A Company of Stretchers

The sun beams down through a clear blue sky to break up into tiny flashing diamonds that lap up onto the sides of the houseboats. Sheer 600-foot cliffs of Navajo sandstone without a fracture stand as sentinels watching our presence. Long black streaks of "desert varnish," accumulated through the runoff of countless rainstorms washing down their faces, have added even more color to the warm reds and oranges of these canyon rocks. The arched tracings of cross-bedding visible on the rock wall testify that this formation started out life as a sand dune of quartz grains which were later heated, squeezed, and cemented into the monolithic cliff before us. Plant life is sparse by New England standards in this land of sand and rocks that makes up Utah's Glen Canyon Recreation Area. Now and then the sweep of the cliffs is broken by a horizontal line of green vegetation growing on a seep where water has found its way through a more permeable limestone bed within.

The drone of a winch echoes off the sandstone walls, and several eager Dartmouth students lean far over the railing in an attempt to peer deeper into the green Lake Powell water that fills the Glen Canyon. Everyone crowds closer to get a better look at the torpedo-like apparatus which is being pulled up out of the water. This strange piece of equipment is a piston corer used to sample the sediments on the bottom of the lake. By comparing cores from different areas of the lake, graduate student William Condit is able to keep track of the rate and type of sedimentation that is occurring in Lake Powell. Condit and Professor Charles Drake make a good team and soon have the mud-smeared piston corer safely on deck with the help of a few students. This is a routine exercise each fall when geology students and professors from the College travel to the southwestern United States for a few days of hydrology and sedimentation studies at Lake Powell.

The Lake Powell Project, a broad National Science Foundation-sponsored endeavor, was initiated in 1971 for the purpose of studying all aspects of the lake and the effects of the Glen Canyon Dam on the surrounding environment. It includes archaeological and anthropological studies of ancient as well as recent inhabitants of the canyon country, zoological and botanical research, and geological investigation. Dartmouth has participated in the program from its inception, making observations of sedimentation and various hydrologic processes. For the past seven years professors, graduate students, and undergraduates have collected data on the cycles that occur in the lake. By understanding these cycles and how the lake functions, they can contribute the critical information needed to prevent the waters from becoming anaerobic and unhealthy. Professor Drake, internationally known oceanographer and past president of the Geologic Society of America, shares his enthusiasm for his Lake Powell studies with undergraduates: "We like to take students to where we do our research; they learn by participating in our projects, and we get a new perspective on our work by listening to their questions."

ANYONE choosing a geology major at Dartmouth is required to take an intensive term of three courses in the field during the fall of either junior or senior year. Within the Earth Sciences Department, this term is known as the "Three Way Stretch," and participating students are commonly referred to as "Stretchers." It is called three-way since part of the term is spent in the Hanover area, part in the Southwest, and part in Central America. The Stretch provides an extraordinary opportunity for students to study a large variety of rock types and to observe geologic processes first-hand. The advantage of taking only geology courses during one full term is that the students are able to take extended field trips without missing other classes - not to mention how much more is absorbed when they are exclusively occupied with geology all day, every day.

The first six weeks of the term are devoted to two courses, Structural Geology and Field Methods, with more or less local field trips arranged to illustrate points being studied in each. These courses culminate in a trip to the Catskills in New York State to study the classic formations of the Helderberg Group. After five days of collecting data on geologic traverses, the students return to Hanover and test the skills learned in both courses by making a detailed geologic map of the study area. The last five weeks of the term are concentrated on Field Geology, a course which consists, in effect, of two major field trips - the first to Lake Powell, the second to Central America. By the.end of the term students have investigated metamorphic and intrusive igneous rocks in New England, sedimentation processes and sedimentary strata in the West, and active geologic processes at work in the form of volcanoes and recent faults in Central America.

There is no one typical day on the Stretch. Since the schedule depends on where you are and what you are trying to accomplish, the term is probably best described as a life of contrasts. Segments spent in the western United States and Central America are not as rigorous academically as the New England segment, but they are more physically demanding. The first part of the Stretch is the most like normal Dartmouth life: classes all morning, labs and field trips during the afternoon, and assignments to be worked on at night. Stretchers turn out maps on the order of one every three or four days, and one student recently called the first part of the term the hardest academically of any time at Dartmouth. Once the Stretch moves west to Lake Powell, the atmosphere relaxes. Learning comes from conversations with professors rather than formal lectures, and students feel that they learn more as a result of this constant association with faculty members. "It's much easier for professors to explain things because you are with them all the time. ... Textbooks are fine, but it's not as real as being in the field," commented one Stretcher.

