Saturday, February 7, 2015

Death Valley Spring Break

Exciting news: I committed to a Spring Break trip to Death Valley National Park with the NDSU Geosciences Department this week. 

Geosciences? Jodi, you have two majors and a minor, but geology is none of these!

That is correct. However, my minor is soil science and geology and soil science have an incredibly close relationship. There would be no soil on earth if there were not rocks from which soil could form from. 

Over Spring Break, Geosciences professors, one Soil Science professor, and a handful of students will venture to  one of the most inhospitable places on earth to learn about the valley's geology, ecology, and history. Each student is to create a chapter for a class guidebook and a corresponding talk for the trip. Mine of course will be somewhat associated with plants, specifically with how plants cope with living environments too stressful for others to live in and how those living environments formed from a geologic and edaphic perspective. 

As a lover of National Parks and nature, I am excited for the adventure and the chance to learn more about geology. It might be a skip, hop and a jump away from home but I know that the time spent there will be worth it. I look forward to sharing pictures of Death Valley and knowledge gained on the trip.

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