Fire and Ice: Pacific Northwest Geology (GEOL 199)

Photo of the ocean. Course Description:

Take a leap into the giant jigsaw puzzle of the world around you!  Investigate the geologic history of the Pacific Northwest from its oceanic beginnings to recent explosive, surface-altering eruptions.  Experience the Ice-Age megafloods that carved the Channeled Scablands and Columbia Gorge.  Get your hands dirty and read the rock record on your choice of several field trips: day trips to the Oregon Coast and Willamette Valley, a two-day trip to the John Day Fossil Beds of central Oregon, and a 3-day camping trip to the Channeled Scablands of the Columbia Plateau.  Talk with guest lecturers about their careers, and learn to conduct your own research on a piece of the puzzle.

Course Details: 

  • 3 Credits
  • CRN 32512
  • MWF 10-10:50
  • 254 COL

Photo of College Connections for Oregon Outside, Dave Blackwell. About the Instructor: David Blackwell

I have been an Instructor in the Dept. of Geological Sciences for approximately the last 20 years.  In my position in the Department, I have become a “jack of all trades” in the fields of geology as I fill in for most of the various classes within the Department.  With the exception of the Geophysics track, I have taught nearly every undergraduate class in the Department.  My love of geology is rooted in the field.  I am a field geologist at heart. I am constantly intrigued at the observations of processes present and past of this Earth.  As such I try to instill that passion in the classes I teach.  My classes always have a strong field component with both one-day field trips and multiple-day field trips.  To understand the world around us, one must immerse themselves in the observations.  It is in the field that ideas are born and hypotheses are imagined.  From there the lab, the library, the classroom, and your peers round out your ideas and put them into a more complete perspective.  It is always my hope that a student leaving my course can no longer just look at the scenery and say; “that’s pretty” or “that’s interesting”.  Instead, they will think that and say why.  If I have accomplished that, then I am a teacher.  Hope to see you in one of my classes.