![]() ![]() She brought the sample back to Vassar to analyze its composition. Crowell says that in the field, she collected a small sample from the valley floor that she believed to be mostly halite (salt). Marlena Crowell ’14 studied salt deposits in Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea level -the lowest point in North America. “When you’re there, you can study the rocks in a way that can’t be done in a classroom or a lab.” The narrow neck of Mosaic Canyon, carved into the Noonday Dolomite by the scouring action of grit-laden flash floods “There’s a saying among geologists that you go where the rocks are -there’s no substitute for being there,” Schneiderman says. Because it has undergone so many transformations, its rocks and dry streambeds contain an abundance of information about the earth’s natural history. The land that comprises Death Valley was once part of an ocean -and at a different point in history, part of an inland sea, and now one of the driest and most desolate places on earth. Schneiderman says she had taken a class to Death Valley when she taught earth science at the University of California at Pomona nearly 25 years ago and was glad to be able to return with a class from Vassar. “The winds are stronger on Mars, so the effects are greater, but it’s really quite similar to what you see at Death Valley,” Jones says. He noted the same phenomena are found on Mars. ![]() In his presentation on ventifacts -rocks that are eroded by sand particles blown by the wind -Jones explained how studying their shapes enables scientists to determine wind patterns of the region over a long period of time. Students walking on the Badwater Basin playa “But going to Death Valley and seeing it for myself made the whole concept of sedimentation and erosion easier for me to understand,” he says. Jones, the only first-year student in the class, says he had some anxiety about completing the course successfully when he first enrolled. They prepared posters on their expanded research at the end of the semester. The students did some initial research on their sites at the start of the semester, then gave oral presentations and gathered more information when they got there. Before the trip, each student chose a site that had particular geological significance. Jones was one of nine students in earth science and geography professor Jill Schneiderman’s class on sedimentary rocks and stratigraphy at Death Valley and the Mojave Desert during Spring Break. ![]()
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