Last weekend, Dr. Judge’s and Dr. Pollock’s Structure and Mineralogy classes took a field trip to central Pennsylvania. It rained on Saturday, but that didn’t stop us from having a great time. We saw the most amazing pencil structures in the Reedsville Shale.
The intersection of cleavage and bedding in the Reedsville Shale creates "pencils."
In the Bald Eagle Formation just a short drive down the road, we found textbook examples of slickenfibres. Slickenfibres are elongated minerals that grow along a fault plane parallel to the direction of motion.
Colin Mennett, Dr. Shelley Judge, Megan Innis, Becky Alcorn, and Andrew Retzler are excited about slickenfibres along a fault surface in the Bald Eagle Formation.
Close-up view of the slicken-fibres.
Next, we went to the Bear Valley Strip Mine. The beautifully exposed folds and giant iron concretions are simply breathtaking!
Bear Valley Strip Mine. Notice the person in the black jacket (center of the picture) for scale.
Finally, we stopped to sample some (very orange) acid mine drainage at a nearby pump slope.
Palmer Shonk and Becky Alcorn standing beside a river full of "yellow boy," an iron hydroxide phase that is precipitating from acid mine drainage.
Become a fan of the College of Wooster Geology Department page on Facebook and see more photos from this trip!
Great to see the Wooster Crew in action again. I remember that Bear Valley Strip Mine and its awesome whalebacks from my student days. Looks like the first Structure-Mineralogy joint field trip was a success!
The slickenfibres and Reedsville Shale pics were amazing. Looks like you all had a nice trip….