Spring Meeting of the Far Western Section-NAGT in the Mojave Desert at Zzyzx, CA on March 2-4: Updated Information

The spring meeting of the Far Western Section of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers will take place on March 2-4, 2012 at the Desert Studies Center in Zzyzx, California. We appreciate the work that El Camino College is doing to organize the meeting. Field trips will explore the mining history, geologic history, and volcanism of the Mojave Desert, the Quaternary landscape and distribution of biota, and the lava tubes of Pisgah Crater. More information and registration forms can be found on the Far Western Section website at http://nagt-fws.org/conferences.html.

Updated information on the field trips and field trip leaders can be found below the fold:

Exploring the Mojave Desert with the Far Western Section: Spring Meeting, March 2-4

The spring meeting of the Far Western Section of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers will take place on March 2-4, 2012 at the Desert Studies Center in Zzyzx, California. We appreciate the work that El Camino College is doing to organize the meeting. Field trips will explore the mining history, geologic history, and volcanism of the Mojave Desert, the Quaternary landscape and distribution of biota, and the lava tubes of Pisgah Crater. More information and registration forms can be found on the Far Western Section website at http://nagt-fws.org/conferences.html.

From the conference organizers:

Zzyzx (which is pronounced zy-zicks with emphasis on the "zy") has a colorful history of its own and once was a resort which featured mineral springs and mud baths, and was renowned as a health resort. Some of these facilities are partially preserved and make for wonderful photographic opportunities with the background of Soda Dry Lake. Today, the California State University system has established a consortium which administers the Desert Studies Center, facilitates research in a variety of disciplines, and aids the preservation of the endangered Mohave tui chub.

Baker, California is located 11 miles to the north east from the Desert Studies Center and has a variety of motels, restaurants, gas stations, and other facilities, some of which are quite unique. “Home of the World's Tallest Thermometer” is Baker's claim to fame and the height of the thermometer at 134 feet or 41 meters was selected when the community recorded the highest temperature ever recorded in the United States (in Death Valley) at 134 degrees Fahrenheit in 1913. However, it is also a gateway to Death Valley and other scenic areas of the the Mohave Desert. Many travelers come to know Baker as they fill their gas tanks during their excursions to and from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Baker is approximately 177 miles or 285 kilometers north east of Los Angeles. Las Vegas, Nevada is located about 88 miles or 142 kilometers to the north east of Baker.

The Desert Studies Center has a meeting room, an area for social gatherings and poster sessions, audio visual capabilities with wireless internet, dormitory facilities (advanced registration required and individuals bring their own bedding or sleeping bag), shower facilities, a chef who will prepare the hot breakfasts, dinners and packaged lunches, a store which features items related to Zzyzx, wonderful star gazing opportunities (clear skies permitting), and a wonderful view of Soda Dry Lake, the California Fan Palms and the Chub Pond. All of the field trips will leave from the Desert Studies Center.

Save the Date: March 2-4, 2012, Meeting at Zzyzx!

Save the Date!

El Camino College will be hosting the spring 2012 National Association of Geoscience Teachers Conference at the Desert Studies Center in Zzyzx, California on March 2 – 4, 2012. Field trips will focus on various aspects of the Mojave Desert and are currently being planned. In addition to the field trips, workshops, the banquet, and the NAGT Far Western Section business meeting, student posters are strongly encouraged. It is hoped that each school with faculty in attendance will have at least one student poster. The best posters will receive special recognition. Please plan to attend!

Please contact Lynn Fielding at lfielding@elcamino.edu with any questions about the spring 2012 NAGT Meeting.

Spotlight on California Geology: the Eastern Mojave Desert

The eastern Mojave Desert is a geological wonderland of rugged mountain peaks, basaltic cinder cones, widespread rhyolitic ash deposits, limestone caverns and the site of California's only known exposures of dinosaur trackways. The area has a rich history of human habitation, and with everything from petroglyphs, pictographs, forts, and old train stations, as well as a portion of the iconic Route 66. The Far West Section visited the area in February of 2005 as the guests of the Desert Research Center at Zzyzyx. The conference was sponsored by El Camino College.

The trip was disrupted by an unusually wet winter storm system that left many of the dirt and gravel roads in the region impassable, but the participants of the field trips still saw a great many interesting localities nonetheless.

You can retrace the field trips with the roadguide developed for the event here. Sales of the guidebook support the Far West Section scholarships for earth science students. Chapters include the following:

• Surficial Geology of the Cima Volcanic Field and Adjacent Areas of the Eastern Mojave Desert, California by John Dohrenwend
• Landscape Evolution in the Eastern Mojave: Geology, Biology and Climate Change by Robert Fulton
• Mojave Tracks Through Time by Robert Reynolds
• Eastern Mojave Desert Geology Tour, Parts I and II by Dee Trent, Richard Hazlett and T. James Noyes
• Geology and Mining Activity in the Standard Mining District, San Bernardino County, California by Ted Weasma
• Prehistoric Rock-Art of the Eastern Mojave Desert by David Lee
• Prehistory of the Granite Mountains by Don Christensen, Jerry Dickey and David Lee

The photos above from the conference include a panorama of the Providence Mountains which contain a nearly complete Paleozoic section something like 10,000 feet thick, topped by Tertiary rhyolitic ashflows. The second shot is of pictographs hidden deep in the Granite Mountains south of Kelso Dunes, and the third is a really close up look at some lichens growing on basalt in the Cima Volcanic Field.

Check it out!