The days in Central America are long and strenuous. Students and professors rise early, to make their arduous climb up the volcano before the sun gets really hot. After lunch and a lecture at the summit, they descend into the crater for several hours to collect gas samples and to study mineral encrustations around fumaroles. The volcanoes can be dangerous - a few years ago a Dartmouth graduate student died on such an expedition - and the students are carefully coached on safety matters before they are allowed down into the craters. The hike back down the volcano goes quickly and the group may stop to look at outcrops or some feature of the Guatemalan graben - a depression in the ground between two faults - before returning to base sunburned and covered with cinders. After dinner students present summaries of the day's activities, and professors outline the agenda for the following day. A return trip is often made to the volcano at night, to make thermal studies of its surface with an infrared heat sensor. The next day all rise at dawn and are off by 7:00 to repeat the procedure at a different volcano. The days are physically tiring, but as one student said, "I was enjoying what I was doing so much that geology really came alive."

The Stretch did not always involve the wide-ranging travel that it does today. In 1958, when the College adopted a threeterm, three-course curriculum, majors were first required to take three geology courses at once. The first trip to Central America was in the fall of 1966, when Professor Richard Stoiber took six students to Guatemala and El Salvador to aid him in his field research. With the beginning of the Lake Powell Project in 1971, students first chose whether to go to Central America or to Utah, depending on whether their interest was in volcanic or in sedimentary rocks. After one year, however, the department decided to send all majors to both locations, figuring each was too valuable an educational experience to miss. The number of students on the Stretch expanded in recent years to peak in 1976, when 46 majors participated in the program. This increase can be largely attributed to the heightened awareness of the environment and to the fact that the job market for geologists has been very good in recent years.

The Stretch is only one part of what the Earth Sciences Department has to offer its geology students. The high caliber of the introductory courses is evidenced by the ratings they receive in the student- written Course Guide: "[Earth Sciences 2] may well be one of the best 'distribs' in the school. ... Bob Reynolds is an excellent professor, perhaps one of Dartmouth's best. ... [his] lectures contain a lot of knowledge and are a pleasure to experience." One reason for these high ratings is the quality of the professors. Rather than saving the best lecturers for graduate courses, the Earth Sciences Department has some of its most experienced and knowledgeable faculty teaching beginning students, even though a great many of them may be non-science majors.

Beyond the introductory level, of course, the Stretch gives new majors a look into the field of science they are about to tackle. The three-course combination is normally taken before other upper-level geology. One may argue that inexperienced students with only one major course, mineralogy, under their belts can't take full advantage of the opportunity. The professors prefer, however, that majors take the Stretch early. As Professor Drake explains it, "The program teaches students to see. Geology is such a complex topic that it is often difficult to sort out the most important facts. It is not a pure science such as mathematics, but it relies on all the other sciences and is interrelated with them."

The instructors have found that it is easier and more satisfying for students to learn geology in the lab and classroom after they have experienced it in the field. The Stretch not only exposes students to a wide range of geologic phenomena, but it gives student and teacher a common base to work from. In a later course, a professor may illustrate a point with an example of something that the students saw on the Stretch. The student remembers a lava flow on Pacaya Volcano, for instance, better than he would a diagram in a book. Perhaps the best example of this is an exercise on the Stretch wherein students measure the offset caused by a major fault in the Motagua Valley of Guatemala. This fault marks the boundary between two major continental plates: the Americas Plate to the north and the Caribbean Plate to the south. Here is a first-hand example of the plate tectonics theory in action. Along this fault system the great Guatemalan earthquake of February 4, 1976, occurred as the Americas and Caribbean plates slid past each other in a strikeslip motion.

