The Grand Canyon as an Undergraduate Geology Field Laboratory

Indianapolis, IN

Few natural landscapes on Earth match the Grand Canyon of the American Southwest for scenic beauty; and fewer yet, rival its precipitous depths for the sheer magnitude of geological features on display or the profound nature of the story revealed. An undergraduate geological field course in the Grand Canyon taught by Hanover College's Dr. Ken Bevis offers unparalleled opportunities to observe, map, describe, and discuss countless phenomena that most students of geology see only in text books; and a life-changing experience for many of those lucky enough to participate. This presentation highlights the geology to be explored on a six-night/seven-day backpacking trip along the South Rim's Hermit, Tonto, and Boucher Trails that I experienced firsthand in May, 2013. This trek has it all, the entire Paleozoic sedimentary rock sequence of the Colorado Plateau, the Great Unconformity (1.2 billion years of missing rock), and the Proterozoic crystalline basement rocks of the Zoroaster Granite and Vishnu Schist exposed within the canyon; plus a multitude of finer scale features normally covered in an introductory physical geology course. The true appeal of this course is that geological observations are made firsthand, in the field, and the processes that formed these features are pondered while you are witness to them; enhancing my learning experience. Features and formative processes are described here as they were encountered, in a travel-log fashion; a synthesis of observations and discussion follows; and a summative explanation placing them in the context of the Colorado Plateau's geological evolution concludes the presentation.