MSU Geology Students in the Field

Structural geology students practiced their mapping skills on a weekend fieldtrip to the Blount Springs anticline in eastern Alabama. The goal of the trip was to discover a record of Appalachian deformation close to home by collecting information about how the rocks in this area bent (folded) and broke (faulted) in response to tectonic stresses. The students wrote rock descriptions, sketched outcrops, and took many measurements of rock orientation using brunton compasses. They will use that data over the next two weeks to construct a cross section- a model of a slice through the Earth- that will reveal buried subsurface folds and eroded folds no longer visible. Students will also be able to derive the orientations for stresses associated with the growth of the Appalachian Mountains