Master's thesis research in the Sierra Nevada, California
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Geology | Bentley | Sierras photos Master's thesis research in the Sierra Nevada, California |
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Our campsite on a peninsula in eastern Gem Lake.
My advisor Dazhi Jiang and U.S.C. PhD candidate Geoff Pignotta examine strained metavolcanics near our campsite.
Me with a portion of the Ritter Range in the background.
Dazhi pumps water from a nice shallow little lake that had no name.
Eastern Gem Lake, with the Ritter Range in the distance.
A chunk of columnar basalt (like is seen at the Giant's Causeway and the Devil's Postpile), below a Tertiary basalt flow, southern shore of Gem Lake.
Terrific glacial striations on the metavolcanic rocks on the southern shore of Gem Lake.
Field equipment: Rite-In-The-Rain notebook, Brunton compass, Estwing rock hammer, North Face backpack.
Pretty flowers near Gem Lake.
Donohue Peak to the west of Gem Lake.
A lake infilling to become a flat meadow, near Billy Lake and Rush Creek.
A scraggly dead pine with Donohue Peak in the background.
Entering the Ansel Adams Wilderness, Sierra National Forest (August 2003)
Bench Canyon, where I camped alone for a week.
Looking down towards the headwaters of the San Joaquin River.
Cathedral Peak, Yosemite, which my friend Babak and I climbed the next day.
Two hand shots: (1) using the GPS with an injured thumb, and (2) hand for scale with the massive feldspar megacrysts of the Cathedral Peak Granodiorite.
The waterfall at Hemlock Crossing, Ansel Adams Wilderness.
Summit Lake, Mono Pass, Inyo National Forest (with the Kuna Crest in the background).
Another shot of the Summit Lake basin / Mono Pass.
Tent, at sunset on a stormy day.
Scott Paterson (of USC) shows me and his field assistants Claire and Vali the contact between the Cathedral Peak Granodiorite and the metavolcanic host rocks.
Site of my last week in the backcountry: Saddlebag Lake pendant, looking north. My campsite is on the lightish colored peninsula projecting south into Greenstone Lake in the foreground.
Sawmill Crest reflected in a small pond, early morning.