My Work at Wasatch-Uinta Field Camp
My group determined which of four factors (slope, relief, geology, precipitation) was the primary factor that actively contributed to Seattle landslides the most often. We used ArcGIS, along with DEM, precipitation, geology, and satellite imagery data and a frequency ratio equation to conclude that relief played the greatest role in causing landslides. While I collected the data and made the GIS operations with my group, we were each responsible for our own analysis of the data and the report itself.
​
To summarize my findings: relief was the most important factor for Seattle landslides, and there was a difference in frequency ratio (Fr) values between younger landslides on coastlines and older landslides located more inland. The main difference in the Fr values lay in the fact that the older landslides had a lower Fr value for all four factors, while the younger landslides along the coast had much larger Fr values. This indicated that there was a stronger relationship between the factors for landslides and the younger landslides than existed between the landslide factors and the older landslides. This can likely be explained by erosion of the older landslides.
The Elk Basin, WY project was based off of Google Earth imagery. Our group mapped what it saw with regard to that imagery. We had to identify rock units, faults, and other significant features. We also calculated strike and dip from the imagery.
​
Our group learned that this was an anticline, as can be seen from the cross-section to the left, and human activities, such as oil derricks, could be seen from Google Earth. Given that anticlines can provide a trap for oil and gas and given the apparent amount of carbon in the Cody Shale of the Niobrara-Carlisle (considering the darker, grey color), this is not surprising.
The Sage Hen Flats project used confidence rankings for data for two different geologic maps of the same area - I was tasked to give different features of each map a confidence ranking, and then construct a geologic map which would act as a happy compromise between the two different interpretations.
The Bells Canyon project entailed the acts of deriving hillshade and other layers from the DEM data and then identifying and labeling the Quaternary units. Our group discovered that this area was heavily glaciated, and that there are several different kinds of moraines located at Bells Canyon, including a terminal moraine which has a characteristic arc shape.
As our group mapped Jebel Madar from satellite imagery and calculated strike and dip of units from the imagery, we found out that this was a dome that had eroded.
Lighthouse Bay was a project which entailed the mapping of multiple field stops. We discovered that the A-A' cross-section was a syncline, and that the rocks that were folded in this area included sandstones and limestones.
Cagles Mill Spillway turned out to be a floodplain deposit overlain by a lower-point bar, which turned into an upper-point bar. In other words, this was at first a floodplain which turned into a river with a cutoff to the west, which began the formation of an oxbow lake as evidenced by the thin layer of coal and darker, finer sediments that were formed in anoxic conditions.
This is the geologic history of the Kepler Region of the Moon as well as a cross-section of the Kepler Region, as we used a geologic map and an overview of the entire geologic history of the Moon.
My Students' Work and Work for Students
Science Explorations was a course for high school students which I designed for students who needed an extra science credit, but would not be able to complete work in higher-leveled courses.
​
Courses were separated by the ideas of "water," "disease/ecology," "electricity," and "planets/stars."
​
Students were encouraged to demonstrate their learning through a model - many students chose to make cakes to model concepts they had learned over the course of a unit.
​
I have also shared some lessons in ArcGIS for students in this class. This built on the trip we took to the wetlands just outside the school to test the water for sulfates, phosphates, and biodiversity. The second ArcGIS lesson concerns frac sand mining out in western Wisconsin. To conclude this unit, we took a trip to Opelt Sand and Gravel to find out more about the mining industry and steps they take to mitigate and prevent environmental damage.
​
If you would like to see more examples of student work, as well as the blog, please look here.
This lesson was included as part of a science course intended for middle school students at EEA Learning Academy. Students had previously gone to a local cemetery to do a death population anaylsis, and our teaching team decided it would be a good idea to include some Earth Science in the idea of death population analyses with the mammoths at Hot Springs, SD.
Students figured out pretty quickly that most of our "mammoths" in our sinkhole (read: sticky notes in our classroom) were young males. Using background information of the mammoths' closest living relative, the elephant, the students came to the conclusion that scientists examining the Hot Springs sinkhole did: the young males were isolated in bachelor pods or by themselves, as they were banished from the very young and female herds.
​
This lesson included a discussion on attempts to clone mammoths, and a discussion as to cloning and its ethical considerations.
My Extracurricular Work
This field notebook was started in July 2020 as we examined the KT layer in North Dakota and structural geology at Glacier National Park in Montana. My notes were abbreviated because we had time constraints given the nature of my traveling companions.
Work Completed at UW-SP
