This September we returned to the Trinity Ophiolite in Northern California for a Stanford field class (GES 190: Advanced Field Methods). Read the student blog for the class here. We were joined by lab descendent Philomena Gan from Oxford University, who is a student with former lab member Lars Hansen.
Three days of sampling in the Josephine Peridotite were not to be this June.
To see out the academic year, we took a lab trip to the Exploratorium in SF. While simulated fog didn’t hold much appeal, shadow images, kaleidoscopes, geysers, heat sensors and cow eyeballs provided wholesome scientific diversion from pressing questions about mantle processes.
Suzanne Birner’s AGU presentation received an AGU Outstanding Student Paper Award and a honorable mention in the GeoPRISMS Student Presentation Competition. Congrats Suzanne! Birner, S., J.M. Warren, E. Cottrell, O.G. Lopez, F.A. Davis and T. Falloon, 2013. Variations in Oxygen Fugacity among Forearc Peridotites from the Tonga Trench, AGU Fall Meeting, V13I-02.
Megan and Nik joined Jason Harvey from Leeds University for xenolith sampling in Arizona and New Mexico.
On the night before Halloween, we took a trip to the USS Hornet for Nerd Nite at Sea – part of the Bay Area Science Festival. Highlight of the evening: Drones!
Over beer and reubens, Bob Coleman explained the geology of Californian peridotite massifs, including the Cedars and Burro Mountain. He also explained how New Idria got him started on the whole peridotite business to begin with.
Postdoc Lars Hansen packed his bags for the sunny spires of Oxford University, to begin a faculty position in the Department of Earth Sciences and a fellowship at University College.
Lars, Megan, Nik & Suzanne took an exploratory trip to the Cedars Peridotite in Sonoma County to round out their June fieldwork. The travertine deposits are spectacular, but finding fresh peridotite is a challenge.
In June we headed up to the Josephine for 4 days of fieldwork on Fresno Bench. This was our first spring foray into the Siskiyou and we had been warned that the weather could be bad. We were fortunate to encounter nothing worse than some clouds and high wind – and more wildflowers than on […]