Field Trips Continued:

A typical spring trip is preceded by a term-long seminar in which the students become familiar with the general geology and layout of the field trip area. This past year Jeff Clark offered a seminar on the geology and natural history of Puerto Rico. The course culminated in a spring break field trip to Puerto Rico. The trip was physically as well as mentally challenging. We hiked though tropical rain forests and deserts, kayaked through mangrove swamps and phosphorescent lagoons, floated down underground rivers in the North Central karst province, and snorkeled the beautiful reefs of Vieques - a small island off the east coast. Prior to and during the trip, students researched and led field trips on topics of their choice including: tropical ecology, hurricane disturbance, coastal processes, coral reefs, bioluminescent lagoons, Caribbean archaeology, tropical soils, mass wasting, and karst topography. You can follow these links to web pages that the students designed for the seminar. This year we’ll likely head out west again and then who knows, maybe Norway?

What's going ... on? This is what the coral sees.