UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA
SUMMER GEOLOGY FIELD COURSE
May 14-June 12, 2007
Students from the Montana summer field course operate a laser total station surveyor with the Snowcrest Mountains in the background.
OVERVIEW OF THIS SITE AND HOT LINKS:
What is this course?
Why southwestern Montana?
SW Montana recreation; what to do in your spare time…
How does our field course operate?
Examples of geologic mapping problems
Bedrock geology mappingWhat are the details for this year’s course?
Quaternary geology/Neotectonics
Digital mapping techniques
Here’s a list of gear we recommend you bringWhat is this course?
Suggested prerequisites for the summer field course
Course Schedule for 2007
Tuition and Fees
How to apply to our course
U. Montana field course staff
The University of Montana offers a comprehensive 6-credit Field Geology Course in geologically spectacular western Montana. The 4 1/2-week long course will base out of the Dillon, Montana region for the first 2 1/2 weeks, and will then move to the Sun River Canyon near Choteau, Montana for the last two weeks. Final deadline for registration is TBA, although interested students should apply as soon as possible so we can plan appropriately.
Southwestern Montana offers a wonderful place to learn about field geology and have some serious fun while doing so. The geology exposed in southwestern Montana includes of a wide variety of rock types and structural settings. This makes it easy to develop interesting mapping exercises that bring to life many geologic concepts first learned in the classroom. For example, some of our map areas contain folds and faults developed during late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic thrust belt development. Others contain high angle reverse faults that involve crystalline basement rock. Still others are characterized by extensional structures (normal faults and folds) that are still forming today. In addition to excellent bedrock geology exposures and their value as good mapping exercises, southwest Montana has a number of other geological features that provide excellent field learning opportunities. These include geomorphologically "young" fault scarp exposures that students can profile, abandoned mine tailings that provide interesting mapping exercises, and a number of other evolving landforms that can provide the basis for mapping exercises. Click here for a more detailed explanation of some of our recent mapping exercises.
What to do in your spare time: Dillon, Montana offers a very wide range of interesting outdoor recreational possibilities for you to explore on your time off. These include worldclass fly-fishing, hiking in some of southwestern Montana’s high-country, mountain biking an endless network of backcountry roads and trails, boating on some of the local rivers. During late May and early June, it’s even possible to find some high-country snow for back-country skiing, although the approach can be plenty strenuous!
LEFT:A student in the field geology class holds up an Arctic Grayling he caught on a dry fly (check out the large dorsal fin). Grayling are quite rare in the lower 48 United States, but can be found in a few secret spots that are divulged to our best students… RIGHT: This fellow caught a modest-sized brown trout in one of the rivers within a few miles of Dillon.
Here are a few useful links that introduce you recreating in southwestern Montana.
The Montana fly fishing report (updated daily)
The southwestern Montana fly fishing report (updated daily)
A guide to recreation in the Beaverhead-Deer Lodge National forest near Dillon
How does our field course operate?
We schedule five five-day periods of field work, with one day off between each period. Students typically complete one or two field exercises during each five-day period. We normally meet at 8:00 am and convoy in University vehicles to the selected field area. We work in the field all day, then return to our base in Dillon by 5:00 pm. Evenings are usually unstructured, allowing students to continue assigned work on the field project, if they choose.
Here’s a group of students from the summer mapping course looking over an exposure of Cretaceous limestone and incorporating it into their field maps.
A group of field course students working on their maps in the early part of the evening…
Examples of past geological mapping problems:
An example of the exposure in one of our bedrock mapping exercise areas. This photograph was taken looking north, into the nose of a large, overturned anticline in the Triassic Dinwoody Limestone. (Note that layers on the right side of the photograph are dipping to the right and layers on the left side are dipping to the left.) The prominent folds you see in the center of this photo result from disharmonic folding in the core of the larger anticline.
Our course features three broad types of mapping problems. First, we take advantage of the superb bedrock exposures and the wide variety of structural styles through a series of bedrock mapping exercises. Second, we map a series of Quaternary deposits (stream deposits, alluvial fans, fault scarps) to better understand the ways in which evolving landforms can provide constraints on neotectonic geologic processes and to assess the role such features might have in urban planning. Third, we have developed a series of environmentally-oriented exercises that provide students with exposure to modern computer-aided mapping technology, using local geologic features as the basis for study.
Bedrock mapping exercises: These exercises form the core of our course, simply because they provide a natural laboratory for students integrate many of the skills they have developed in the classroom and and apply them in a real field setting. Many of these map areas are big — up to 21 square km. Despite the large size of these areas, the superb natural exposures allow students to map large areas with several well-chosen traverses across structural strike.
The main skills students develop in our bedrock mapping exercises are field recognition of sedimentary and igneous rocks, thorough note-taking, self-locating without a GPS, recognition and interpretation of basic geologic structures, and accurate placement of observed geology on a topographic basemap. These exercises range in duration. The smallest areas form the basis for 2-day mapping areas, whereas the largest areas form the basis for 5-day mapping areas.
