Field Trip to Explore Local Natural Disasters
Summary
Every semester (3 times per year), we take all Natural Disasters students on a field trip. This semester, we took 603 students. We visit the Teton Dam, Henry's Fork caldera, and Hebgen Lake (1959) earthquake area. Students study topics including causes of the dam failure (geologic, engineering, and bureaucratic), the nature and evolution of calderas and the Yellowstone hot spot, tectonic setting of the Hebgen Lake earthquake, causes of the Madison rock slide, and damage by fault surface rupture and mass wasting. At each stop, faculty discuss the topics and guide students in field observations. Students answer a series of written questions to get credit for the field trip.
Learning Goals
Context for Use
Description and Teaching Materials
The mechanics of the field trip are typical of field trips. Faculty lead each trip consisting of 2 buses, with a previously trained TA on the second bus. We discuss what's outside the windows along the entire route, beginning with the shield volcano our campus is built on and the floodplain in Rexburg. We stop at all the sites in the accompanying Google Earth tour, which is used in conjunction with the field trip, both as a preview and a summary.
Google Earth Tour (KMZ File 5MB Apr10 14)
Teaching Notes and Tips
Assessment
References and Resources
- Learn more about the Natural Disasters course
- Read more about this real-world example, Resilience: The Teton Dam Disaster of 1976