In the spring of 2007 a section of the graduate course Geology 646, called "Drilling Methods," spent some time on an exercise collecting core with our brand-new GeoProbe 6600 direct-push drill near the Kishwaukee River on campus. As with the Giddings rig, described below, this machine can bore holes in the ground by pushing the steel drill string without spinning it. You can download a Quicktime® movie ( ~20 megs ) showing our push drill in operation at another location. The rattling sound you hear in the movie is from the hydraulic hammer used to drive the drill steel into the ground.

The Kishwaukee River is on the far side of the low artificial levee in the background of the picture, and it is planned that the location will soon become an experimental well field dedicated to the study of hydrogeology. From the left, in the grey coat, is Amber Verbick of the Geography Department. Behind her and not clearly visible are Dr. Melissa Lenczewski, who has primary responsibility for the GeoProbe, and her husband, Scott Bellis. In the red coat is Trent Sexton, and to his left, in the yellow and black, is Beth Johnson. Next to her, in the black coat, is Andrew Greenhagen. Mike Noe is operating the drill.

There's more to read about the capabilities and history of the GeoProbe on our field equipment page.

Ratz .... I can't find my hardhat .... !

Keep looking, Chris. It's gotta be around there somewhere.

The GeoProbe is not limited to push-drill operations only, but can also bore larger-diameter holes using an auger. This scene is at the Illinois State University experimental well field, where there has been a bit of difficulty. Clays surrounding the push-drill stem have expanded and it's now stuck fast. To solve the problem, Chris Greer, Ph.D. Candidate and one of the operators originally trained by the GeoProbe Company, has drilled down around the push-drill stem with the auger in the attempt to free it.

That's Chris, of course, in the orange shirt. We hope he found what he was looking for.

It must have been success, because that's what he's found. Hardhat now firmly in place, Chris is using a tool, the silver-colored thing in his left hand, which allows him to lift the now-freed drill string with the hydraulically-powered drill head. Chris, still in the orange shirt, is closely observed by Samanta Lax, an Illinois State University graduate student who is from Brazil.

This is what the push-drill can get for you. These are cores, recovered in plastic core barrels, that have been split in half longitudinally and laid open for description and study. These cores record the stratigraphy, or layering, of the sediments as they occur down the borehole. They are also useful in that they can be sampled themselves and subjected to chemical analysis to see if they contain compounds of interest, say, if one were tracing a contaminant plume as it extends through the groundwater system from the source.

Sam sez: "Issarock!"

That's right, Sam, and it's a very special rock besides: It's the St. Peter Sandstone, middle Ordovician in age ( approximately 470 million years ), a fossil dune sand and an important aquifer, or water-bearing formation, when it occurs at depth. Here it's at the surface, where students attending our Environmental Fieldcamp during the summer of 2006 can study it. The field camp is directed by Dr. Melissa Lenczewski, and is designed to give students experience in solving a range of groundwater and environmental geological problems. Students who go through our Environmental Geosciences program are well-prepared for employment: Four students had interviews and three of these had jobs by the end of last summer's camp.

Sam Gillet is one of our Master's Degree students, and is studying the hydrogeology of the Owen's Creek drainage near DeKalb, Illinois. His project involves measuring inflow to and outflow from the basin, in order to determine how much remains for the recharge of underlying aquifers. Sam also has an excellent sense of humor.

Students in the Environmental Fieldcamp got some experience using the Giddings rig, belonging to Dr. Mike Konen of the NIU Geography Department, to take soil cores. The unit is mounted on a trailer towed behind his pickup truck, and operates by pushing the core barrel into the ground rather than by spinning it. The task at hand is to locate the edge of the outermost sediments of the Wisconsin glaciation, which is somewhere in the field between the students and the low wooded ridge in the distance. Glacial sediments give a distinctive and recognizable profile to the soil column, and significantly affect its hydrogeologic properties.

