Geology of the American Southwest

A Graduate Student Field Trip

            During spring break of the 2002 Spring semester, graduate students from the department of Earth and Environmental participated in a department-sponsored field trip to explore the geology of the Grand Staircase.  The Grand Staircase is a geologic formation consisting of a series of cliffs formed from uplift, tilting, and erosion of different stratigraphic units.  Each graduate student chose a stop along the staircase and prepared a presentation to be given at that location.  The field trip included stops at Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Dinosaur Tracks on the Navajo Reservation, Grand Canyon National Park, Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument and Meteor Crater.

Images from the trip are organized using this map.  Future graduate student field trips are currently being planned.  A trip to Yellowstone National Park is currently being organized for mid to late summer 2003.  If you are interested in learning more about other aspects of the graduate student program in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago click here to visit the department home page or here for the graduate student application.