Are You Prepared?
A compendium of hazards on MJC Geology Field Trips:
Some real (marked with *; if hyperlinked, get the real story!), some imagined, some just too awful to contemplate
Geologic Hazards
Pseudoscientific and Mythological Hazards
Road Hazards
Technology Hazards
Bodily Hazards
Psychological Hazards
Meteorological Hazards
Bureaucracy and Logistics
Extraterrestrial Hazards
Animal Hazards
Plant and Protists Hazards
Explanations (where applicable)
Volcanic Eruptions: California has numerous recently-active volcanic regions. Mt. Shasta probably erupted in 1786, while Lassen Peak let loose between 1914 and 1921, with a nuee ardente, a lahar, ash eruptions, and a lava flow. The Long Valley Caldera at Mammoth Lakes has had tens of thousands of earthquakes in the last 18 years, and at one point, magma reached to within 8,000 feet of the surface. The eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada in Owens Valley is the site of dozens of young cinder cones and lava flows. Geology field trippers are naturally attracted to such features, even more so when activity is on the increase. We haven't yet been lucky enough to be in the middle of an eruption...
Lemurians and Atlanteans: While on the subject of Mt. Shasta and its volcanic features, it is worthy to note that legends and rumors insist that the prominent peak is populated by large groups of beings. These include the Lemurians, a race with an ESP organ on their foreheads, and the ancestors of the Altantis survivors. We don't want to sound skeptical, but we haven't seen any of them on our field trips yet.The mountain was one of the favored sites for the Harmonic Convergence a few years ago in which people gathered, and with good vibes saved the Universe (it worked, we're still here!).
Native American Spirits and Ghosts: If you are looking for a corker of a story complete with poltergeists, screams in the dark, and murdered maidens wandering forever in dark mansions, well forget it. I don't go for that kind of thing. But has anything strange and unexplained ever happened to us on a field trip? Well, yes...
There is a beautiful high plateau that overlooks the plains surrounding the San Juan River with Monument Valley in the far distance. Hidden within the deep canyons along the margins of the mesa are hundreds of cliff dwellings and shelters of the Anasazi native culture. We made camp one year on the edge of the mesa, and on a dark moonless night, half a dozen students sat on the edge of the cliff, looking at the stars and singing old folk songs. The valley below was a dark and formless shadow. We could dimly see a few huge boulders just below, on the very brink of the cliff. One of the students spoke up: "Who's sitting on the boulder down there?". Squinting our eyes, we could just make out the dim light colored patch that looked like a white t-shirt in near total darkness. No one answered. Somebody pointed a flashlight towards the spot and nothing was there. Assured that our eyes were playing tricks on us, we went back to our reveries, but when the light was extinguished and darkness returned, we could still see the dim light. The spot then moved up and then over the side of the cliff and disappeared...now we were paying attention. What was it? We started discussing the possibilities: was another student playing a trick on us? Was a car driving across the plain 1,500 feet below us, casting odd beams of light? Looking around we figured out what was going on...someone on the rim had left a lantern on, and the light was passing just over our heads, projecting down towards the boulder. It was obvious that a bird or large bat was briefly visible in the light as it flew over the rim. We turned out the lantern, satisfied.
Fifteen minutes later, I looked at the boulder. The light was back. I wasn't going to say anything, but I noticed that everyone else had gone speechless as well. I finally whispered "do you see that?". Several quiet voices answered yes. The light moved back and forth, and disappeared over the rim, and was not seen again.
I've been back many times, and explored all around the boulder, and tried to think of what the strange lights could have been, and I haven't a clue. Were we scared? Not really, mostly just curious. Did any of our students disappear mysteriously in the night, never to be seen again? No. Had we seen the spirit of an Anasazi maiden looking for her long-lost lover until the end of time? Oh, right.
Sometimes we see things we cannot immediately explain. There are lots of ways we can deal with such things, including inventing wonderful ghost stories that we can then sell to a television producer to be turned into "Unsolved Mysteries" or "In Search Of...". I think the real world is far more interesting than ghost stories. It has plenty of mysteries for us to solve, still.
Deer-car collisions: The Summer of 1994 was one of our greatest years, and one in which disaster followed us everywhere. Driving north on Utah State Highway 191 near the town of Blanding at approximately 55 mph, our Ford Astro Van made contact with a deer that jumped over the crash barrier without warning. Neither the deer nor the van can be regarded the winner of the encounter. The driver of the van kept us in a straight line (avoiding a head-on collision with opposing traffic), but the radiator, air conditioner, water pump and various sundry engine parts were destroyed. To their credit, the mechanics in Blanding got the van running again for only $1,300 (which by amazing coincidence was how much in cash and travelers checks I was carrying at the time!).
