O'Brien, Jason and Spitale? Field trippers for life!
Imperial Dunes. Part of RotJ was filmed here.
Spitale descibes dune formation.
Border Patrol truck foolishly stops halfway up the dune and gets stuck.
Tamara is workin' that hat.
Jason zooms in on the Salton Sea.
Minton outlines the history of the Salton Sea.
The Salton Sea, an endorheic lake in California.
It was covered with creepy dead fish.
Nicole listens in to Minton's talk.
The 2WD pickups could not make it up the hill at Travertine Rock.
Grads gather in the shade to listen to talks.
Kat V1.0 describes the shorelines of ancient Lake Cahuilla.
O'Brien explains the effects of two intersecting faults, San Anreas and San Jacinto.
A nice visual aide to help.
Evaporative layer of the rocks at an ancient shoreline.
TSchad is king of the mountain.
Kat V1.0 is enjoying a snack while everyone climbs the rocks.
Not a comforting sign to see at your campground.
Around the campfire.
Finally, we hit the beach.
Jade talks about the profile of the beach face.
Grads look for longshore drift using oranges as floation devices.
Nicole goes out to be a human test particle.
Catherine also goes out to be a human test particle.
Kat just dabbles in the water. It was really cold out there!
Minton charges in to the water too!
Nicole dries off and gives a talk on the heavy metal laminae.
Lissa and Jade look at the laminae using magnets.
We dug a hole in the beach to observe the layering.
Yes, yes it does.
Showman holds a layered chunk of sand.
Doug and Colin dig a deeper hole looking for more layering.
Lifeguards warm of a rip current. You can see it in the water if you look carefully.
Our fearless leader made purple sand for later use.
John talks about the grain movement on the beach.
The purple sand is released so that we can see how grains move around.
Someone else likes smileys too.
Keith talks about the hydrology of the beach.
Blue water is used to track the water line motion.
Kat V1.0 and Minton are sinking and they cannot get up!
Brian talks about tides. Finally, a topic I really understand!
Choi descibes the rip currents.
Cool sky writing.
Lissa explains beach cusps
Priyanka talks about erosional and despositional processes on beaches.
Doug details the nature of barrier islands.
Curse you, O'Brien.
TSchad points out the features of estuaries as we look over at one.
I love the ocean.
Not a great shot, but this is the estuary.
Andrea explains how marine terraces form.
Morning of Day 3.
Our campsite for the second night had a great view.
Early risers make breakfast.
Wait how did I get here?
And with my luggage? Did I fall out of a plane?
Showman brings the atmospheres pain! He is also dangerous in geophysics. A double threat guy.
Colin talks about beaches on Mars.
He swears it is not sunburn.
Tamara speculates about Titan beaches.
Excellent layering at an ancient lake. Minton is the hand model.
Ingrid outlines possible Martian sedimentary structures.
Many grads hide in the shade during this talk.
Final lunch stop with my minimalist food group of Kat V1.0 and Minton.
TSchad is sporting the girlie-colored Nalgenes.
He does look like a fish when he sleeps.
Minton drove the last 3.5 hours for me. Our fuel gauge was wonky and would increase in gas level as we drove.