Friday, July 10, 2009

Fieldwork Friday #10

A few weeks ago we were working down in the Moab area, most unsuccessfully due to daily rainstorms, which made digging a bit difficult. So we had to bail on the quarry work for the most part and stuck to prospecting and checking out a few track sites in the area.

We prospected a section of Chinle Formation, where we found some wood (picture below) and isolated, indeterminate bone. Nothing to spectacular, unfortunately. And we, inevitably, got chased off by rain. A while down the road the rain blew out and we stopped to prospect a Paleozoic outcrop (I can’t remember the age, Penn. maybe). We found quite a few brachiopods, some crinoids and bryozoans - your typical invertebrate fun (I forgot to take pictures!).

We checked out quite a few track sites while we were over in the area, including the Poison Spider Mesa and Copper Ridge track sites (both in the Jurassic age Entrada Sandstone) that are managed by the BLM.

The tracks at Poison Spider Mesa are interesting because not only are they awesome tracks but also mudcracks, ripple marks and a ton of petroglyphs! These petroglyphs are from the Fremont culture. Some are really great and weird, and many of them have been vandalized by others who feel the need to leave their mark right next to these marks or some even modifying and marking over the petroglyphs. So sad and illegal!

Pictures from the Poison Spider Mesa Track Site:



Pictures from the Copper Ridge Track Site:




So, even though this is more of a paleosite visit trip than fieldwork, I thought I would include it in the series. Hope you enjoy it and have a chance to visit these sites some day!

© ReBecca K. Hunt-Foster. Please see the
"Field Work Friday Rules" about the work I do and collection practices.

1 comment:

Doug said...

Rain, Bane of the Dig. Over at Tarkio Valley Sloth Project, he said they had to cancel their dig due to rain.