Spring 2025 Course Provided an Immersive Field Component Designed to Reinforce Key Stratigraphic and Sedimentological Principles
The Spring 2025 semester course Advanced Stratigraphy and Modern Depositional Systems, taught by Dr. Julia Wellner at the 91破解版, provided an immersive field component designed to reinforce key stratigraphic and sedimentological principles.
The field trip was held April 27–May 3, with an additional research visit on May 5–6. It took students across a diverse range of depositional environments in Washington and Oregon. Accompanied by faculty members Dr. Will Struble and Dr. Jinny Sisson, students had the opportunity to apply classroom concepts to real-world stratigraphy in outcrop and core settings.
Throughout the semester, students gave in-class presentations on a variety of depositional systems—including beaches, shorefaces, lahar and ash fall deposits, tsunami deposits, and glacial facies such as glaciomarine, subglacial, and glaciolacustrine environments. These topics were directly linked to field stops, where students acted as guides, delivering detailed on-site presentations about the stratigraphy and sedimentology of each location.
The trip began on Whidbey Island, Washington:
- Day 1 included an overview at Mount Erie and Deception Pass (Morgann Farley, Breno Goldenberg).
- Day 2 featured the Fort Casey Outcrops (Josh Miller) and Penn Cove (Asmara Lehrman).
- Day 3 (morning) focused on Double Bluff (Anuska Pudasaini).
The group then transitioned inland to Vantage, Washington:
- They observed Yakima River Volcanics (Sarah Garcia), the Vantage Sandstone (Shawn Fields), West Bar giant ripples, and Craig’s Hill (Shawn Fields).
- Additional presentations covered the Channeled Scablands (Makenna Harris), Dry Falls State Park (Jameson Hampton), and glacial varves (Edgar Moreno).
During the Central Washing portion of the trip, portions of each day were led by Andrew Sadowski, Washington Department of Natural Resources, and Logan Wetherell, formerly of Central Washington University. Their local expertise added to the discussions and expanded the material covered. At Sun Lakes - Dry Falls State Park, the class was met by a park ranger who shared details about the history of outburst flooding in the region.
Returning to the coast, the class traveled to Ilwaco, Washington:
- A land acknowledgment and history of the region’s Indigenous peoples was presented by Jamie Jetton.
- Stops included Willapa Bay (Estefani Ruiz Toro), the Bay Center Cliffs (Gideon Abunuma), and the 1700 Cascadia tsunami deposit (Lucille Baker-Stahl).
- Daniel Maya and Kennedy Potter led discussions at Pickernell Creek South Cliffs and surrounding tidal sloughs.
Between the Washington and Oregon segments, the class visited Devils Punchbowl State Natural Area, observing recent landslides, and an outcrop showcasing massive turbidite sequences near Newport, Oregon, both guided by Dr. Will Struble.
The final portion of the trip brought a subset of the class to Oregon State University in Corvallis, where they spent two intensive days working in the OSU Marine and Geology Repository. Here, they assisted PhD student Asmara Lehrman and undergraduate Jamie Jetton in describing and sampling over 20 meters of Antarctic sediment cores. The group gained firsthand experience identifying glacial facies in core, practiced sediment description, and toured the repository’s extensive archive of marine cores from around the world.
This field experience offered students the rare opportunity to link theoretical knowledge to field and laboratory data.
The diverse range of depositional systems — from glacial and volcanic settings to coastal, deltaic, and deep-marine environments — highlighted the complexity of stratigraphic interpretation. Moreover, the student-led format encouraged peer learning and deep engagement with each site.
Field experiences for graduate courses in stratigraphy are made possible by a generous gift from Chevron. Next year’s trip is expected to be to the West Texas Permian Basin. We are grateful for their support along with all of the people that helped the trip along the way.