Geosciences

University of Montana Field Geology Course G429

Check out the details for this summer's (2001) course

Our department offers a 4 1/2 week field geology course in the Rocky Mountains of southwestern Montana. The course features field studies in a wide variety of geologic settings, accessed from convenient bases on the campus of Western Montana College of the University of Montana in Dillon and the University of Montana campus in Missoula. Studies typically involve three-to-five day exercises in particular field areas, with emphasis on pertinent geologic problems. Projects vary from year to year, but a typical sampling would include mapping and analysis of: picture of ridges

Classic fold-thrust structures
Active basin-and-range structures
Archean and Cretaceous metamorphic rocks
Quaternary glacial and fluvial deposits
Contact relationships of batholiths, including ore deposits
Tertiary volcanic and sedimentary terrains
Geologic underpinnings of engineering problems associated with highway and dam construction

The field course promotes interest and research into the geologic problems of southwest Montana. Problems discovered during field exercises are often addressed by Bachelor's and Master's thesis studies at the University of Montana. New understanding from these studies is folded back into the course, constantly updating our program. In addition, new tectonic models evolve from the concurrent research of the teaching staff, Regular instructors for the field course include: Jim Sears, the director and our structural geologist, Marc Hendrix, whose main interests are sedimentology and basin evolution, Gray Thompson, a clay mineralogist, and Dave Alt, geologist of-all-trades.

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Southwest Montana is ideal for a geological field course. Dillon is central to a wide variety of geologic settings, the region is semi-arid and rocks are well-exposed and unweathered. Most of our areas have relatively low topographic relief because they are exposed through dissected pediments, most of our areas are on public land, accessible by roads, stratigraphic relationships are clear and distinct and well-understood. All of these factors mean that the students maximize their time learning about geological relationships, rather than struggling through high relief, dense woods, and campground chores. Some years we also work out of the Missoula campus which provides access to challenging problems along the Lewis and Clark Line and in the border zone of the Idaho Batholith, as well as access to computer labs for advanced analysis of field problems.

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