Montana so far

So I've been in Missoula, Montana now since late August. College began with a bang. First week in and they had us on a five day field trip to Billings in Eastern Montana. It was based on sedimentary deposits and I learned a lot about the interior seaway which covered large parts of the continent, something I never knew up until this fieldtrip. It was a good opportunity to meet some other students and some professers also.

There's a big difference between an Irish fieldtrip in the rain at moderate temperatures of about 15 celcius and a late summer fieldtrip in eastern Montana under constant sunlight, not a drop of rain in sight at temperatures of over 30 celcius. It was great but occasionally it felt like a military endurance test.

For the Fall term, I'm taking four other classes. They are: Geochemistry, Architecture of Sedimentary deposits, Strucural geology and Hydrogeology. My favourites so far are structural geology and Arc. of sed. deposits. I'm not very mathematical so geochem and hydrogeology were never going to be my favourites but I'm giving them a fair try none the less.

I've been on a few other field trips so far also. For structural geology we went to the sun river valley near Augusta in north central Montana. That trip gave us a good understanding of the various formations in this part of the western USA and how they have been deformed over geological time into their current settings.

It was interesting to camp out overnight on a fieldtrip, as back in Ireland we don't really get the opportunity to camp, probably because we take our longer fieldtrips in spring, which is when Ireland statistically receives it maximum rainfalls. So camping in March or April in Ireland would be a soggy and miserable affair. It was the opposite in Montana. We all had a great time and it was great to be out there in the great outdoors, bears and all! A small bear did drop by and leave a footprint not too far from our tent, something else that would never happen in Ireland.