would unload everything, and then take the crate, with cats, into the room. I was very nervous about how the cats would do in the motels. I was worried about cleanliness (or that they might have accidents) and about whether they would get stuck under a bed or in another small space. When I took them out of their crate, I would make sure they saw the water, food, and litter, and then we'd attach leashes to their harnesses and let them explore. We kept an eye on them, and the leashes meant that we could retrieve them if they disappeared somewhere. Typically, after about 5 minutes, I would take the leashes off and let them get comfortable. They disappeared a couple of times (under a bed, behind a dresser), but it was never really a problem. For the most part, they were pretty wiped out at night (despite sleeping all day), and enjoyed taking turns sleeping with (or on) each of us.

In all, Addie & Joey were well-behaved and very impressive. And these lucky cats got to visit many of our country's best landmarks:

Addie & Joey at Niagara Falls.

Joey & Addie picnic near the Mississippi River.

Addie & Joey enjoy a South Dakota rest stop.

Joey & Addie relax during sunset at Badlands National Park.

Addie anticipates Devils Tower.

Addie & Joey at Devils Tower at last!

Joey & Addie come home to Missoula - free at last!

Looks like they had fun, doesn't it? In any case, once we arrived in Missoula it took them about a week to really start to feel comfortable and at home. The first morning we woke up, I think they thought they were going to have to get back in the crate! They're pretty satisfied here now. We're putting the window perch from our Bedford neighbor to good use now. We can watch the pigeons roosting (they're fed by my neighbor), or just relax in the sunny southern exposure. We have a great view of the "M" on Mount Sentinel from our windows as well (more on the M in a later post). Joey knows which drawer holds the cat food, and Addie is back to playing fetch - back to normal! We have also kicked into major snuggle mode, as the weather here has been rainy and cool (40s overnight!). Now that they're happy, I'm happy!

More of Montana (Part 2)

On my final day with my family in Montana, we decided to head north on Route 93 toward Flathead Lake, which I had been told is a very popular day trip. We realized that we would pass the National Bison Range, and we had read in the Sunday Missoulian about an open house at the Flathead Lake Biological Station (University of Montana). Our day was planned.

Not long after leaving Missoula, we entered the Flathead Indian Reservation, which is enormous. This reservation is home to the Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreilles tribes. "Flathead" is an unfortunate nickname, given by L&C before they had even met a single tribe member because of rumors of these peoples' practices and appearances. The National Bison Range is within the Reservation, as is much of Flathead Lake, the largest natural lake in the western United States.

The NBR was established as citizens became concerned for the rapidly vanishing bison. For a small ($5.00) fee, you can drive through the range on a 23-mile, one-way, dirt road. It is more than worth the fee! Signs instructed us to allow an hour for the drive, but we spent over two and a half hours! We were amazed at the people who drove through at the speed limit and spent little time watching the bison and enjoying the view. You could easily spend the day there, and I would happily make the drive back just to visit. The range is divided into many sections, and the bison herd (350-500 strong) is grazed in different sections throughout the year. The range is also home to deer, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, elk, and bighorn sheep.

I'm sure I cannot adequately capture the size and beauty of this area. As we drove in, we were awed by the climb up into the hills and our view of the Flathead River and surrounding mountains. We drove for some way without any sighting of bison or other creatures. We really had no idea what to expect; we thought we'd be lucky to glimpse the bison grazing. Our first sightings, in fact, were what we expected; views of bison on hills, grazing in smaller groups. Actually, I thought there would be one large herd. We took many photos, craning our heads for better views out the car windows (Bison are known to be fierce and agressive, especially during breeding season - now - and we were warned to stay near our cars, if we exited them at all). As we followed the road uphill on its many switchbacks, we found ourselves drawing nearer a herd. We watched the lead male scout out a path into the trees, the rest of the herd following at a distance. Just when we thought we'd lost them, we turned the next switchback and found ourselves looking right at the lead male (through a barrier fence). Soon the herd followed, and we could hear them snorting, grunting, and munching their way through the grass. Several young bison (light brown, and not more than 5 or 6 months old) were with the herd. While most grazed and were a little more independent, one young bison kept at its mother to nurse.

We were thrilled! It was more than we expected. And then we started up the next switchback. Ahead on the right was an enormous male bison in a dusty wallow at the edge of the road. No fence. You could tell that he was mature, mellow, and possibly used to gawking tourists. He certainly seemed to know how to put on a show. He watched us, and then flopped over, rolled in the wallow, and stood up, posing all the while. After we left him, he seemed to repeat the show for the cars behind us. Amazing!

I won't continue with the play-by-play of our time on the range, but we did enjoy it. We got out to walk on the quarter-mile Bitterroot trail. Little did we know a bison was just over the hill from where we walked - until we continued our drive! We also stopped at the "geologic display," a set of signs overlooking the valley and a view of the Mission Mountains (snow included). The signs described the end of the last ice age and how Glacial Lake Missoula filled the valley and then drained catastrophically multiple times. As we reached the highest point within the NBR and started back down nearly 10% grades, we passed the sign for the highest surface elevation of the once great lake. As I mentioned, there are many other large mammals found within the park. We did see pronghorn antelope, but nothing else.

After leaving the NBR, we continued north to Flathead Lake. We got to the Biological Station just before the open house ended (didn't expect to spend so much time with the bison). Still, we got to tour the building, look at the furs of many animal species (e.g. grizzly, wolverine, both imported from the Kamchatka Peninsula - they're rare or endangered here!), study the small and microscopic lake creatures, and read about another freak windstorm that destroyed much of the forest around the station. In this case, winds of a strong storm were funneled through a valley in such a way that the trees were pummeled in this location, but nowhere else. The station has a section of a tree trunk. By counting the rings, they've identified major historic events, right back to when the tree formed, more than 350 years ago. By the time we left the biological station it was 5:00 p.m., and we were all pretty tired. But not too tired to stop at a local farmstand and buy a bag of Flathead Cherries (var. Rainier). Flathead Cherries - any cherries grown in this region - are outstanding, and well worth the price!

After a great day of touring the area, we headed back to Missoula to pack up my mom and sister and prepare for the 4:30 a.m. wake up call to head to the airport. All I can say: that day sucked.