EMU: Regional Geology Field Trip - Colorado
Courses: ESSC 255
Credits: Two
Eligibility: Open to all EMU students in good academic standing and guest students.
ESSC 110 is a pre-req for this course.
Must be at least 18 years old at time of travel.
Program Fee:
See budget sheet
Program Overview:
Travel to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to see geological points of interest in person. Students will learn about geologic processes first hand from a geology professor instead of in a classroom. Stops include Rocky Mountain National Park, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods, historic gold mine tour, dinosaur museum, Red Rocks amphitheater, and more.
At the end of this course, students should be able to:
1. Use a Brunton compass to obtain bearings, strike/dip, and inclination in the field.
2. Take complete field notes and maintain an organized field notebook.
3. Relate geology of a given area to geologic history and process of formation
Financial Aid and Scholarships
Financial aid and many EMU scholarships can be applied to the tuition and fees for this program. Visit the Office of Financial Aid for more information
Instructor Information:
Dr. Christopher Gellasch is a geologist with a focus on groundwater (hydrogeology) and water quality. He returns to EMU after more than 20 years serving as a U.S. Army Environmental Science and Engineering Officer. His previous academic experience includes serving as an assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, NY and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD. His research combines aspects of hydrogeology and environmental engineering to determine the most likely pathways for chemical and biological contaminants to migrate through the subsurface and impact either public supply wells or surface water bodies.
Dr. Hannah Blatchford is a field geologist specializing in topics at the intersection of metamorphic petrology, structural geology, and geochronology. She has experience conducting field work in remote areas of the Southern Alps of New Zealand, in the Norwegian Caledonides, and teaching field geology techniques in the Rocky Mountains of Montana, Utah, and Nevada.