About DMS Field Trips
The DMS sponsors and/or
participates in several field trips per month visiting mineral and fossil collecting sites
in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina.
All field trips
are weather dependent and require at least an average level of physical fitness!
Several of the trips are physically demanding!
All quarry
trips require members to be 18 years old and have hardhat, safety
glasses/goggles and steel-toed boots.
Recommended
collecting equipment includes: rock hammers, chisels, pry-bars, screens for
sifting, collecting boxes, packing material (newspaper is good), etc. Always bring
water, drinks and snacks for the day and wear appropriate clothing and footwear.
To sign up
for scheduled Mineral trips or suggest other possible trips contact Alex Kane at
least 48-hours before each trip or see him during DMS club meetings.
For Fossil trips, contact Bob Asreen at
glauconite5@yahoo.com.
Directions to each
fieldtrip will be emailed and/or discussed over the phone with those who signup to attend.
Members of DMS are also eligible to participate in fieldtrips hosted by the members of the
Eastern Field Trip Alliance. To reserve a place
on a EFTA field trip, you must contact me at least 3
weeks prior to the trip.
Over the past year, the DMS has sponsored field trips to collect fossils and minerals at
localities in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. On
each page is a
brief synopsis of those trips. For photos of
the localities that we visited, the participants and the specimens that were collected,
please see the field trip pages on the DMS web site.
[Alex Kane & Bob Asreen]
Past Field Trips 2004-2009
Karissa and Arthur, JT Dyer Quarry, 10-13-2007
March Show 2009 Field Trip Display Case
Hi! As in the past, we
are putting together a DMS Field Trip display case to show the
visitors at the show where the DMS field trips have taken us and what has been found at
those localities.
We could use your help in filling our case(s)
with specimens that you collected from some of our fieldtrips--both
minerals and fossils. Thanks.
--Bob
March
Show 2009 Field Trip Display Cases
 |
Thanks to everyone who made these cases possible.
--Bob Asreen
|
2009 DMS UPCOMING FIELD TRIPS
Fieldtrip season is
almost here. Alex Kane is now our VP of
Fieldtrips, as a result of our June 2008 election. Thanks
for all your hard work and dedication to providing our club with
numerous, varied, and high quality fieldtrips, Bob!
Bob Asreen will keep a hand in arranging fossil fieldtrips; Alex
will concentrate on mineral and museum trips. And, Wendy Sbriglia has put together a March bus trip to Washington, D.C.
March 21, 2009 (Saturday):
DMS Bus Trip to Washington,
D. C. DMS will have approximately
40+ seats for our day-long fieldtrip to the Smithsonian
Institution, and more. Members may sign-up family members.
More details to come in our February 2009 Geogram.
March 29, 2009 (Sunday):
C&D Canal Fossil Collecting Trip. DMS will have
a fieldtrip suitable for families and children. See Bob
Asreen to signup. Area is approximately 20-25 minutes from
our clubhouse. Fossils include: Cretaceous belemnites,
oysters, and microfossils. Bring a sifting box and small
shovel, though easy pickings are to be had from the surface
sand.
April 25, 2009, Saturday:
Red Hill, Hyner, Clinton Co., PA. DMS, DVPS
and Friends of the Aurora Fossil Museum members will visit the
Red Hill Field Station in the vicinity of North Bend about 30
miles north of Lockhaven, PA. Fossils found at this site
are Devonian in age and include vertebrate (shark, fish, and
amphibian) material and plant fossils from Red Hill.
Fossil collection is by hammer and chisel almost exclusively.
For more information go to the Red Hill website:
www.devoniantimes.org/.
Please sign up for the trip by April
15th. Note the Red Hill site is a VERY steep
outcrop, and footing can be somewhat precarious. Because
of this, young children under the age of 13 will not be allowed
to collect there. This is about a 4-hour drive
from Delaware. However, Red Hill is one of the
premier sites in the world in terms of early plant and
vertebrate fossil remains and I personally think it is well
worth the drive!
Please sign up for the trip by April 22nd.
April 26, 2009, Sunday: St. Clair,
Clinton Co., PA.
[CANCELLED] DMS, DVPS and Friends of the
Aurora Fossil Museum members will visit the St. Clair fossil
plant site in the vicinity of about 3 miles east of St. Clair,
PA. Fossils found at this site are Pennsylvanian in age
and include a wide variety of fossil fern material. The
fern fossils are preserved in white pyrophyllite on black shale.
Fossil collection is by hammer and chisel almost exclusively.
Please sign up for the trip by April 22nd.
Lee Creek Update
The DMS has 10 slots for the PCS (aka Lee Creek ) Mine,
Aurora , Beaufort County , NC on Saturday, March 14!
Aurora is the premier locality on the East Coast for
collecting Miocene age vertebrate and invertebrate fossils.
Fossils that can be found at the mine include the remains of
sharks notably C. megalodon teeth, whales, porpoises, fish,
birds and mollusks. Information about this site can be
found at
www.elasmo.com.
If you are interested in going to Lee Creek with DMS, then
call me at 302-838-0339 or email me at
glauconite5@yahoo.com
to sign up for the trip.
Only club members 18 or older whose dues are current will be
eligible for this trip.
Aurora is about a 6.5-hour drive from Delaware .
We will meet at the PCS contractor’s parking lot at 7AM on
Saturday.
If you have any suggestions for possible fossil fieldtrips, talk to Alex
Kane at a meeting, call him at the number listed in the Geogram,
or send him an email
with your suggestion and he will look into it.
Check out our Past Field Trips 2004-2009 for pictures, detail, and such. |
E.F.T.A. (formerly N.E.F.T.A.)
FIELDTRIPS
Remember, members of DMS will also be eligible to
participate in field trips hosted by the members of the Eastern Field Trip Alliance (EFTA). I will post those trips in the Geogram when the schedule
becomes available in the spring. I would also suggest that you check the web site to find
out about upcoming field trips.
For more information, go to: www.nefta.us
Society of Natural History of Delaware All events are free and
open to the public. Fieldtrips normally take 2-4 hours.
For questions and/or reservations for any trip call
Al Matlack at (302) 239-5383.
New Jersey State Museum Fieldtrips
Virginia Museum of Natural History Field Trips
Join VMNH staff on our paleontological field trips and learn about
the fascinating geological history of the Middle Atlantic States. These trips cover a wide
variety of ages and environments representative of the last 450 million years.
All trips are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Some trips
have limits on the number of participants. Fees are used to support research at VMNH.
Requested donations for each trip do not include accommodations, meals, transportation, or park entry fees.
To make a reservation, send a message to butchd@vmnh.net with the subject "Field Trip."
Tell which trip you are interested in, and how many adults and children will be
attending, or call 276-666-8644. Then mail a check payable to Virginia Museum of Natural History to:
Virginia Museum of Natural History
Attn: Research Field Trips
1001 Douglas Ave.
Martinsville, VA 24112
Schedules and itineraries are tentative. Trips may be cancelled due
to inclement weather or lack of enrollment. Trips will be cancelled unless 10 people have
pre-paid at least one week prior to the trip, and after that point no refunds will be
offered unless the trip is cancelled. Curators for the VMNH collection may retain
scientifically significant specimens.
Details of these trips can be found at: http://www.vmnh.net/index.cfm?pg=285
Collecting Adventure Stories:
"Sunny Brook Crick
Goethite" by Joe Dunleavy |
