An amazing site where students can learn to map by walking clear cut contacts, practice their navigational skills, and observe fossils.
Sept 2016: After the Chicuguna and Zika we went back to the desert with the Geology group. We spent only three an a half days, with one full day doing the stratigraphic exercise, and two more in mapping. The students came up with a nice map and column, their first. Weather was nice and cool this time of the year, there was no plague of mosquitoes, and the rains came right after we left.
We spent a week in the desert again with the Geology 1022 field trip course. We had a large group, with more than 50 people all together. While we were there, we took advantage to re-visit some outcrops in Teruel and make another collection.
Oct 2013: This time we split the groups in 5 areas from west to east, starting in the Observatorio, and sweeping east to near Los Hoyos. Each group had to map a swath 2-km wide, and move north until the La Cerbatana conglomerate, and south until the La Venta redbeds. Next time we will add the “valle de los xilopalos” to our itinerary since it is very close to Los Hoyos, and seems to have more structural variations. Also, we should spend the first day with the whole group to make sure the basics are covered.
This time the weather was more benign, temperatures were high all week, but not one day was killer, like last time
Oct 2012: We camped in the middle of the desert in Los Hoyos, about half the group in tents. The desert is an ideal place for such an excursion, there is total concentration, and we were camped in the middle of the mapping area.
The desert was good to us, having only one really hot day (I reckon about 45°C). The other days were sunny, but very nice with ideal field conditions: dry and good visibility. We split our class of 40 students in groups of 8, where each group had 1 day in navigation, 2 days measuring a stratigraphic column (thanks to NP!), and 2 days doing geologic mapping. Average transect length was 10 km of hiking. In stratigraphy, each group measured a segment of a column exposed north of the Observatorio, compiling a stratigraphic thickness of more than 100 m. In mapping, we followed the base of the Cerbatana conglomerate and two sandstone beds on top for about 15 km along-strike, again, compiling work from all the groups. In navigation, most groups completed a circuit of 3 to 4 stations spread over a 5 km radius only with a map and a compass.
