RORD begins with a 9 day field session in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.
For the field session, students and faculty will meet at the Reno-Tahoe airport and drive to the eastern Sierra Nevada in California. This area is rich with active faults, and exhumed inactive faults and ductile shear zones. Our home base will be the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Lab (SNARL), a field station managed by the University of California.
During the field session you will be introduced to the tectonic history of the region and learn how deformed rocks appear in a field settings. You will learn or hone your field skills, including geologic mapping, field measurements, note-taking, and sampling protocols. Finally, we will collect specimens to be investigated further during the laboratory session.
In addition to the field activities, faculty will conduct evening seminars on the science of rock deformation and professional development topics. These seminars will to prepare you for the subsequent laboratory and conference sessions, and also help you learn about career opportunities, graduate school, and the the pathways to achieving these goals.