LEFT: An aerial photograph from one of our bedrock geology mapping exercises. The base of the photo represents about 3 km on the ground. This map area is composed of Mesozoic sedimentary strata that have been deformed into a series of tight folds and thrust faults. The folds stand out nicely on this photograph. RIGHT: A student map from the area depicted in the aerial photograph on the left. Note the anticline syncline pair and the mapped thrust faults in the southeastern portion of the map.
Quaternary mapping exercises: Southwestern Montana is geologically very active. Not only are there very young volcanic flows and ongoing deposition in a variety of sedimentary environments, but there are a number of significant, active normal faults in the area. Features such as these have a direct impact on urban development, so understanding their spatial distribution is very important. For example, detailed mapping of a normal fault and the various Quaternary units that cross-cut or are cross-cut by the fault, can provide important information regarding recent related seismic activity on the fault. Or, detailed mapping of Quaternary alluvial deposits might provide information regarding the best place to drill a water well, since not all sedimentary deposits will produce water at the same rate, given differences in porosity and permeability. In this course, we focus on several Quaternary exercises, because of the importance of this sort of work for urban planning. The nice thing about our map areas is that, because southwestern Montana is very rural, geologically young, and located in an arid climate, many of the geomorphologic features we study are delicately preserved, making them fun to map.
Students in the summer field course use a total station laser surveyor to map a profile across a normal fault. The fault crops out at the prominent break in slope beyond the far group of students. The students shown in this photograph are holding reflecting prisms that are used to bounce the laser from the total station (shown in the next photo) and determine in radio contact with a group of students who are operating the total stations.
This group of students is operating the total station and is in radio contact with the students who are traversing the fault scarp with the reflecting prisms.
Computer-based mapping exercises:
Most mapping in the modern workplace is computer-assisted. This is particularly true in the environmental industry. We consider it very important to provide our field course students with some exposure to modern technologic devices that can be used to make geologic and other kinds of maps. The two mapping technologies we use in this course are total station laser surveyors and high-precision kinematic GPS units. Total stations surveyors consist of two parts: a laser source with sites (the "gun") and a reflecting prism (the mirror). By bouncing a laser off of the prism, the total station can determine the XYZ coordinates of the prism to within a few millimeters. If the prism is moved across a geologic feature of interest, like a fault scarp, and continuous shots are taken, the total station will generate a very precise profile of the scarp. Last year, our students used the total stations to map a pile of mine tailings from an abandoned gold-silver mine in southwestern Montana. Students worked in groups of four and were required to use the total station to map the mine tailings, create the map on the computer back at the main camp, and write a brief report detailing their findings and making recommendations for clean-up of the site. By the end of the day, each student was able to navigate through the total station software, use the "gun" to acquire XYZ data, dump the digital data to a computer, and manipulate it to make a map. Below is one of the maps from last year’s field course.
Map of mine tailings, using a total station. This map was made by a group of four students, working together, in one day.
What are the details for this year’s course (2007)?
Photograph of one of the mapping areas we will use this summer in the Sun River Canyon. At the far left of the photograph are cliffs of Devonian and Mississippian carbonates that are thrust over valley-forming shales of Cretaceous and Jurassic age. At the far right of the photograph is a dip-slope of Mississippian carbonate. This area is classic fold-and-thrust belt territory and is just south of Glacier National Park.
The 2007 summer field course will start at 8:00AM on Monday, May 14 and will run until about 3:00 PM on Tuesday, June 12. We will meet initially in the parking lot on the northeast side of the campus of Western Montana College (WMC) on May 16 at 8:00 AM. From there, we’ll head in to the field to begin our work..
If you are from out-of-state and decide to fly to Montana, we can arrange to pick you up at the Missoula airport, provided your plane arrives before 3:00 p.m., Sunday, May 13. We will provide students with a ride to Dillon on the afternoon of Sunday, May 13. We can also provide out-of-state students with a ride back to the Missoula airport on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 14. If you plan to fly out of Missoula, please don’t book a flight departing before the afternoon of June 14, so we’ll be sure to get you to the airport on time.
Weather in western Montana during the end of May and first part of June is quite variable. Most of our map areas are between 5000 and 7000 feet elevation, so weather can change quickly. In general, it is pleasant and sunny, but everyone needs to be prepared for rain and occasionally chilly weather. Every year, students get caught in at least one major thunderstorm. Please come prepared with carefully selected layers of clothes; sturdy pants, shirts, a sweater, perhaps a vest, jacket, windbreaker, and rain protection. Layering your clothing will allow you to adapt to the conditions as they change. You should bring a good field sun hat and be careful to apply sunscreen for skin protection at the high elevations. Also, bring a few water bottles — western Montana is quite arid and the conditions can be unexpectedly dehydrating. The course requires a moderate amount of hiking under ordinary field conditions - no special heroics. Count on about 6 hours of field work each day, carrying water, lunch, and field supplies. There is no smoking permitted while we are in the field.
