Structural Analysis
This 12-day field course takes place at IU’s Judson Mead Geologic Field Station. The seminar focuses on the creation of a 3D model that can be studied and restored using state of the art software packages. It starts with fieldwork on a well-exposed fold, locally referred to as the J-Fold, which is associated with the Sappington Thrust Fault. Fieldwork includes stratigraphic work, field mapping, and the collection of data to construct a series of dip cross sections.
The Field Station is located in Cardwell, Montana, which sits in the valley of the Jefferson River in the Tobacco Root Mountains. Our location in the Rocky Mountains is unique with remarkably diverse geology spanning 3.5 Ga of Geologic history. Rocks immediately around the IUGFS include Archean gneisses and schists, Proterozoic and Phanerozoic sedimentary rocks, Cretaceous-Tertiary intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks, and Neogene sedimentary rocks that are barely lithified.
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