06/28/14: CARMELO ALWAYS MAKES IT RIGHT

Hi again!

 

I spent all day yesterday on a  field trip. Out of all the places in the Central coast, Point Lobos State Park is difficult to beat, even if you do not care at all about rocks. The updated links from the Point Lobos State Park Website have all the information you need to plan your visit.

The oldest rock there, a plutonic rock called granodiorite, is about 80 million years ago. We got to walk on top of it and see the amazing big crystals of feldspar this rock has. But the main attraction (as always) were the tilted layers of sedimentary rocks called the Carmelo Formation. This formation has three main types of rocks (from coarser grains to finer ones): conglomerates, sandstones, and mudstones. You can even sometimes find fossils!! All my students blanket the Carmelo Formation fast and learn to identify the different types of layers and what their location is telling us about the rocks and their formation processes.

The students get to measure the orientation of the layers with the North ('strike') and the inclination of those layers ('dip') with a Brunton compass. This is a fun part...'experiencing the rock' is always the highlight of this area called Weston Beach...judge for yourselves..I prepared a short video with some of the best moments; let me know what you think!!

I hope they come back again soon and show off what they know now to their friends and families!!

Follow them on Twitter and get the latest information about this a-m-a-z-i-n-g place: @Point_Lobos; @iheartptlobos

06/26/14: BLAME IT ON JOHN

Well, here we go. My first blog post. 

My name is Ana and as the title implies, this is not something I particularly wanted to do but needed to do as an assignment…so if there is something here you do not like, well, blame it on John.

I am currently teaching two classes (Physical Geology) at Monterey Peninsula College. I will try to share with you different aspects of my classes, field trips, current geological events, how to connect people to Geology and hopefully show you that geology is cool!

I, of course, have told my students about this summer blog and they are more excited about it than I am…go figure!

Last Tuesday we went to Fort Ord Dunes State Park to learn about sand and coastal erosion. In the Marina area, we are losing almost 1 meter per year, and at that rate, we calculated the Pacific Ocean will reach Hwy 1 in about 500 years!! Most students enjoyed the outdoors and despite the windy cool day, they did have a blast…we even tried a selfie…although we decided my arms are too short!!

I found a nice link that you should check out if you want more information about the Fort Ord area: Discoverthe coast @ Fort Ord. 

All for now-