Compositional Diversity in Volcanic Suites part of Integrating Research and Education:EarthChem:Compositional Diversity in Volcanic Suites
Kent Ratajeski Published Oct. 26, 2004. Description In this exercise, students use whole-rock major- and trace-element compositions of volcanic rocks to explore the origins of compositional variation in igneous ...

The Cretaceous Superplume part of Integrating Research and Education:Cretaceous
This page was written by Kent Ratajeski as part of the DLESE Community Services Project: Integrating Research in Education. HideA satellite gravity and bathymetric map of the Ontong-Java plateau, an igneous ...

Activity: How healthy is your neighborhood? part of Integrating Research and Education:Environmental Health Risk Assessment
You are going to complete an environmental health risk inventory of your neighborhood or hometown. Before you get started, you may want to review the terminology and familiarize yourself with environmental health ...

Crystallization-Differentiation of the Kilauea Iki Lava Lake part of Integrating Research and Education:EarthChem:Kilauea Iki Lava Lake
Kent Ratajeski Published Oct. 26, 2004. Description In this exercise, students use major-element compositions of whole-rocks, volcanic glasses, and minerals in lavas and drill cores from the solidified Kilauea Iki ...

Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and the Middle Rocky Mountains part of Integrating Research and Education:Montana Geoheritage Project:Montana-Yellowstone Geologic Field Guide Database:MT Field Guides
This trip is designed to show participants the granite-cored Laramide (Late Cretaceous-earliest Eocene) mountain ranges in the middle Rocky Mountains, and their various stages of burial by Cenozoic deposits and subsequent Quaternary exhumation. Mountain-flank structures involving Precambrian, Paleozoic, and Mesozoic rocks, the classic Heart Mountain detachment fault complex, and the rootless overthrust mountain ranges of the Wyoming-Utah-Idaho thrust belt are traversed.

Road Log from Bozeman to Specimen Creek via Gallatin Canyon and U.S. 191 part of Integrating Research and Education:Montana Geoheritage Project:Montana-Yellowstone Geologic Field Guide Database:MT Field Guides
This trip leads southward through the Gallatin Range to Specimen Creek in Yellowstone National Park. It affords an excellent worm's-eye view of the structure and stratigraphy of this range as revealed both laterally and vertically through the quietly beautiful Gallatin Canyon. The route also borders the east margin of the Madison Range and its spectacular Spanish Peaks uplift. The Gallatin and Madison Ranges are geologically and topographically similar, an essential difference being the thick cap of andesitic lava and breccia that covers the high parts of the Gallatin Range.

Is there a present volcanic hazard? part of Integrating Research and Education:Yellowstone
The volcanic processes that created the Yellowstone Geoecosystem are still active. One way that geoscientists determine the likelihood of a certain type of eruption occurring is by documenting how often they have ...

The Yellowstone Plateau-Island Park Region part of Integrating Research and Education:Montana Geoheritage Project:Montana-Yellowstone Geologic Field Guide Database:MT Field Guides
The Yellowstone Plateau, at the center of one of the Earth's largest volcanic fields, spans the continental divide between the Northern and Middle Rocky Mountains at an average elevation of about 2.400 m. The eruptions of the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field, entirely postdating 2.5 Ma, were exceedingly voluminous but are only the surficial expression of the emplacement of a batholithic volume of rhyolitic magma to high crustal levels. Although the latest eruptions were about 70,000 years ago, an immense hydrothermal system and a variety of geophysical characteristics indicate the continued presence of an active shallow magma chamber.

A Study in Contrasts: Archean and Quaternary Geology of the Beartooth Highway, Montana and Wyoming part of Integrating Research and Education:Montana Geoheritage Project:Montana-Yellowstone Geologic Field Guide Database:MT Field Guides
Nowhere in the U.S. are the oldest and the most recent aspects of geology as spectacularly displayed as along the Beartooth Highway. The Beartooth Mountains are a block of largely Archean bedrock uplifted along high-angle reverse faults of Laramide age. The Precambrian rocks (3400-700 Ma) contain one of the best records of the early history of the igneous and metamorphic basement of the middle Rocky Mountains. These rocks include granulite-facies supracrustal rocks proposed as products of continental collision, calc-alkaline volcanic and plutonic rocks generated along an Archean continental margin, and mafic dikes some of which were emplaced during continental rifting. This Precambrian record encompasses at least two extensive periods of crustal evolution and records more geologic history at one location than any other place in the Wyoming Province. Descriptions of two key areas showing the fundamental relations between the Precambrian rocks are included: the Quad Creek area and the Long Lake area. The Beartooth Plateau has been extensively sculpted by glacial processes during the Pleistocene. The highway crosses a classic locality of "biscuit-board topography"--plateau remnants partially dissected by cirques--as well as deposits left by glaciers that etched the plateau. Features to be seen include glacio-fluvial terraces showing downstream effects of the glacial system and extensive areas of periglacial features that postdate glaciation. Glacial features are described from the Red Lodge area, Rock Creek Canyon, the hairpin turns, the Beartooth Plateau, and the Clark Fork basin.

The Hebgen Lake Earthquake Area, Montana and Wyoming part of Integrating Research and Education:Montana Geoheritage Project:Montana-Yellowstone Geologic Field Guide Database:MT Field Guides
Several high-angle normal faults bounding the west front of the Madison Range north of Hebgen Lake, recurrently active during much of Neogene time, reactivated catastrophically on August 7, 1959. Faulting was accompanied by largest historic earthquake within the Intermountain Seismic Belt. Unusual geologic features were formed--spectacular fault scarps, a large landslide, a deformed lake basin (Hebgen Lake), and a new lake (Earthquake Lake)--each of which demonstrates the destructive power of a large eathquake. These features are described in the context of the bedrock geology in this field guide.