Departmental Field Trip To The Mojave Desert And Death Valley
Spring Break, 2003

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Photos by Tim Vick, Katja Meyer '02, Leah Morgan '04, Amalia Doebbert '03 and Cam Davidson

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We started the trip at the Desert Studies Field Station at the former resort known as ZZYZX, just inside the boundary of the Mojave National Preserve. Needless to say it was pretty cushy, although when we arrived it was raining and the weather was cold and nasty. After a couple of days it dried up and the sun came out and it looked like this.

Mary kicked it off by giving an introduction to the general geology of the area and distributing maps and articles.

Since the weather was not nice we rearranged the schedule and went to Mitchell Caverns on the first field day. Going over Granite Pass we ran into snow! In southern California! In March! Hey, we thought we left the snow back in Northfield...

But anyway Mitchell Caverns was fun and interesting. Here are some stalagmites.

When we came out of the cave the storm was still hanging around the mountains. This (above) is what it looked like later as we drove down the valley. Up in the cloud layer it was cold and windy (below).





Next day we headed off to Silver Lake Playa near Baker, California, to study the alluvial fans under Mary's direction.




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