The last two 5-day mapping exercises this year will be in the Sun River Canyon area near Choteau, Montana. (See photo immediately above.) During this time, we will be camping in a Forest Service Campsite, so you will need to bring along a tent and sleeping bag. If you have a camp stove and it is easy to bring, please do so.
Here’s a list of gear we recommend you bring:
Multiple layers of clothing:
Good outdoor jacket
Fleece
Long underwear
Shorts
Light T-shirts
Good hiking socks
Sun hat
Cold weather hat
Rain gear
Sturdy hiking boots (not sneakers)
Gloves
Day back-pack
Multiple water bottles
Sunscreen
2 professional-quality field books (not looseleaf notebooks)
a package of graph paper
a field map board **
hand lens with lanyard
small set of binoculars (optional, but very useful)
small bottle of dilute hydrochloric acid
regular compass (we’ll provide you with a brunton compass)
colored pencils
fine-tipped (000) pens: black, blue, and red
protractor
ruler/straight edge
marking pens for labeling rocks in the field
white-out, and green correction fluid
a couple of mechanical pencils
tent
sleeping bag
camp stove (only if you own one already - we should have plenty to go around)
** You will want a field map board so you can view your map while it is protected from rain, dust, and rocks.: Most students use two pieces of plexiglas with duct-tape hinges. A couple of bicycle inner-tube strips are a handy way to hold the map down on the map board. Our largest maps are about 14" X 11", and can be folded.
The University of Montana Geolosciences Department provides brunton compasses, stereoscopes, maps, air photos, GPS units, and necessary computer access.
Suggested prerequisites for the summer field course
We strongly recommend courses in general geology, petrology, stratigraphy, and structural geology before taking the field geology course. Some or all of these may be waived under special conditions for especially capable students.
Tentative Course Schedule (Appropriate date changes TBA)
| Date | Activity |
| May 14 | Check in to WMC dorms after 3 p.m |
| May | Field work in Dillon area - Frying Pan Exercise |
| May 22 | Day off |
| May 23-27 | Field work in Dillon area - McCartneys Mtn. Exercise |
| May 28 | Day off |
| May 29-31 | Field work in Dillon area - Timber Hill Exercises |
| June 1-2 | Field work in Dillon area - Kelly Reservoir Excercise |
| June 3 | Day off - Move to Sun River |
| June 4-8 | Sun River Canyon Excercise #1 |
| June 9 | Day off |
| June 10-14 | Final field exercise. Sun River Canyon Excercise #2 |
| June 12 | Last day of field course. Course ends about 3:00pm. |
Tuition and Fees (approximate)
These are paid directly to the University of Montana.
Deadline for registration is TBA (See "How to apply" link below.)
| Cost | Resident | Non-resident |
| Tuition (6 semester hours) | 954.00 | 2755.50 |
| UM Activities fee | 16.00 | 16.00 |
| Transportation fee | 325.00 | 325.00 |
| Admission fee for new students | 30.00 | 30.00 |
| Double Room, WMC * | 210.00 | 210.00 |
| Board at WMC (breakfast and dinner only) | 190.00 | 190.00 |
| WMC facilities use fee (library, computer labs) | 15.00 | 15.00 |
| Camping fees, Sun River | 65.00 | 65.00 |
| Total with room/board at WMC | 1805.00 | 3606.50 |
| Total without room/board at WMC | 1405.90 | 3206.40 |
| * price for single room (if available) at WMC | 266.00 | 266.00 |
* Room and Board:
Room and board will be paid directly to the housing office at Western Montana College and the University of Montana upon arrival. It is optional: some students elect to camp near Dillon instead of staying in the dorms. Room and board at WMC includes eighteen nights, breakfast, and dinner but not lunch.
There are three steps to applying for our summer field geology course.
1) Send an email to Professor Marc Hendrix (marc@selway.umt.edu) and notify him of your interest in the course. Marc will answer any questions you might have and send you a course application. You will need to complete this application and return it to Marc. In this application, you will need to demonstrate that you have Medical Insurance for the entire duration of our course, and you will need to include a letter of recommendation from one of the professors at your school. (An email letter from your professor is fine).
2) In addition to applying directly to the Geology Department, you will also need to apply for admission to the University of Montana and pay a $30 fee. The easiest way to apply for admission to the University is through the UM Cyber Bear web site.
3) After you have been accepted by both the University and the Geosciences Department (Marc will let you know about the latter within a few days of receiving your G429 application), you can then formally register for G429 through the University using the same Cyber Bear web site.
Jim Sears
Marc Hendrix
Gray Thompson
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