Summer coming to an end…

Guest Blogger: Jesse Davenport

Dear Meagen and Shelley, I hope you both like extremely sheared metamorphic and igneous 2 billion year old rocks because I have about 100 of them coming to Scovel in about a week.

But really I have had an amazing time in Montana and am sad to see my time out west coming to an end, yet I am happy to be returning home after 3 months of travel. I would have liked to update you all a little more often on what has been happening in Big Sky country, but the internet situation and the communication in general is rather limited.

On our daily traverses we encountered diorite, tonalite, mica schist, marble, mylonite, amphibolites, quartzite, and Yellowstone related volcanics (although we weren’t particulary interested in these). We saw many signs of wildlife both actually seeing and other signs. Cattle sightings were especially common, but we also saw elk, antelope, moose, golden eagle, bald eagle, badger, marmot, ferret, fox, and hawks. Unfortunately, in my opinion, we didn’t see any bear but all the locals tell us they are there black and grizzly.

There is still a lot of work to be done even though field work is over. We came into the project with some general questions, but now we have the data, the rocks, and the field observations that we need to make a significant scientific contribution to the understanding of the geologic evolution of the area. This project marks a pinnacle achievement in the area which has had very little work done and is already misunderstood in the scientific community geologically speaking.

I am looking forward to working with Meagen and Shelley on my project and taking the opportunity that the Keck Consortium COW Geology Department gave me to produce a significant piece of scientific literature.

Our field area, Antelope Basin.

A view of Saddle Mountain.

Some nicely sheared rocks in an outcrop in Antelope Basin.