To this end, we give you instruction on the regional geology of Wyoming and follow this with a 4-day camping trip through northwestern Wyoming and adjacent parts of Idaho and Montana. On this trip we see some of the classic geologic features of Wyoming and explore the great variety of tectonic styles and rock types present in northwestern Wyoming. You start to learn the local stratigraphy and how to identify the formation units you will encounter in several of the mapping exercises. Next, we study sedimentary rocks in Mesozoic and Tertiary clastic strata and in Paleozoic carbonate strata. We instruct you in the methods of facies analysis, and you apply these methods by recording bed shapes, sedimentary structures, textures, and mineralogy of the formations to identify environments of deposition.
Students turn in graphic logs of the stratigraphic units and short written reports.
Our projects in structural geology are done in three different areas that are gradational in their complexity of folding, faulting and tectonic history. You map in the field on enlarged topographic maps and, in some cases, aerial photographs. Final maps are compiled on topographic bases. You can expect to draw several cross sections as a means of interpreting the geology that you map. The intent of our projects in structural geology is to teach you how to make geological maps, and how to interpret them as historical records and as three-dimensional portrayals of earth structure.