Field School 2103

Field School 2013

By Corey Lablans

Queen’s University geology department offers a course unlike any other, called Field School. The 3^rd year course during the spring involves two weeks in the field, located in the eastern region of Quebec, 12 km away from Vermont.

A view of the hills in Sutton, Quebec were we traversed for two weeks mapping during Field School.

Every year upper-year students always talk about their experience at field school. You never hear them say good things, more or less just saying, “Have fun.”

Well, I just finished my two weeks of Field School and it was definitely an interesting experience. Over the two weeks we examined low to medium grade metamorphic Formations with a combination of pelitic and volcanic protoliths. A lot of the two weeks was spent trying to determine whether one phyllite is this or that.  

Delta Site is were we went to auger to see first hand the depositional progression of a delta. It is a past delta produced by melt water from the last major glacier 11,000 years ago.

Days would start with a 6:30 a.m. with a wake up call, breakfast at 7:00 a.m. followed by an 8:00 a.m. departure. I thoroughly enjoyed the days, as we would hike through the forest seeking out outcrops and identifying them. It was frustrating trying to determine whether you’re looking at the Tibbit Hill Formation, West Sutton Formation or possibly another but nonetheless fun.

4:00 p.m. would come up quickly and it would be time to head back to the hotel. The day was not finished, we might get a short break before super at 6:30 p.m. Following super meetings started at 7:45 p.m. and then back to work till 10:30 p.m., when projects were due.

Some things were a little disorganized, very little time to get work done and frustration was common. Similar to Field Methods last fall, I’m very lucky that I had an amazing group to work with.

Learning to recognize rock characteristics in the field is critical. In this particular case, amygdules characterized one Formation, bedding structures for another and fabric style helped identify the remainders. The Formation, which contained bedding, had many fascinating fold characteristics. Learning how these small-scale folds relate to the overall structure, such as the large folds, was probably one of the more fascinating things I learned. 

Cross-bedding is observed in this metasedimentary Formation, allowing for the younging direction to be determined.

This small scale canoe structure illustrates the larger structure of the area, predominantly that of double plunging anticlines and synclines.

The two weeks of work compiled into a final regional map covering a 15-km² area and a geological report. Our map by the end looked pretty cool but there were definitely several issues with it. 

An amazing example of a antiform structure at a larger scale, still small relative to the overall regional scale.