Florida (2019)

Professor Kacey Lohmann and Peter Knoop led a group of 22 graduate and undergraduate students on a 12-day excursion to explore geology from Michigan to Dry Tortugas, Florida. The trip began with outcrop studies of the lower Paleozoic carbonate and shale sequences in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky, providing excellent practice in measuring stratigraphic sections and documenting sedimentary features in the field.

While passing through the Appalachian Valley and Ridge and up into the Smoky Mountains, the geological complexity and structural diversity associated with the Alleghanian orogeny was the primary focus.

In South Carolina and Georgia, Mesozoic and Tertiary Coastal Plain sediments offered a contrast to Paleozoic sequences. The trip concluded with an exploration of active depositional systems in Recent environments, from clastic-dominated beaches to the carbonates of St. Augustine's Anastasia Limestone.

Robert Portell also provided a guided tour through Haille Quarry, showcasing Eocene-aged limestones with abundant shallow marine fossils, and Neogene solution crevasses containing terrestrial vertebrate fossils. In Southern Florida, students examined Miocene phosphate deposits and Pliocene-Pleistocene shallow platform carbonates. In the Florida Keys, snorkeling trips to Key Largo Dry Rocks and Dry Tortugas provided insights into active carbonate deposition in reef environments. The day-long trip through the Keys highlighted diverse limestones, from oolitic to patch reefs.