Every layer of sediment records a chapter of our planet, from ancient seabeds to drifting ash, layered across millions of years beneath us.
Our interactive maps let you peel back the crust to trace how stones, fossils, and deep time combine to shape the ground beneath your feet.
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I'm a geology student who reads landscapes the way other people read paragraphs. Every outcrop is a sentence, every layer a clause, and my job in the field is to figure out what the rock is trying to say.
The rock doesn't lie — you just have to learn to read it. I'd rather spend an extra hour at the outcrop confirming a contact than build a model on a guess.
Describe the outcrop — lithology, bedding, contacts, structure — before touching a single sample.
Collect oriented specimens, log GPS coordinates, and photograph context for every station.
Thin-section petrography, hand-lens mineral ID, and lab work back at the bench.
Build the stratigraphic column and structural model the data actually supports.
Keep scrolling — four field samples settle into the stratigraphic order I logged them in, formation by formation.
Tilt a card — every study here started with a field notebook before it ever reached a map.
Produced a 1:12,000 field map of a normal fault scarp cutting Permian redbeds north of Sedona, AZ.
Characterized diagenetic textures in Kaibab Formation limestone using 40 thin sections under polarized light.
Built a weighted-overlay landslide susceptibility model for Oak Creek Canyon from slope, lithology, and rainfall layers.
Logged and correlated a 240m composite section of the Supai Group across three canyon-wall exposures.
Sampled monitoring wells across the Verde Valley aquifer to estimate seasonal recharge from isotope tracers.
Correlated tephra layers from the San Francisco Volcanic Field across four outcrops using grain geochemistry.
Assisted senior geologists with outcrop description, sample collection, and GPS station logging across the Colorado Plateau.
Supporting a faculty-led stratigraphy project — thin-section prep, point-counting, and GIS layer management.
Ran weekly lab sections on mineral identification, crystal systems, and hand-lens technique for 60+ students.
Northern Arizona University
2025
NOLS
2024
OSHA
2024
Esri
2023
Mara's fault map was the most carefully stationed undergraduate field work I've reviewed in a decade — every contact justified, nothing guessed.
She was the student who went back up the canyon wall a second time just to double-check a bedding measurement. That instinct is what separates field geologists.
Mara logged cleaner station data than some of our seasonal hires. I'd take her back on the crew without hesitation.
Field assistant roles, research collaborations, or a section that needs a second pair of eyes — send the brief.