WELCOME TO VAGABOND GEOLOGY WHERE GEOLOGY ROCKS!
2024 - National Treasures of our National Wonders - Yr 3 - Eastern North America
In this third and final year of their "National Treasures" trilogy, the Vagabond adventurers, Sandi Phillips & Rocky Romero, research and present the National Parks and Monuments that lie on or near the geologic physiographic provinces of the Eastern North America. Internationally into Canada and south into Florida -- from the L'Anse aux Meadows at the tip of northern Newfoundland to Dry Tortugas Island south of Key West Florida -- our national treasures in these geologic wonders will astound you!
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Session 1 - Setting the Stage: Review geologic concepts from the first two years of the National Parks trilogy-- Plate Tectonics, Island Arcs, Exotic Terranes, Orogeny (mountain building), and Volcanoes -- in preparation for the exciting, and very different geology of eastern North America. Introduce the eleven national parks of Newfoundland (3), the US Appalachians (5), and Florida (3), with tidbits about unique geologic features, culture, history or people to whet the excitement for our upcoming classes.
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Session 2 - Newfoundland: Starting with a special song by Sean Keane, "The Shores of Newfoundland," we delve into the northern most reaches of the Appalachian Mountains; Newfoundland's geography, geology, history and sights. We explore Gros Morne & Terra Nova National Parks, the Tablelands, Western Brook Pond and the famous archaeological site, L'Anse aux Meadows. We analyze how Africa played a role in forming Newfoundland. While studying the geology of the area, we go offshore to learn about the massive, iceberg resistant, oil platform called Hibernia. We round out the session by seeing how the most exact dating of the site has been done and how the Vikings could have sailed to Newfoundland.
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Session 3 - Appalachian Mountains of the USA: Using the geologic concepts of Plate Tectonics, Island Arcs, Exotic Terranes, and Orogeny (mountain building) we delve into the amazing billion-year geologic history of the formation of the North American continent. Focusing on the group of Appalachian Geologic Provinces, we uncover how five national parks (Acadia, Shenandoah, New River Gorge, Great Smoky, and Congaree) are in different Provinces and the impact these differences have to the geologic and topographic characteristics of each. We also investigate the activities and opportunities that the parks offer for recreation, escape, and pleasure for our American people.
This lesson has 3 supplemental files that need to be placed in the same directory as the Part A & B files. Don't open Parts A&B until you have downloaded the supplemental files so that in-file linkages are not broken...
Due to uploading restrictions, this week's class file has to be broken into two parts, PartA & PartB. Be sure to download both parts and put in same directory as supplemental files.
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Session 4: Florida - Review what a geological "platform" is and why Florida sits on top of one. The evolution of the Florida Platform is reviewed and how that formation applies to the three national parks of Florida: Key Biscayne, Dry Tortugas, and the Everglades. History, size, amenities, and special features of each park are reviewed. Notably, Key Biscayne's Stiltsville, "Safety Valve" sand bar, Fowey Rocks Lighthouse, and Boca Chita & Elliot Islands; Dry Tortugas' Fort Jefferson, Garden Key, Long Key, Bush Key, & Loggerhead Key. History, size, amenities of the Everglades National Park are reviewed but the principle focus for that park is on the evolution of water management for the park, reducing it's natural area to one half of what it should have been.
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Session 5 - Past, Present, and Future: First a review of the people and parks we’ve met on the journey through the parks of the eastern United States and Newfoundland. Then an evaluation and comparison of the attributes of the parks with cases studies on two parks: Great Smoky Mountains and Everglades. Using our newly learned concepts of Plate Tectonics, Island Arcs, Exotic Terranes, and Orogeny (mountain building) we expand our focus to the big picture of the formation of three supercontinents, Columbia, Rodinia, and Pangaea in the past 2 billion years. We also evaluate some of the possible scenarios of what the next 250 million years might bring to our planet as Eurasia, the mega-continent of today, transforms into the next supercontinent on Earth.
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Session 6 - Days Gone By:
Announcement-This is the last course and last class that Sandi & Rocky will be teaching at Senior U;
we are retiring...again.
We review how we got started with Sr.U in 2009 and the 18 courses we have developed and presented. We've created and presented a total of 271 classes and 11,864 PowerPoint slides. We review some of the more memorable field trips we've also given, both day trips and multi-day trips. Then we look at the supporting website created to provide access to all past class materials, interesting science topics, and a free PowerPoint Reader to view all past classes. Lastly we review how important travel is and substantiate that with some Mark Twain quotes. In closing, we sign out with our best wishes to Sr.U and it's members. So long everyone!
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