A Trip to Death Valley for SDSU Geologists

A trip to Death Valley for SDSU geologists
Group encounters sandstorm while studying outdoors
By: Maureen Moses, Contributor
Issue date: 4/26/07 Section: Science & Technology

Death Valley National Park is mostly known as a foreboding landscape that brought some of the gold-seeking 49ers to their graves. To the untrained eye, the intense heat and desolate surroundings play into the valley's infamous reputation, but to geologists, the valley is more than a death trap. It's science outside the confinement of the lab.Death Valley's geological history has many chapters that span billions of years. Even the most well-written textbooks can fail to capture the scope of what occurs there. The best lesson is one that's experiential.Two weekends ago, the San Diego State department of geological sciences hosted a camping trip to Death Valley where students, alumni and faculty braved adverse weather conditions to study the valley's geology. The trip was planned to overlap with the four-month-long pupfish mating season, but what was supposed to be the highlight became secondary. On the last day, after a hike at the famous Dante's View, the caravan of vehicles made an unexpected turn back to camp and back into the eye of the storm.The hot wind picked up the sand and dust, bending the tents in its path. Everybody helped to temporarily break down the camp, removing poles from the tents to prevent them from breaking and weighing down light objects.Wind is one of many active processes that shape the desert, and it speeds up in the heated terrain. As sand grains are blown in the wind, the dunes migrate and travel across the landscape. If the wind changes direction, the sand grains will follow a new path. The sandstorm was still in full force as the group pulled up to the sand dunes. Some geologists, with T-shirts wrapped around their heads to protect them from the flying grains of sand, went out across the dune fields to climb the highest dune. The grains of the sand slamming into your skin and getting caught in your teeth were an unavoidable consequence of being there.While there could have been complaints, the students were instead excited. This was an adventure. Teaching that the dunes form by wind is one thing, but experiencing it is something else. So much of what occurs on a field trip like this is social. Students get the chance to meet other enthusiastic students in their major. Professors can teach in the field, utilizing actual rock formations, which are usually presented as abstract hypothetical concepts."You can apply all of the discussions we have in class in the real world, and you can really see them put the pieces together," natural disasters professor Damon DeYoung said.Working on virtually a one-to-one student-to-teacher ratio, DeYoung had a huge educational influence working with freshman Alex Greene, who's currently enrolled in a geology lab."Hiking down Golden Canyon with Damon, and we were talking about the (sediment) layers up-close and picking it apart," Greene said. "He explained every little thing."When Greene returned to the class the following week he felt like he had a better understanding of the science than some of his peers."They know it because they study it, I know it because I got to climb on top of it and feel it." Greene said. Greene's lab-tech assistant, graduate student Melanie Biggs, noted the immense value this will have for his future education as a scientist."I know I probably gave him a hard time in the field, asking questions and quizzing him, but in the end it will help him to remember it," Biggs said.From Dante's View, a ridge that overlooks the valley, it was impossible to ignore the striking beauty of Death Valley. The fresh air and erratic weather greatly contrasted the climate-controlled labs. It's hard to forget a lesson learned in a place such as Death Valley."We don't just go out there to measure; we go out there to stand in awe and wonder," Biggs said.

Media Credit: Maureen Moses, Contributor
SDSU students hike the Golden Canyon Trail in Death Valley. Two weekends ago, the students went to see the pupfish mating season at Lake Manly but were pleasantly surprised when a sandstorm hit the valley

Trip Photo Slide Show

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