Wooster Geologists Team Jurassic Utah dips down into the Triassic for its last field day

Today the Wooster Geologists of Team Jurassic Utah visited Early Triassic rocks near Hurricane, Utah (N 37.041054°, W 113.273450°). These are rocks of the Virgin Limestone Member of the Moenkopi Formation. I wanted to show the students the abundant brachiopod … Continue reading
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A culture and nature day for Team Jurassic Utah 2022

Our field work is now done, so we had a day of cultural and natural sites. Our morning started with a visit to the Visitor’s Center at the LDS Temple in St. George. There the students learned at least one … Continue reading
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Jackson Peak section: Another gnatty adventure

This morning the Wooster Geologists visited the westernmost exposure of the lower Carmel Formation at Nielson’s (1990) Jackson Peak section. Nick and Vicky are shown above on the road towards the conical Jackson Peak in the background. The site was … Continue reading
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Up the steep slopes for a trace fossil reward in Dammeron Valley

Today Team Utah 2022 climbed the outcrops in Dammeron Valley, north of St. George, to collect trace fossils from the Co-op Creek Limestone Member of the Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic). It was a bit of a slog up the rubbly … Continue reading
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Wooster geologists serve their time in Buggy Gulch

Many veterans of the Wooster Geology expeditions to southwestern Utah will remember the insatiable, abundant, nearly overwhelming biting gnats that occasionally proliferated during our fieldwork. We’ve suffered them each day, but this was the worst experience thus far, mainly because … Continue reading
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Science, serendipity, and coincidence

As part of my science history project, the article “Science, serendipity, coincidence, and the Oregonator at the University of Oregon, 1969–1974” has been published in Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science. It’s especially exciting because it’s the Feature article … Continue reading
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Back to the Eagle Mountain Ranch and its magnificent exposures

One of my favorite Jurassic outcrops in all the world is found on the Eagle Mountain Ranch north of Gunlock, Utah (locality C/W-142; EMR). It has an exposure of the Carmel Formation with the perfect orientation to produce fossils weathered … Continue reading
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Second field day in SW Utah Jurassic: Wooster geologists begin their projects

During another beautiful day in southwestern Utah, Team Utah 2022 began to collect field data and specimens. We started in Manganese Wash with Lucie’s project, which involves the stratigraphy and paleoenvironments associated with the transition from the lower Co-Op Creek … Continue reading
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Wooster Geologists return to southwestern Utah

Washington, Utah — In March 2020 a team of Wooster Geologists was in beautiful southwestern Utah sampling, measuring and analyzing rocks and fossils from the Middle Jurassic Carmel Formation north of St. George. The Covid-19 pandemic forced us to end … Continue reading
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Alien Suns Reversing in Exoplanet Skies

Not only can suns stand still in the sky, from some exoplanets their motion can appear to reverse! Wooster physics-math double majors Xinchen (Ariel) Xie ’21 and Hwan (Michelle) Bae ’19 and I just published an article elucidating these apparent solar reversals. … Continue reading
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