GSM Tours and Field Trips in 2019 summary

GSM Tours and Field Trips in 2019

The following field trips and tours were conducted by the Geological Society of Minnesota in 2019.

Dave Peters and Randy Strobel organized a “Sand and Sandstone” three-day field trip on Saturday, Sept 7 through Monday, Sept 9 to examine sand and sandstone formations of east central Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. Around 44 persons participated. The locations were within 3 hours of the Twin Cities.

Day 1:  Led by GSM’s Randy Strobel in the Sandstone, MN area. First, we visited a historic sandstone quarry at Robinson Park on the Kettle River. We then drove 5 miles to Banning State Park, where we hiked the Quarry Loop, Hells Gate, and Wolf Creek Falls trails (about 3.5 miles total), where we observed a large historic sandstone quarry.

Day 2:  Led by Tom Fitz of Northland College in Ashland, WI, we observed Amnicon Falls near Lake Superior and the Namekagon Barrens Wildlife Area near Minong, WI. This day featured an examination of evidence of the 1.1-billion-year-old Midcontinent Rift, subsequent sandstone formation in the Lake Superior basin and then the vast belt of outwash sands left across northwestern Wisconsin by recent glaciation. 

Day 3: Led by Lauren Finch at Crex Meadows Wildlife Area near Grantsburg, WI. This day featured an examination of the human history, disturbance, reclamation and management of that portion of the northwestern Wisconsin sands.

See reports in the November 2019 Newsletter.

Dave Wilhelm organized a tour the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory and its varied experiments on December 11, 2019. About 7 persons participated. See reports of previous tours in the Spring 2015 Newsletter and May, 2017 Newsletter.