Today we scouted out the site of our major field sampling event tomorrow. It is called Little Hot Creek. It is a series of hot springs that feed into the Little Hot Creek, which is part of the Owens River region. These are gorgeous springs that are relatively pristine. Microbial mats and carbonate precipitation are all occurring in the same general area so there is a lot for the Geobiologist to study. Our main interest is in determining how the microbial communities change along the creek with changing temperature and water chemistry. We are also interested in how the interaction between microorganisms and the minerals cause stromatolite-like structures in the water (see below).

The students spend the afternoon investigating the site, then we shooed them away and the instructors refined our sampling scheme to accommodate the changes since December when we were last out there. Meanwhile, the students headed down to a series of cement baths that the Forest Service put in. There are almost always some “soakers” there, interesting people. One guy is living up in the hills above the area (Stick Man), another (Donald) is living/traveling in his truck. Both seemed to be good people, interested in what we were studying and happy to have 15 co-eds soaking with them.

Today our focus was on Walker Lake in Walker Lake, NV. Like Mono Lake, Walker is a closed basin lake that is dominated by carbonate. It too is way down in volume due to agricultural diversion of its headwaters (Walker River). Walker Lake has dropped 140 ft since 1880 and has a long geologic history of draining and refilling over time. This is most apparent by the ancient shorelines clearly visible in the surrounding mountains.

Walker Lake used to have the Lonhontan cutthroat trout in it, but the water quality has dropped so that they all died off about 2 years ago. The Geobiological feature of this lake are the calcium carbonate deposits that are found in, near and above the current lake level. These are laminated, like stromatolites but it is unclear if they were biogenic or abiogenic. This would represent another modern stromatolite that we could study to learn more about how ancient versions were formed. Aside from the stromatolites, there are also features that represent ancient “hard ground” structures. These could be built by or with the interaction of microbes in or on the lake bottom near the shore.

We sampled for chemistry of the groundwater seeping in from the surrounding hills, lakewater, sediments that do not appear to be part of these hard ground structures and the hard ground itself. With the molecular biology, we are hoping to answer the simple question of whether the microbial populations associated with these differ between each other. Also knowing which populations are present will also allow us to hypothesize what metabolisms and other activities are contributing to the environment in which the hard grounds are being produced.  

The hard ground structures are in the foreground, just underwater…

Today we went to see Mono Lake in NV (wikipedia). This is a very unique lake to say the least. It is a shallow closed basin, meaning whatever water goes in can only leave through evaporation. Los Angeles has been diverting water from the surrounding creeks that feed water to Mono Lake for decades. So much so, that at one time the creeks all dried up. With no water entering the lake and evaporation removing it, it has become a very alkaline, high pH (10+) lake. It also has a lot of arsenic from the surrounding geology. Needless to say, it is not somewhere you would want to swim!

Of course…microorganisms still live and thrive there! The microbes that live in this water are very unique and provide a great example of how microbial life is like a honey badger, “it doesn’t care”…

The really cool, geologic feature of Mono Lake are what are known as Tufas. These are calcium carbonate deposits that form when calcium-rich groundwaters meet the carbonate-rich lake water, causing a relatively fast precipitation of calcium carbonate. These are in the shape of towers. The lake level has risen and fallen over time, exposing the tufas that originally formed underwater. Up on the sides of the surrounding mountains are evidence of ancient lake levels. Now that LA has drained the lake about 50 ft from the late 1800’s, there are tufas that are along the shoreline and partially submerged in the lake itself. This was a beautiful day and some pretty cool geology to boot!

The first day of the field trip began with gassing up the vans and a couple pastries from Erik Shat’s Bakery in Bishop, CA. It seems that my days are defined by pastries…well yeah, so far…

Next we headed back up towards the Bristlecone Pine reserve to cross Eastward over two mountain ranges. It was some hairy driving but incredible views. 

Then on to the unpaved roads…

After driving through the touristy ghost town Goldpoint, NV, we arrived at the foot of Mt. Dunfee, NV. Here we are assembling at the foot of Dunfee, with a 45 min hike to the stromatolites.

