One-Day Geology Field Trips
(watch for specific dates)

These one-day trips are lead by Institute geologist John Zawiskie. Dress for the weather, wear sturdy shoes, and bring a sack lunch, water bottle and bug repellant. We will give you maps and field guides.

Ice Age Trek

Pontiac Lake State Recreation Area: Oakland County (9am - 3pm)

Hike over glacial landforms and explore exotic surface rocks at Pontiac Lake Recreation area. Terrain here formed between the Saginaw and Huron ice lobes, 14,000 years ago. The 2.5 mile hike will cross an end moraine and walk along the crest of an adjacent esker, formed by water flowing in a tunnel under the ice. Many boulders at this site were carried by ice from the Canadian Shield north of Lake Huron. These include 2.2 to 2.3 billion year old tillites and varvites (Early Proterozoic Huronian Supergroup) that record one of the earth’s earliest known ice ages. The bus drive to and from the site will also take you over the Drayton outwash plain, Pontiac till plain and Defiance moraine.

Fossil Frenzy

Arkona, Ontario, Canada (8am - 5pm)

Follow a river valley cut into world famous fossil-bearing rock that formed in shallow tropical seas more than 380 million years ago. Collect your own corals and other fossils from the reefs that flourished when this portion of North America lay just south of the equator. Then climb giant coastal dunes that formed 6,000 years ago when the beautiful shoreline of Lake Huron was 50 feet higher than today. Proof of citizenship required.