Campus: UC Riverside

Instructor: Michael McKibben

Reserve Used:
Sweeney Granite Mountains
     Desert Research Center

Featured Reserve:
The Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Research Center is ideal for both geological and ecological investigations. Punctuated by rugged mountains, braided bajadas, sprawling lava flows, singing sand dunes, and saline playas, the reserve lies at the junction of four biogeographical provinces and is home to a diversity of plant and animal communities.

Fieldwork at a place like the Granite Mountains is essential for any geology student. It really prepares them to be real geologists in the real world. These students, especially if they go into mineral or oil exploration, may end up in a Third World country that's never been studied or mapped very well. And they have to figure out what the rocks are and where the interesting rocks are that may contain resources. It's not an easy transition to make from the lab to the field.

-Michael McKibben, UC Riverside

There's an old saying that the best geologist is the one who has seen the most rocks. At UC Riverside, the process of transforming students into field geologists begins with Earth Sciences 100. Michael McKibben has taught the class since 1984. "Whether a student is interested in teaching, prospecting for resources, or dealing with seismic hazards," he explains, "it's critical that we get them out in the field to see the layout of the rocks, and faults, and landforms in three dimensions. The Granite Mountains reserve is ideal for this."

Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Research Center provides access to a diversity of geologic sites. "The reserve itself contains some of the deepest exposed crustal rock in the Mojave," McKibben notes, "and a huge alluvial fan that is probably the largest geomorphic landform in the desert. Nearby, there are the basalt cinder cones in the Cima field and a thick sequence of Miocene volcanic rocks in the Van Winkle Mountains. These are spectacular deposits laid down by explosive events on the scale of Mount St. Helens. Then there are iron-ore deposits at the nearby Vulcan Mine. And for fossils, we head to a famous trilobite locale in the Marble Mountains with some of the oldest large fossils in the geologic record. Even the Kelso Dunes, which are geologically very young, get much of their sand from the Granites."

During their time in the field, McKibben challenges the students, mostly juniors and seniors, to expand their vision. "They've spent a lot of time reading and in labs, studying hand specimens of rocks and minerals. But on these trips, you can throw them on a mountain range and ask them to figure out what all the rock types are, and what all the minerals are, and how this mountain got here. That's a big step for them. It's a step in spatial scale, and in integrating all this lab and book work that they've done, and applying it in the field."

As well as giving access to rocks, the reserve also provides a base for resting and teaching. "Unlike much of the Mojave, you have the whole place to yourself, it's inexpensive, and the Norris cabin (in an isolated section of the reserve) is great for a small class. It has room for 14 people, and a kitchen with two refrigerators and a stove. In the dining room there's a huge table where people can eat and also lay out their books and maps. There's even a campfire outside and the nighttime sky is spectacular. It has a lot of appeal practically and logistically, as well as philosophically and emotionally."