Upper Cretaceous-Paleocene Sequence, Bug Creek Area, Northeastern Montana part of MT Field Guides
Study of the Late Cretaceous-Paleocene sequence in the Bug Creek Area and the rest of the Fort Peck Fossil Field has contributed greatly to our understanding of the paleoecology and stratigraphy of dinosaur extinction and the primary radiation of Tertiary placental mammals. The area features at least 133 species of spores and pollen, 93 species of Cretaceous vertebrates (including 30 species of mammals and 19 species of dinosaurs), 24 species of Paleocene mammals, as well as the oldest ungulate and primate specimens ever found. Fossil leaves and wood have also been described. The area also includes well-studied localities of the K/T boundary containing Ir-rich clay and shocked quartz. No section of terrestrial sediments across the K/T boundary has been studied in as many ways as this one. This has been and will continue to be a major locality at which to study evidence for various hypotheses about the events at the K/T boundary.

Structural Geology of the Sawtooth Range at Sun River Canyon, Montana Disturbed Belt, Montana part of MT Field Guides
The Sawtooth Range is one of the best exposed examples of imbricate thrust faulting in the foreland fold and thrust belt of the western United States. It is an outstanding field classroom for the demonstration of stratal shortening and the various structural features associated with thrust belt terranes. This 7-stop traverse through Sun River Canyon offers excellent exposures of thrust contacts along the road and panoramic views of stacked thrust sheets and demonstrates the dependence of structural style on relative competence of units in the stratigraphic section.

Multiple Catastrophic Drainage of Glacial Lake Missoula, Montana part of MT Field Guides
This field guide describes two localities related to the history and drainage of Glacial Lake Missoula northwest of Missoula, Montana. The first site highlights spectacular erosional and depositional features that illustrate the effects of extremely large discharge related to the drainage of the lake. In a sense, the area is the world's most extravagant natural flume experiment. Features include bedrock basins (scoured by flood waters), large deltaic bars, and megaripples as large as 35 feet from crest to trough. The second site, a large roadcut along I-90, contains a record of at least 36 fillings of the lake, presumably during Pinedale(?) time, suggesting that drainage occurred many times. Another roadcut exposes a similar, but unstudied record of deposition in a higher terrace that probably formed during Bull Lake(?) time and may indicate an older history of lake formation and drainage.

Geology Along Going-To-The-Sun Road, Glacier National Park, Montana part of MT Field Guides
This guide to the geology along Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park describes many of the major geologic features of the Park. It is directed toward the Park visitor with little no no background in geology. The guide begins with a short introduction to the science of geology and the geologic time scale, followed by a simplified geologic cross section through the Park from SW to NE. The bulk of the field guide is a 21-stop road log, keyed to numered octagonal signs along the road, which describes the geology along the road. A glossary of geologic terms and an appendix is included which contains a brief geologic history of Glacier National Park, explanations of rock colors and fossil algae (stromatolites), and descriptions of the Proterozoic rock formations that can be seen along the Going-to-the-Sun Road. An extremely useful resource included at the back of the book is a fold-out geologic map, plotted on an oblique shaded-relief diagram, that depicts the landscape and the distribution of rock formations and faults in the vicinity of Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Glacial Lake Missoula: Sedimentary Evidence for Multiple Drainages part of MT Field Guides
Route Start point Missoula, MT End point Camas Prairie, MT Roads I-90, U.S. 93, Montana 200, Montana 382 Total distance Geology Summary This field trip guide briefly describes the possible origin of the ...

Middle Proterozoic Belt Supergroup, Western Montana part of MT Field Guides
From Great Falls, to Butte, Helena Glacier National Park and Spokane, this field trip crosses onto the leading edge of the Rocky Mountain thrust belt and proceeds to the stratiform copper-silver deposits in the Revett Formation of the Troy Mine in the main part of the Belt basin. The road log includes sections on the paleontology of the Middle Proterozoic Belt Supergroup, stromatolites of the Belt Supergroup (specific to Glacier National Park), Middle Proterozoic Tectonics of the Belt basin, and a sedimentologic and tectonic interpretation of the Belt Supergroup.

Quaternary Geology and Faulting of the Helena Valley, Montana part of MT Field Guides
This field trip will give the participants an overview of the Quaternary deposits and late Cenozoic faulting which have shaped the Helena valley. The Helena valley is a NW-trending graben surrounded by bedrock highlands. Most of the western half of the valley is a young alluvial plain formed of coalescing alluvial outwash fans issuing from drainages flowing towards Lake Helena. The western valley is ringed by older pediment surfaces sloping gently down from the valley margins. The eastern half of the valley is underlain primarily by later Tertiary silts, sands and gravels uplifted and segmented by normal faulting. Atop these Tertiary deposits along the southern valley margin, early Quaternary alluvial deposits are preserved as hilltop remnants of a formerly much larger deposit. Late Cenozoic faulting shaped the Helena valley, creating the modern topography and influencing sedimentation patterns; however, only a few faults show evidence of late Quaternary offsets.

Economic Geology of the Greater Helena Area: Helena to Montana Tunnels Mine, Lump Gulch, Grizzly Gulch, Fort Harrison and Marysville part of MT Field Guides
The Helena area has a long history of base- and precious-metal production from the Corbin-Wickes District on the south to the Marysville gold district northwest of the Capitol City. Gold has also been mined from the placers along Last Change Gulch now within the city limits. This field trip examinations the volcanic-hosted ore body at the recently opened Montana Tunnels mine south of Helena. From this mine, participants will travel north to Helena through an area of numerous inactive base- and precious-metals mines at the northern margin of the Boulder batholith and then onto the Marysville district northwest of Helena where the gold deposits are related to the Marysville stock.

Sapphire Deposits of the Missouri River Near Helena, Montana part of MT Field Guides
Sapphires occur with gold, both in terrace deposits along the Missouri River and in the active river channel. Both of these minerals have been recovered from these deposits beginning with recovery of gold in the latter part of the 1800's. More recently, up until the early 1940's, sapphires were also recovered from these operations for industrial uses. In recent years recovery of sapphires by recreationists for faceting into gem stones has become important. Five deposits open for fee digging will be visited during this field excursion. They are situated on the French, Eldorado, Spokane and Gruell's bars. Also, exposures of a sapphire-bearing andesite sill close to the Missouri River and considered a source for some of the sapphires found in the gravels will be examined.

The Middle Yellowstone Valley from Livingston to Gardiner, Montana: A Microcosm of Northern Rocky Mountain Geology part of MT Field Guides
The middle Yellowstone valley, between the Great Plains at Livingston and the edge of the Yellowstone volcanic plateau near Gardiner, is a complex palimpsest of lithology, structure, and surficial processes. It shares basement rocks with the continental interior, largely to the north and east; Paleozoic lithologies with the western interior, compressive tectonics with the Fold and Thrust Belt to the west; extension with the Basin and Range to the west and south; and Cenozoic volcanism and elements of its geomorphic evolution with much of the surrounding region. The geological exploration of this region serves as a microcosm of the evolution of the geological understanding of the American West.