Section 073N Field Trip Information

Trip meeting time and date: 9:00am on Saturday, June 7, 2008. We will leave the parking lot at the back of the CT building at 9:10am; any latecomers will miss the trip. (Directions to the campus)

Trip conditions: The trip will be cancelled only if the College closes: Check at 703-323-3770 or at http://www.nvcc.vccs.edu.
(Rain date is Sunday, June 8.)

What to bring: Notepad and pen; at least two liters of water or other beverage, bag lunch, snacks, sun hat, raingear, shoes suitable for walking on muddy or rocky paths, clothes appropriate for the expected temperatures in Washington, D.C. If you are susceptible to poison ivy, then wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. A camera may be useful to help you document the rocks and rock structures we see at the various stops.

Travel: We will carpool from campus to various rock exposures in Washington, D.C, including Georgetown, Adams-Morgan, and Rock Creek Park. Between about a dozen field stops, the total driving distance will be about thirty miles. Be prepared to share a vehicle (yours or someone else's).

Extra fees: None.

Time of return: Approximately 6:00pm;
No later than 7:00pm.

Evaluation: After the trip, you will be required to write a 3-to-5-page paper on the bedrock geology of Washington, DC. This paper will outline the various conditions that prevailed in the DC area through geologic time, and how those conditions are represented by DC rocks. It will include a chronological sequence of events, and list the evidence for those events which we saw on the trip. It will be due two weeks after the trip, by fax, e-mail, or hard-copy.

Note: The field trip is an open-air class. It involves moderately strenuous walking in uneven terrain, frequently amidst poison ivy, and requires attention to a spoken commentary. Only registered students may attend. Do not bring pets or children.

GOL 135 home | Callan Bentley home

Some photos of DC's rocks: Above, jagged contact of the Georgetown Instrusive Suite (light colored rocks) with the foliated rocks of the Rock Creek Shear Zone (dark colored rocks). Just as a jelly donut that is overfilled with jelly would crack open the surrounding donut, so does magma crack open the surrounding rock as it muscles its way in. Below, offset of about an inch in a small fault that cuts across a granite dike. This exposure is in a small quarry in Rock Creek Park, south of the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge, and adjacent to Montrose Park. Before the trip (and perhaps after it, too) take a look at these other pictures of DC rocks.