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Geology
375 Schedule and Field Itinerary
Schedule for Spring
Semester 2011
Several required lectures will be scheduled to provide
sufficient background before we leave. Lectures will be given at times
arranged during the semester and before leaving on the trip.
Thursday, March 17 through Friday, March 18: Travel from
Clemson to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Students may travel by
university-arranged vehicle or choose to travel independently to Ft.
Lauderdale at their own expense.
Saturday morning, March 19: fly to Andros Island. Return
flight from Andros will be on Saturday morning, March 26. There will be a
brief lecture most evenings at Forfar in addition
to the daily field excursions.
Saturday afternoon, March 26 through Sunday, March 27:
Travel from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Clemson. Students may travel by
university vehicle or choose to travel independently back to Clemson at
their own expense.
Field Itinerary (subject to change due to tides, weather, and
logistics; other locations may also be visited)
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Saturday, March 19
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- Blanket Sound School – walk
the route that Bahamian school children once followed across the
sound and tidal flat to attend a one-room school. observe a
sustainable habitat using waste recycling and water reuse
- Blue Hole Cay – blue
hole in the back-reef; excellent first snorkel
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Sunday, March 20 - beaches, tide pools, rocky shore
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- Sundial Beach – tide
pools; Goniolithon (red algae)
encrusted rocks
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- Church’s Blue Hole –
largest blue hole on Andros; 440 feet across
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- Androsia Factory – Bahamian factory where
cloth is dyed and made into clothing
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- Maidenhair Coppice
Botanical Walk – native
plants and their traditional uses; Pond bush, airplant,
bromeliad, horseflesh tree, white torch, paradise tree, brassalito, five fingers, orchid, pumpa bread plant, love vine, gumbo limbo, and
others; relationships between native plants and geology; banana
holes
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Monday, March 21 – back reef and barrier reef
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- Pigeon Cay – back-reef
area with patch reefs; sediment trapping sea-grass; rocky intertidal
zone with urchins, barnacles, and other organisms grazing on algae;
blowholes; Pleistocene dune and modern beach ridge; paleosols; compare sandy beaches with rocky
shores; explore geological origin of cay (theorized to be two lithified sand dunes or megaripples);
brackish pond in center of the cay; excellent area for a "first
snorkel"
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- South Pass – outer
barrier reef; provides a variety of reef subenvironments
within an easy snorkeling distance of each other; also a wide
variety of reef life
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Tuesday, March 22
– back reef and
Pleistocene fossil reefs
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- Saddleback Cay – back-reef
area of bars and tide pools; sandy beaches abut rocky shorelines; Halimeda (aragonitic
green algae) as a sediment producer ("oatmeal sand") Koltermann and Gorelick
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- Nichollstown – Pleistocene fossil reefs
with Diploria (brain coral), Milleopora (fire coral), and Acropora (elkhorn
coral); also paleosols and paleodunes
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Wednesday, March
23 – barrier reef
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- Staniard Rock – Andros barrier
reef; stunning array of coral, fish, and invertebrates; examine
relationships between physical processes, organic activity, and
sedimentation on the reef
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- Staniard Creek – mangrove
environment and its significance to sediment stabilization and
island accretion
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Thursday, March 24 – ooid shoals
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- Joulter’s Cay – a band of
agitated, clean ooid sands on the
windward-facing margin of Andros; includes ooid
shoals, bars, and flats; a broad sand flat penetrated by numerous
tidal channels is present immediately behind the active sand flat;
will explore abandoned cays and snorkel
through the tidal channels; Joulter’s Cay
is one of only 3 places in the world with active ooid
creation and deposition
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- Morgan's Bluff - highest point on Andros
Island and an important historical site; sea cliffs and cave
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- Water Supply System - collection of Andros
fresh water by an intricate system of trenches; water is then
transported to Nassau by multimillion-gallon tanker ships
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Friday, March 25 – tidal flats and Bahamian Village
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- Red Bays Tidal Flat – tidal-flat
sedimentology; tidal channels; dolomitization; lithified
sand dunes are present along the road to Red Bays
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- Charlie’s Blue Hole –
70-feet deep; ancient worm-holes and cave-like pockets around the
edges
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- Red Bays Village - opportunity to talk
with villagers and experience local customs; visit woodcarver
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Saturday, March 26 – fly from Andros Island to Ft. Lauderdale
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