Ewwwwwwwwww! What do you suppose she's got in the net? Do you really want to know? If so, then Environmental Geoscience might be just the thing for you. NIU Geology student Tina Derencius is using her net to catch critters from the bed of the Kickapoo River, north of Waynesville, Illinois, in order to determine what sorts are present and their relative numbers. The information she gathers will be used to evaluate the environmental health of the stream.

Some of the Environmental Fieldcamp students don't have that tough a time of it, and Stu Engelke seems rather to be enjoying his "work." The stream is Little Kickapoo Creek, a tributary of the Kickapoo River, and it runs through the Illinois State University experimental well field. The stream and the groundwater table interact, as determined by observations of the wells, so this is an excellent place to study such phenomena. That's a surveyor's "chain," or measuring tape, stretched across the creek. It's used to take measurements of the water depth and velocity spaced evenly across the stream at fifteen stations, which in turn are used to determine the rate of flow. The metal rod Stu has in his hand is an electromagnetic flow meter. He and his colleagues saw a rare photo opportunity, and he's having a bit of fun for the camera.

Cripes! Moon suits ... it must be serious!

Well, not this time, but it certainly can be. These students are engaged in a simulated contaminant sampling exercise as part of the Environmental Fieldcamp. From left to right they are Justin Bock, Dan Bockland, and an unidentified Illinois State University student. The bit of red tape in the lower right of the picture marks the boundary of the "exclusion zone," within which everyone must wear protective clothing. If this were a real survey, substances of interest might include chlorinated solvents, gasoline, and the like. A network of sampling wells, like these, would be used to determine what was in the contaminant plume, its size, and its direction of movement.

We'll end the pictures of the 2006 Environmental Fieldcamp with this one of a sightseeing stop at the Palisades of the Mississippi in northwest Illinois. It's beautiful country.

One of our more popular courses is GEOL 497, which is taught by Dr. Mark Fischer. It's entitled "Regional Field Geology," and is essentially a nice long field trip "to regions of broad geologic interest." In the U.S., that usually means "Out West." Here are some pictures taken during the trip of Spring, 2006, and there are more below from previous years.

This picture was taken in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, on the Wagon Wheel hike. That's Stu Engelke on the left, Matt Konfirst on the right, and some spectacular geology in the distance. The structure is called the "Waterpocket Fold," and is a monocline which is about 100 miles long. Monoclines are a kind of fold having one limb that dips steeply and another which is horizontal, or nearly so. Stu and Matt are looking at the steeply dipping limb across the canyon.

Hmmmmmmmmmm ... In a bit of a pickle, are we?

Stu Engelke, on the left, is supervising ( hence the large stick? ) Jason Reisenbichler below him, as Jason navigates a water-carved slot in Little Wildhorse Canyon, on the San Rafael Swell in east-central Utah. Little Wildhorse Canyon is very near Goblin Valley State Park, of which more below, and is a popular hiking area. The San Rafael Swell is a huge uparched dome, or anticline, some 80 miles long by 35 miles wide, immediately north of Capitol Reef National Park. Note the large-scale cross-bedding beyond Stu. The rock is another aeolian sandstone, the early Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, and the cross-bedding represents fossil sand dunes.

We're off now, to Arches National Park near Moab, Utah, where our first picture is of Sand Dune Arch. It is located a short hike south of the park campground on a good trail, and is accessible also from the main road through the park. Hidden away between two tall fins of Entrada Sandstone, it has a most mysterious air about it. The characteristically pink Entrada Sandstone is middle Jurassic in age. The students standing under the arch, left to right, are: Jason Reisenbichler, Sam Adams, Stu Engelke, and Matt Konfirst. They are latest Holocene in age.

We're still at Arches National Park, so how about a view of an arch, through an arch? The arch behind them is Delicate Arch, with the La Sal Mountains in the background on the right. This picture is not an easy one to get, involving as it does 3 miles of hiking, round-trip, and an elevation gain of almost 500 vertical feet from the trail head to the arch, but the scenery is spectacular and makes the trip well worth the effort. The La Sal Mountains of east-central Utah are a large Tertiary lacolithic intrusive center, as are the nearby Abajo and Henry mountains, and these are the localities where this intrusive type was first thoroughly described.

