By Christopher Hamilton

This semester, the PTYS 590 Planetary Geology Field Studies course intended to explore sedimentary units in Northern Arizona, but unfortunately—due to a last-minute case of COVID-19—the main field trip was cancelled. The health and safety of our students is paramount and the potential risk for developing an outbreak was too great to undertake a five-day trip to a remote field site.

Instead, the class took a daytrip to explore highlights in the Tucson area. LPL’s Eric Christensen and Carson Fuls were fantastic in arranging an impromptu visit to UArizona's magnificent telescopes on Mt. Lemmon, with Carson providing an outstanding tour of the Catalina Sky Survey’s 1.5-meter (60-inch) f/1.6 telescope. The Catalina Sky Survey is responsible for the discovery of nearly half the total known near-Earth objects (NEO) population and it was incredible to not only see the massive telescope, but also to learn about the lightning-fast processing techniques used to identify the NEOs in near-real time.

After descending the mountain—stopping at several magnificent overlooks from the Catalina mountains along the way—the class visited Tanque Verde Falls for a hike to explore the local geology and natural beauty of the Tucson area.

Later in the semester, the class met for an off-campus social event to get to know one another better and hear the excellent presentations that the students had prepared for the field trip. In the coming year, we plan to return to Northern Arizona and anticipate this will be an excellent opportunity for students to explore aeolian landforms deposited during the time of Pangea as well as more recent products of fluvial erosion—ranging from slot canyons to Glen Canyon, Monument Valley, the Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, and aspects of Native American history and culture in the region.

In the meantime, students are preparing for an exciting field trip to the Big Island of Hawai'i in March 2023, which will be led by Shane Byrne, Christopher Hamilton, and Brett Carr. Students will explore the island's incredible volcanic landscapes---including products of the 2018 Kīlauea eruption in the East Rift Zone and this year’s new eruption from Mauna Loa (the world’s largest active volcano)---as a planetary analog.

You can support future field study opportunities by donating to the Wilkening-Sill endowment.