Southwest USA (2022)

Professors Nathan Niemi and Kacey Lohmann led a student field trip to the southwestern US in May 2022, with stops at several national parks renowned for geology, including Death Valley National Park, Zion National Park, and Grand Canyon National Park, with many stops in between. Students explored the stratigraphic record of California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona and the geologic events that it preserves, from passive margin sedimentation in the Paleozoic through Triassic continental environments, into late Mesozoic uplift and exhumation of the Sevier orogenic belt.  A hike into the Grand Canyon, from the South Rim to Plateau Point and back, was a trip highlight, although few students complained about having to stay in hotels one night on the Las Vegas strip to take shelter from a raging sand storm.