Wyoming summer

New director extremely familiar with Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences' Wyoming field camp.

June 22, 2004

How do you replace someone who has directed a field camp for you over 35 years?

If you are the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences you find someone who grew up virtually next door to the camp.

Erik Kvale, a three-time Iowa State graduate in geology, is the new director of Iowa State University's Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences' field camp near Shell, Wyoming. Kvale, who works for the Indiana Geological Survey at Indiana University, takes over for Carl Vondra, distinguished professor emeritus, at Iowa State.

"When I was asked to fill the position I jumped at the opportunity," Kvale said. "It's a great chance to be in the field every day.

"I know the area and the people and I have always been fascinated by the geology this area has."

Kvale should know the area. He graduated from nearby Greybull High School. His father and Vondra were friends and his grandmother actually lived next door to the field camp's location.

"I've known Carl (Vondra) since I was a kid," Kvale said, "and I became enamored with what he did for a living. He would come to our house and show slides of his travels. When I decided to go into geology I thought of no place else but Iowa State."

Kvale earned his bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. degrees from Iowa State and spent a summer as a student at the field camp in 1976. He was a teaching assistant while he was a graduate student at the camp for two other years. His doctoral research is based on the geology of the area.

All of which makes Kvale a logical choice to now oversee Iowa State's field camp in his hometown.

The summer field course in geology is a requirement of all Iowa State geology majors. A similar field component is also required by other colleges and universities across the country. This year, the course has attracted students from Iowa State, Nebraska-Lincoln, which has a cooperative agreement to attend the camp, Temple, Northern Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas A&M.

The field camp is located on the western flank of the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming, making the location of the camp ideal.

The surrounding area features rocks ranging in age from Precambrian through Cenozic. Near the Iowa State base of operations are the Peleocene and Eocene fluvial and lacustrine deposits in the basin interior, the folded Peleozoic and Mesozoic marine sedimentary rocks along the basin margin, and the upthrusted Precambrian metamorphic rocks of the surrounding Laramide uplifts.

Students learn to recognize and evaluate various geological phenomena and problems, and learn geologic reasoning on daily excursions to nearby geological sites.

Standard field techniques, ranging from note taking to photogeologic analysis, are introduced along with the latest methods of acquiring and recording field data.

"But we're literally changing the curriculum day-by-day," Kvale said. "We're trying to be flexible and see what works and what doesn't."

And this year, Kvale has asked some of his fellow Iowa State graduates to return to Wyoming to help instruct the course.

"We want to make sure that what we're teaching these students can translate into professions for them," Kvale said. ""We want to provide as much exposure to the outside world to the students as possible."

One such professional and Iowa State graduate was Rick Chamberlain, who works for the Houston-based firm Strategic Decisions Group. Chamberlain spent parts of two days in Wyoming, delivering lectures and going into the field with the students.

"I loved my time at the field camp when I was a student," Chamberlain said. "It was one of the best times of my life. Even now I want to come back here.

"I will tell the students about the oil and gas industry and tell them that the stuff they are learning out here at the camp has direct applications to that industry."

Kvale is excited about the opportunities that await the field camp in the coming years.

"I'm so pumped up about this field camp," he said. "Our goal is to turn it into the best field camp in the country within five years.

"But more than anything we want to make sure that the students have a good experience. If they do that they will recommend us to their friends."

And so far that philosophy seems to be working. Brian Derks, a senior geology major at Iowa State, says his time so far at the camp has been worth the time and expense.

"It's a lot of fun," Derks said. "You get to see geology in person, instead of looking a textbook. You get such a better visual representation of what you're studying."

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