Microbursts: THIS IS A TRUE STORY! In the banner year of 1994, we found ourselves camping in Grand Teton National Park on our way to a dinosaur dig in southern Montana. The day had been clear and sunny despite some forecasts calling for scattered thundershowers. One our students, Craig, had a penchant for bringing down disaster upon himself and others (the word 'accident-prone' was invented for him). As we sat around the cook area in the pleasant late evening watching the sun set, the chatter turned to meteorological disasters, and the delightful weather we were having. Craig took a rock hammer, lifted it to the sky, and said "I defy the gods to make it rain". Within ten minutes, out of nowhere, the sky turned dark and huge clouds of dust rolled through the camp, and the wind struck with hurricane force. Huge branches and even entire cottonwood trees started falling down all around us. Our vans were spared, but a van in the other part of the campground was smashed like an aluminum can by a falling tree. Most of our group were of the opinion that we had been hit by a tornado, but our resident geographer told us it probably a microbust, better known for their ability to knock airplanes out of the sky. The bursts form in the lee of a thunderstorm system when a large mass of cold air sinks rapidly to the ground. In the aftermath, we decided Craig would be gagged and muzzled for the remainder of the trip...
Lost students: One of Murphy's Laws should read, "students in any situation, no matter their age or preparation, will become lost if left to themselves". On the same memorable day as the deer-car collision (and just two weeks before microburst incident), we decided to hunt for Anasazi cliff dwellings on Cedar Mesa. The dwellings were somewhere on a plateau summit of about 500 acres with steep cliffs preventing students from straying. Students were told to stick together, carry water, and stay away from the cliffs. Craig, our poster boy for accidents anonymous, did none of the above. He was two hours overdue, and we were sending search parties onto the plateau, since no one would be dumb enough to climb down the cliffs. Moments before we sent a van to notify the authorities, he limped into the parking area. He had decided to take a shortcut, 500 feet down one canyon wall, and up the other side into an area we never would have thought to search. He was carrying a canteen of Tang 'syrup' (it was 95 degrees out), and twisted his ankle on the downhill climb. It was only by sheer luck that he heard the horns honking, and finally managed to find us. Believers in cosmic coincidences will note that if he had been back on time, we would have been long past the point where the deer decided to cross the road later that day.
Militia uprisings: O.K., we weren't really in the middle of a militia uprising, but in 1995 we drove north on the first evening of our Cascades Field Studies planning to camp at a state park at the north end of the Sacramento Valley. We pulled up at 10 PM only to find that a group had rented the entire campground for the duration of the Fall Equinox. We didn't have a back up plan (as usual), so we decided to see if the inhabitants would let us stay one night in some unused corner of the camp. It wasn't long before they noticed us, and a group of VERY suspicious (and very inebriated) men arrived shortly thereafter, inquiring of our intentions. When they found out that we were not representatives of any federal, state or local government, and that we weren't armed or part of any law enforcement organization, they decided we could stay (for a modest price). As long as we didn't mind the beating of drums all night, the smoking of herbs (NOT dope), and as long as we stayed out of certain parts of the campground. We stayed, having no choice, but none of our group slept, and despite the chauvinistic sound of it, I told our women students not to go anywhere alone that evening. The rest of the trip was weird, too (see helicopter crashes).
Helicopter Crashes: The Fall 1995 field trip to the Cascades of Oregon and northern California was memorable. Following a very strange night (see militia uprisings), we spent a fairly normal (if somewhat cold) night at Crater Lake National Park. We were greeted the next morning by the loud chopping noise of a helicopter buzzing and hovering over the campground. I was confused, thinking that the area around the lake was closed airspace (which it is). I figured that somebody was lost, and that the copter was part of search and rescue effort (it was not; the helicopter was a company-owned machine in transit to Portland, according to flight records). A short while later we were packed and on the road to the Crater Lake rim. Upon arriving, we went and enjoyed the serene view of the deep blue and perfectly still lake. Our meditative silence was rudely broken up by the loud noise of the helicopter again. I mumbled a minor curse under my breath, and turned away from the rim. Some of the students remained to stare at the lake. At that moment, the copter flew over the rim, and dived towards the lake. No one can truly know what the pilot was thinking, but I am pretty sure he was giving his passenger a thrill by diving towards the lake, intending to pull up at the last second. He didn't. I heard the sound of a helicopter, then a loud CHOP-CHOP-CHOP, and then deathly silence. The copter had augered into Crater Lake. Running to the edge, I could see a few pieces of debris floating, including a door, but the nothing else was left, including survivors. The copter sank in over a thousand feet of water, and so far as I know, will never be salvaged.