Plate tectonics is a recent theory that is revolutionizing the earth sciences. It is, however, a concept so broad that it is sometimes difficult to illustrate in everyday terms. Professor Richard Birnie, who was in Guatemala just days after the earthquake says that "there are few places in the world where active faulting can be seen and studied so well. ... This is a really dramatic demonstration of the geologic effects of plate tectonics and earthquakes. ... I think also that the tragic social and human impact of this earthquake provides a valuable lesson to the students." Being able to see what is actually going on at the margins of these two plates by looking at offsets in roads, fences, and drainage ditches gives the theory a reality that is difficult to obtain in a book.

Beyond being a teaching aid for professors, the Stretch gets the students field oriented. It is- one thing to read conclusions of a study in a textbook and another actually to participate in collecting data and in making field observations for an ongoing research project. Students learn that 90 per cent of any study is the toil of field work and data reduction while only a small percentage of time is actually spent in drawing the conclusions that make a significant contribution to science.

In the Earth Sciences Department, professors are no longer just teachers; students get to know them as friends and work with them as fellow geologists. As a result of working closely together, the students, faculty, and graduate students develop a camaraderie apparently rare in other departments. You do not have to be a particularly brilliant student to get to know a professor, and friendships do not depend on your grade point average. Whether you are sweating your way up to the top of Cerro Negro Volcano in Nicaragua to collect gas samples from a fumarole, or playing Liar's Dice on Lake Powell, the relationships that form here are much closer than those found in any classroom. A fringe benefit of the camaraderie was second place for the ROX Softball team in last summer's campus competition.

Following the Stretch come upper-level courses in all areas of geology. Ambitious students find broad opportunities to do undergraduate research projects of their choosing. Many decide to work on the subject of a project a department member already has in progress; this year students are. working with their professors in Pakistan, Central America, Wyoming, and New England. But sometimes work with an outside geologist is more useful, and students benefit from the close contact the department maintains with geology alumni, either for a summer's research or a leave-term job with a mining company, for instance. Some majors find part-time employment within the department through work-study programs; others gain valuable experience in lab and computer work through positions available at the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory on Lyme Road.

Communication is good within the department, and faculty members and graduate students make every effort to keep each other and the undergraduates up on advances in their specialties. Each week the entire department gets together for a "Festive Friday Seminar," where the speaker may be a full professor, a graduate student, an undergraduate, or an outside visitor. The seminars not only promote communication, but they give the students glimpses of a broad range of geologyrelated subjects - from the newest remote sensing techniques to paleomagnetic dating to the possibilities of sampling gasses from volcanic fumaroles by means of radio- controlled model airplanes.

While Dartmouth's Earth Sciences Department offers as structured a curriculum as may be found at any liberal arts college, its special feature is the high level of unstructured learning that goes on. From the informal talks and field trips of the Friday seminars to the casual conversation at "Volcanoes for Lunch," there is a lot that the interested student can pick up. "I am continually amazed at the openness of the faculty," one student commented recently. "Very seldom have I gone looking for help and found a closed door. In fact, one simple question may end up in a fascinating discussion based on that particular professor's research."

The Stretch effectively capsulizes all the best things about the department: the closeness of the faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates; the informal relationship of all involved; the enthusiasm of the professors and their willingness to share their knowledge; the wide range of topics covered; and the opportunity to apply what is learned in class to active field projects, and vice versa. The friendly atmosphere not only does not compromise Dartmouth's high academic standards, it provides the kind of environment that encourages students and faculty to offer their very best. As one geology major puts it, "It's just like being in a family. ... Every professor really cares about the future of every student."

Whether or not a student goes on to a career in geology, the time spent with the Earth Sciences Department can only be described as worthwhile. The learning experience of the Stretch, in itself, is unforgettable. I for one will always remember evenings gathered around a driftwood fire on the shore of Lake Powell. The canyon walls stand immense and dark except for flickering firelight that dances on their lower reaches. A dome of twinkling starlight extends between the darkness of the walls, and shooting stars abound. The stars shine brighter and clearer than I have ever seen them before. Around the crackling warmth of the fire sit the Stretchers, captivated by Professor Robert Reynolds' tales of rock-climbing, geology, and earlier Lake Powell experiences. This is the way to study geology.

A full term of rocks

Cay Wieboldt '78 was one of 39 earthsciences majors who graduated in June.She presently is working with a miningcompany in Colorado.