Page 23 - 2020 GGE Newsletter

Page 23

2020 GE FIELD CAMP
WRITTEN BY BS STUDENTS, SHAHAD ALDHAMIN AND JULIA ESCH

Field camp has been the one thing I was worried about since I got my acceptance letter from the school. It was going to
be a new experience; camping, hiking for long hours, and not taking showers for several days are things I have never
done before. Despite the fear I had, I was looking forward to it because I believed that going through this experience
would allow me to get out of my comfort zone to learn new things in life and geology. Unfortunately, because of the
COVID-19 pandemic, we could not go to the field and had to do it online/remotely. It involved using Google Earth,
Google Street View, drone footage, a virtual landscape, and pictures of the gorgeous areas we were supposed to visit. Nev-
ertheless, it was one of the most fun experiences I had as a geology student. Whenever I look back at all the work I did for
the six weeks, I feel proud of how much I have accomplished and realized that this is the start of an exciting journey in
the future. Shahad Aldhamin

Week 1: Moab, Utah (Shahad Aldhamin)
Before we were informed that the field would be remote, I was dreading this week the most. I always heard that this week
is the most difficult physically and mentally. Even though we did not get the chance to be in Arches National Park, it was
still very challenging! As the start of the field camp, this week had the challenges of managing the time to finish all the
required work by 10 pm on Friday, getting used to waking up before 8 am every day of the week to sit behind the desk for
more than 10 hours per day, and dealing with salt tectonics. This week's map was not the neatest map I've created, but
the area was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen, and I don't think I'll be forgetting its stratigraphy anytime soon
because of how fascinating it is.
Week 1: Moab, Utah (Julia Esch)
During a typical, non-pandemic summer, week 1 of Field Camp would be a week filled with mapping, bug bites, sun
burns, and incredible memories of tromping through the colorful, arid desert landscape of Arches National Park. Alt-
hough the mapping part still applied, UV rays couldn’t reach any of us all in our houses, and the only bugs we had to wor-
ry about were basement spiders. This summer, campers were inflicted with intense Google Earth training, eye strain, a
new understanding of mapping, and the sudden ability to color like never before. Simply stated, Field Camp Summer
2020 was an interesting experience.
The most important goal of Week 1 was to map a large portion of Arches National Park. In the past, I had mostly mapped
on site where I could see the formations from ground level. Google Earth offered a different perspective that was both
useful and easy to maneuver. The aerial view proved to be really useful for spotting color changes in formations and see-
ing large scale structures. The mapping
was all done without any of the trek-
king through drainage ditches, scan-
ning the ground for snakes, or forget-
ting to reapply sunscreen.
I visited Arches National Park later in
the summer and was really excited that
I was able to recognize formations that
I had mapped earlier in the summer.
On the hike up to Delicate Arch I even
stopped to geek out over the defor-
mation bands.

At the start of every week, I print all the important material and tape them on the wall behind
me to look back at it whenever I need it.
Shahad