Department of Environmental Sciences

Eubrontes trackways in the Mesozoic Newark Group strata at Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill, CT

Along the Hudson River, just north of New York City, an exposed Mesozoic diabase sill forms the well-known Palisades.

Cape Cod National Seashore preserves a region first sculptured by ice sheets and currently being modified by wind and waves.

Here's our camp on the Sandwich, Massachusetts end moraine.

Maine's coastline exposes igneous and metamorphic rocks. Here is a layered gabbro of Devonian age at Cape Neddick. Now you know why there are so many lighthouses in Maine.

Granite forms the rocky shoreline at this location in Acadia National Park.

At Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park are the Bubbles, glacially eroded granite masses between two glacial valleys.

Collecting rocks may be refreshing on a hot humid late summer day. New Hampshire offers a wide range of mineral and rock collecting opportunities.

Rock of Ages Corporation obtains a gray granite from this dimension stone quarry at Graniteville, VT.

Lofty goals are sometimes achieved on our field trips. Garnet was once mined at this site near North River, NY.

Almandine garnet is still mined from the Gore Mountain anorthosite. Most of it is used as an abrasive.

At Lester Park near Saratoga Springs, NY, Cambrian stromatolites are well displayed.

A hanging valley at Taughannock Falls State Park exposed Devonian strata along the western edge of Cayuga Lake (a finger lake) near Trumansburg, NY.

One of our first stops was at Theodore Roosevelt National Park at Medora, ND. Here is striking badlands topography and a rich Plains biota.

Our westernmost destination was Glacier National Park. Going-to-the-Sun Highway lies far below this trail in the glaciated Rockies. Note the serrated crest of the Garden Wall arête in the background.

Bighorn sheep relax in the forested uplands of the park. Precambrian Belt Supergroup strata lie above and under the talus slope.

Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park takes on an aerie appearance on this cloudy day.

Fumaroles, steam jets, shoot out the side of Roaring Mountain in Yellowstone National Park.

Roadblock! Yellowstone style.

High in the Beartooth Range of Montana, evidence of alpine glaciation is widespread.

These are the remains of the Smith Mine, a coal mine, east of Red Lodge, MT. A deadly blast here in 1943 killed 79 miners.

Look familiar? This is the badlands of Badlands National Park in South Dakota. The strata here date to Oligocene time, slightly younger than that at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.

A large glacial erratic within Rocky Mountain National Park.

A contorted Precambrian granite gneiss near Bear Mountain Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Solifluction lobes high in Rocky Mountain National Park.

The "Coke Ovens" hoodoos of Jurassic sandstone at Colorado National Monument.

Looking northeast from the Uncompahgre Plateau across the Colorado River valley to the Book Cliffs of the Cretaceous Mesaverde Group.

Jurassic Entrada Sandstone forms many of the arches and other erosional landforms in Arches National Park.

Upheaval Dome in Canyonlands National Park of Utah is a curious pile of Mesozoic strata surrounded by younger strata has been related to salt intrusion or meteroric impact. What do you think?

Underground in the Old Hundred gold mine near Silverton, CO. The operation began in 1898, but was never profitable. The envisioned rich veins were never found.

Monument Rocks in northwestern Kansas is an erosional remnant of Cretaceous Niobrara Formation.