Welcome to Fall Quarter 2016!

The year academic year is in full swing in the Department of Earth Science. Many faculty and students began the year with some exceptional field trips in the Sierra Nevada range and also on Santa Cruz Island. 

Earth 6: Mountains, Boots, and Backpacks: Field Study of the High Sierra

Led by Dr. Doug Burbank, students spend 10 days collecting data about a different field topics: glaciation and paleoclimate; active faulting; volcanology; water budgets, Cambrian fossils to 4000-yr-old trees; Yosemite and plutonism; structural geology; and geomorphology.  Evenings are spent analyzing and interpreting data, writing essays and summaries, and stargazing.

Earth 125: Field Methods in Hydrology

Led by Dr. Jordan Clark, this course spent 10 days in the Sierra as well, both Eastern and Western. The students examined a variety of hydrologic features and infrastructure such as the LA Aqueduct, the St. Francis Dam, Lake Tahoe, Mono Lake, and the travertine springs near Bridgeport, CA.

Annual Trip to Santa Cruz Island with Incoming Graduate Students

Organized by graduate student Elizabeth Steel, Professor Emeritus, Jim Boles led our incoming graduate students on a three-day excursion of western Santa Cruz Island, with historic Christy Ranch as the base of operations. 

Check out our Facebook page for more photos: https://www.facebook.com/UCSB.EarthScience/