1998: Las Cruces Country II
Snapshots from the 1998 Annual Fall Field Conference in Las Cruces Country. Select an image to open the full-size version.
Photographs courtesy of Fred Gamble.
Bagpipes
Jack Cunningham, retired WNMU professor, playing the bagpipes.
Day 1 — Quarry at Derry Hills
Day 1, Stop 1, foot-log stop 1. Exposure of argillaceous limestone in the lower part of the Pennsylvanian Bar B Formation.
Day 1 — Bar B Formation
Day 1, Stop 1, foot-log stop 3. Exposure of pebble and cobble conglomerates in the uppermost part of the Pennsylvanian Bar B Formation.
Day 3 — East Rincon Hills
Day 3, Stop 1. Jim Witcher discusses geothermal activity at an outcrop of the Camp Rice Formation. The outcrop records the shallow dynamics of a fossil geothermal system.
Day 3 — Opal Bed
Day 3, Stop 2. A distinctive opal bed in the Camp Rice Formation contains silicified stems, tubers, roots, and grasses. It is believed to be a distal remnant of the siliceous sinter complex fed by hot springs discharging from the East Rincon Hills fault zone.
Day 3 — Hayner Ranch Formation
Day 3, Stop 3. Participants look for barite and psilomelane crystals in a quarry most recently mined for road aggregate. The mineralization occurs in the Hayner Ranch Formation.
Field Trip Chairman Greg Mack
Field trip chairman Greg Mack had many duties, including discouraging participants from straying too close to an active beehive on the cliff face near Stop 1 on the third day.
Return to Photos from Past Conferences or the Fall Field Conference overview.