Friday, October 23, 2009

Now what should I do for my finals paper?

I’m in the beginning stages of putting together my final in Geol 102. I have a few ideas in mind. One is an angular up lift that I found on the S.E side of NF 90 about 4 miles short of Lower Falls in the St. Helens area. This will require a lot of ground work on my part, as I cannot find any data pertaining to this. I believe it to be well weathered and eroded Basalt, so maybe I can get some help on the dating to start out. What you see is only about 20 ft.of the right side. The fractures level out and become nonexistent on left as it continues for another 50 or 60 ft.




The other is of mass wasting. A huge landslide I found about 15 miles south of St. Helens on NF 54. It involved the entire side of the mountain. I should be able to obtain some data from USFS on the slide. That should help.



The above picture is taken from the river bed looking up.


A view from top. You can't even see the trees in the 1st picture.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Well here we go, my first post. I have spent the last 3 days at the GSA meeting in Portland, OR. just across the river from me. Before it even began I had the chance to spend an evening with Callan Bentley from NOVA and Dr. Erik Klemetti  and his wife from Denison University along with 2 other friends of Callan's. I recommend both Callan and Erik's blogs to any Geology student. We spent the evening at the Deschutes Brewery Portland Pub drinking Obsidian Stouts. It was a great way to start things off for me.

Sunday was the real start for most students. We had a 7am breakfast with the GSA President Jean M. Bahr. After the breakfast she spent time talking with me. She got a kick out of the fact I thought it was from pitty as I am the oldest undergrad in the country im sure. From there I spent time looking at several presentations by alot of well and far more educated people than I. By chance I ran into Erik later that morning and thanked him for putting up with a very nervous but very lucky 1st year Geology major. I had the chance to listen to some of the best in the field at some of the days programs and cut it short, hey I got up at 4:15. Thats like yesterday isn't it?

Monday I thought couldn't get any better. Well guess what? I have several options for this summer. This goes to show you, it's not how much you know(but that helps) it's who. Make good contacts and you can add to an undergrad resume pretty fast. I would have to say I am moving towards the field work with NOVA and USGA undergrad job at CVO. Now to get the 2 worked out so I can do both.

Today (Tuesday) I only had time to get into Portland visit my last booth I missed yesterday. The GSA Planitary Geology division. I stood yesterday after they had left and looked at the posters of the Mars surface for prob. well over 1/2 hr. and well they had 5 more still I didn't get to spend much time on. So I went back.Man I hope I win the raffel for 1 of the meteorites. I don't have any. I had to get going as math class was about an hour away. Sadly I went back to Clark, but with a much renewed since of well being. GSA is a great and being a member is well worth how much it cost. I recomend it to any Geology student as you can make unbelivable contacts and long lasting friends.