One-day field trip Friday, May 27, 2011, 9am-6pm. (Rain date is Tuesday, May 31, 2011.) This field trip will examine the geology of Maryland's Bear Island, considering the metamorphic and igneous rocks exposed by the river, sedimentary deposits, and the cutting of Mather Gorge and Great Falls by the Potomac River. Note: This trip involves strenuous hiking over very rough terrain. For further information call (703) 323-3276, or email:

ABOUT THE BILLY GOAT TRAIL
PRE-TRIP READING
LOGISTICS
ASSIGNMENT
PROPER FORMATTING

Here is a link to the current draft of the course handout (PDF; subject to change).

In this YouTube video, I explain how GOL 135 courses work.

[LEFT] A coarse-grained, light-colored dike of granite cuts across darker-colored, finer-grained metagraywacke. The Billy Goat Trail is amazing for many reasons, but one of the most interesting to geologists is the partial melting of older rocks (amphibolite and metagraywacke), yielding granitic magma. That magma then migrated away from it's "birthplace," and eventually lodged in a fracture, then cooled and solidified into granite. Penny for scale.
To learn more about the rocks along the Billy Goat Trail, see the pre-trip reading.