Field Camp Overview
| Portable computers, Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receivers, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are changing the way field geology is done. In response to the changing demands on Geologists today, we have revised our field course curriculum to integrate new technologies with traditional field methods. The course will teach students how GPS navigation and digital mapping and data analysis using GIS can facilitate field work and improve the understanding of the geology. Working with sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks, students learn how to make methodical observations, accurate recordings, and sound interpretations of the geology seen in outcrop. Exercises include measuring and analysis of sedimentary sections, construction of geologic maps, structural analysis of folds and faults, slope stability analysis, and environmental assessments. Students will learn to use Brunton compasses, laptop and ruggedized tablet PC computers (Xplore Technologies), GPS receivers, aerial photographs, topo maps, satellite images, and GIS databases in their projects. Field areas are in the Basin and Range, Colorado Plateau, and Rocky Mountain provinces. Geologic features to be examined are folded and faulted sedimentary strata of Paleozoic and Mesozoic age, regional metamorphic facies in Precambrian rocks, volcanic domes and pyroclastic rocks of Tertiary age, pegmatites and plutonic rocks of Precambrian age, and Quaternary glacial deposits. Environmentally-related projects include slope stability analysis and environmental site assessments. Work to be submitted for evaluation includes field notebooks, field maps, drafted geologic maps and structure sections, and interpretative reports. |
|
|
|
| The Bowling Green State University has now integrated digital field mapping into its summer field course using ruggedized tablet PC computers with a wireless Global Positioning System receiver (Teletype GPS-Bluetooth). The Xplore tablet PC has the ability to run the typical suite of applications for a standard PC including ArcGIS. For digital mapping projects, a customized version of ArcPad is used for user-friendly data input in the field. | ||