Stromatolites!!! These are about 546 million years old or so. There is a layer of cloudina fossils, which date to 542 mya. Just above that, there are these beauties.

 These are the cloudina fossils…

 Big stromatolites…see the domed, laminated structure? Those were microbial mats that got lithified and grew out of the sediment only to get buried again…

John Spear and I climbed on up to the top to see about 4 million years of stromatolite evolution…and great views. Very profound afternoon.

We all loaded up in the morning and headed out of LA and north to Bishop, CA. In doing so, each small group contained within one vehicle got to start to know each other through swapping stories of school, travel, the most disgusting things that have happened to us, whether we were “planned” or “surprises”, and other tales. I drove one of the vans and Hope Johnson rode shotgun. She shared her great assortment of music that included stuff from the 80’s. We were told that this music is not considered “vintage” by the 20-somethings in the car, which is a nice way of saying old. Hope and I realized that we were like the parents sitting in the front forcing the kids to listen to the oldies. Pretty funny.

loading up to travel…

We crossed the San Andreas fault, leaving the Pacific plate and climbing onto the North American plate. The rock formations were a dead giveaway to the transition, as the regular sedimentary lines of the rocks looked like someone came in and shuffled everything around. Then, we headed to Mojave, CA to refuel and pick up lunch for later. I got a blueberry jelly donut from “Stoked Donuts”, highly recommended.

 Johnny Cash is great for driving through the desert, FYI.

Our next stop was Lone Pine, CA. Here we stopped for lunch and gawked at an amazing view of the Eastern Sierras with weather just starting to show itself…

After lunch, it was on to Bishop, CA. We took a side trip to see the Bristlecone pines, which grow only on the Manganese-rich Dolomite. These trees are up to 4,000+ years old and simply amazing to see. I stood next to one and had a moment, trying to imagine what it was like when it was a sapling, wondering how many times it had been struck by lightning (most of them had). 

I also got my first experience of hunting ancient fossils (these were around 500~550 million years old). These were called Cloudina, formed by the Cloudinids (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloudinid). These were small (2-5 mm) cone shaped shells of an ancient worm-like animal. We were looking at the fossil record of a shallow, relatively calm ancient sea…totally cool. I eventually found my own specimen which had both the cone shaped pieces and a longitudinal tube-like fossil, so cool. Amazingly, I forgot to take a picture of my rock so here is one that Russell Shapiro found and was using to help guide me as to what I should look for (I am not such a great fossil hunter yet).

The day was ended with dinner at “The Pizza Factory” in Bishop followed by a lecture by Frank Corsetti on Stromatolites…not bad for Day 2.

We started the 2014 Geobiology course with a series of introductory lectures. This was great for me because despite being an instructor since 2002, I have never been part of the beginning of the course. These lectures were given by Frank Corsetti (Geologists for Biologists), John Spear and Hope Johnson (Biology for Geologists, Part 1&2). 

After a full day of lectures, we got treated to a visit to the Space Shuttle Endeavor! This was fantastic! As you walk into the building, you immediately get a sense of just how immense this piece of engineering and history really is! 

Then you get up close to it and you see the “patina” of many years of space flight. This includes scorch marks on the thermal tiles and locations where the thermal tiles have been replaced. I wish I knew which ones were replaced by the shuttle crew in space!

The business end of the shuttle was just as impressive. You can just imagine the sound and feeling of these babies under full throttle…

We spent about 45 minutes just staring at the Endeavor in awe. I left thinking, “let’s shoot this baby off one more time”. Thank you Ann Close for arranging such a cool treat for us!!

Tomorrow, we head off for the field. I am driving one of the 15 passenger vans. We will be heading up the Owens Valley to Bishop, CA with a few geology sight-seeing pit stops.

So today we had to make sure that all of our gear and supplies had been ordered and shipped correctly at USC. Fortunately, this took about an hour. With the rest of the afternoon to kill before the welcome dinner, John Spear, Blake Stamps and I decided to check out the Natural History Museum. It was amazing!!! The largest dinosaur collection I have ever seen, an exhibit about the history of Los Angeles and the Mineral collection were great. Here are some pictures…

T-rex hungry!!

Can’t beat a good Triceratops…