Geology of Selected National Parks [F-24-13]

This course will introduce the geology of four US National Parks including Grand Canyon, Arches, Death Valley, and Crater Lake. Together the geologic record preserved in these parks exceeds 2 billion years of earth's history when North America experienced ancient shallow seas, mountain building, and terrestrial environments dominated by dinosaurs, and volcanism. The instructor will present a single park during each of 4 lectures. Content will cover key geologic features but also topics of related interest including evidence of occupation by Native Peoples, challenges posed by climate change and ever-increasing visitors.  Most of the course content comes from personal experience, but also from published works such as Geology of our National Parks by Dave Foster (SUNY alum) and David Hacker.

Brian Carl has worked as a geologist since 1987, travelled to 49 states and several dozen national parks, explored for oil and gas domestically and overseas, taught classes at SUNY since 2020 including Geology of Our National Parks.

Cap: 50