Left to right, the people are: Samantha Bennett, Stu Engelke, Jason Reisenbichler, Dr. Mark Fischer, Sam Adams, and Matt Konfirst.

Our final stop on the Spring 2006 trip is at Canyonlands National Park. The students are sitting where they have a good view of Upheaval Dome, a large circular feature some 3 miles ( 5 km ) across, the origin of which is quite enigmatic. It resembles a meteoritic impact crater, and some believe that's how it formed. Others suggest it marks where a salt dome made its way upward through surrounding rocks at some time in the past. Both the overlying rocks and the salt dome itself have now been removed by erosion, which would also, therefore, have excavated the circular feature of Upheaval Dome itself. Rocks exposed in the center of the feature do not crop out anywhere else in the area. Whatever formed the dome arched them upward from something like a mile below their present elevation.

Intrigued? Become a geologist, go West, and study this fascinating structure. Perhaps you can solve the mystery.

Nearest the abyss are Matt Konfirst and Samantha Bennett. On safer ground to the fore, are Jason Reisenbichler, Stu Engelke, and Sam Adams, from left to right.

Here are three NIU geology students on a field trip out west during spring break in March of 2005. The view is of the northern part of Death Valley, California, with ( clockwise from upper left ) Tim Davis, Mark Lyng, Chrissy Majerowicz, and the cinder cone of Little Hebe crater in the background. Little Hebe crater is part of a larger complex of what are called "maar-type" volcanos, which arise when hot magma comes in contact with groundwater and causes a violently explosive steam eruption. There's more to read and pictures to see about this crater complex at the U.S. Geological Survey page on Ubehebe Crater. As before, the course these students took to go on this field trip is GEOL 497, taught by Dr. Mark Fischer.

So, is this a fully-automatic self-propelled rock, or what? That's the question on NIU geology student Mark Lyng's mind as he examines a peripatetic boulder in Racetrack Playa, Death Valley, during another stop on Dr. Fischer's field trip of March, 2005. All over the playa ( dry lake bed ) there are rocks like this, with tracks extending "behind" them indicating that they must have moved. Careful mapping has established that they have in fact moved, but no-one has ever seen them do so, and the debate as to the mechanism by which this might occur is at least as warm as the local climate. A complicating factor is that some of the rocks appear to have moved upslope on the nearly, but not quite, horizontal valley floor. The picture is astonishing -- The rock has a bow wave! -- but it's mind-boggling to see such a thing with one's own eyes. There's more to read and see about this fascinating phenomenon in the U.S. Geological Survey pages on Racetrack Playa, including maps that have been made of the motion of some of the rocks and the best current hypothesis regarding how and why they move. It isn't obvious, but be sure to select the "Dig Deeper" button at the bottom of each page of the U.S.G.S. site in order to see the entire article.

This picture is from yet an earlier GEOL 497 field trip, and was taken in March of 2002. The location is Goblin Valley State Park, in central Utah, where erosion has shaped the sandstone bedrock into hoodoos and other fantastical shapes that the creative eye may see as goblins, not to be confused with students, who are ( clockwise from upper left ): David Keating, Liz Glowiak, Lisa Noe, Guadalupe Velazquez-Oliman, Jessica Olney, and Craig Welsh. A hoodoo is an erosional feature in which a resistant capstone is left balanced on pillars of more easily-eroded sediments. David Keating is sitting on the hoodoo in this picture, which is unusual in that it has two pillars.

For our final stop on the trip of March of 2002, here's another picture from a favorite place, Arches National Park, near Moab, east-central Utah. In the foreground is perhaps a more familiar view of the very beautiful Delicate Arch, carved from Jurassic Entrada sandstone, with the snow-covered La Sal mountains in the distance behind it. With the passage of time the people in the little group on their way out to the arch cannot be identified precisely, but they very probably include some of those who are on and about the hoodoo in the picture just above.