FAIRBORN, OHIO–I actually used to brag about the great weather on my class field trips. The hubris! Today Shelley Judge and I took our combined Sedimentology & Stratigraphy and Structural Geology classes to Oakes Park Quarry near Dayton for a field trip. (Location = N39.81401°, W083.98374°.) We planned to describe and measure the exposure there of the Brassfield Formation, and then assess the joint fabric and the direction of glacial grooves on its top surface. I took three students there last week to test the concept. Since this is the last weekend of the semester, there was no do-over, so we went rain or shine.
It was 38°F and breezy when we arrived. That’s when I took my first and last picture, shown above. (It is of Tricia Hall and Scott Kugel in the middle of their stratigraphic task.) The rain came slowly at first. Not too bad. Then we heard the thunder and were quickly overwhelmed by a serious downpour. Near-freezing temperatures and a thunderstorm? That’s spring in Ohio. I haven’t been so cold and wet since I was in this place. This is why I very much prefer my field areas to be very warm and very dry.
The students were great sports, though, and we collected just enough data so that we could retreat to the bus with some geological honor intact.
The summer can’t come fast enough back here for the Wooster geologists!
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