John Stone

UW Geoclub is an undergraduate student organization affiliated with ESS that organizes a weekly social get-together, talks by ESS grad students and faculty, field trips to local geologic sites, rock-hounding, and a more ambitious multi-day field trip during spring break.

In recent years, the club has ventured as far afield as Utah, the Grand Canyon and southern California to see geology unlike anything in easy reach of Seattle. In March 2025, Geoclub took a different approach — a trip that wound through southern Washington and along the Oregon coast, through the Columbia Gorge, Wallula Gap and the Columbia Basin and home across the Cascades. It was a reminder of all the spectacular geology close to home, and the events that have shaped the landscape and history of the Pacific Northwest, from millions of years in the past up to the present day.

Students joined the trip for a variety of reasons. Rohan Batten, a third-year geology student and avid life-long hiker, had recently joined the ESS department and was looking for ways to get more involved. While he already knew the basics of Pacific Northwest geology, “getting to learn exactly what carved so much of the history into the area with acts like the Missoula floods was a wonderful experience.”

Asher Haywood, a second-year student in the biology track who is minoring in paleobiology, was initially hesitant to sign up. He ultimately decided to go both to learn about local geology and to spend time with friends who share his interests. “I quickly realized that I made the right decision as I traveled to geological sites throughout Washington and Oregon and learned the stories that explained and connected them,” he said.

The trip threaded together the glacial world of southern Puget Sound, the sunken forests of Willapa Bay, unimaginable volumes of Columbia River basalt both east and west of the Cascades, the Bonneville Landslide that crossed the Columbia River only 580 years ago and the Missoula floods landscapes of southeastern Washington.

Recurring themes included the geological drama and ever-present hazards of the Northwest — earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, volcanic eruptions and giant floods — their imprint on the landscape, and how geologists assemble and interpret the evidence of their scale, causes, age and effects.

ESS Ph.D. student Sophie Johnson joined the group as a teaching assistant. Sophie saw many of the stops for the first time along with the undergraduate students. “This created a nice opportunity to model how a geoscientist approaches a new/unknown locality and what the initial observational goals are,” Sophie said. Sophie was consistently impressed by the enthusiasm of the students, and their energy, curiosity and teamwork. “The group was chipper, alert and moving constantly. Not only did they listen and absorb overview information at each stop, but they asked insightful questions from a place of genuine curiosity,” they said.

For many students, seeing geological features firsthand brought classroom concepts into sharper focus. Chapin Reese, a second-year student in the physics track, said the trip provided an opportunity to experience local geologic processes they had been learning about in class in an in-person context. “There is a sense of scale and tangibility that I believe cannot truly be accessed in a classroom setting with ideal rock samples,” Chapin said. “It is truly something else to be able to witness rocks, structures and remnants of geologic events like the Columbia flood basalts or the Missoula floods.”

With so many ESS faculty and students working in places like Antarctica, the Himalayas or the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, it’s easy to forget how much spectacular geology there is only a few hours from home. Some of these locations include pillow basalt outcrops at Cape Disappointment, sea-stacks at Cannon Beach, and other rocky coves and headlands along the Oregon coast. They also saw a Proterozoic boulder in the middle of the Willamette Valley — carried in an iceberg by Missoula floodwaters and stranded far above the level of the Columbia River — and Multnomah Falls in the Columbia Gorge.

Would this group of students recommend a similar trip to others?

Chapin says yes. “I would absolutely recommend going on this or similar experiences — it was a great way to build bonds with fellow geology students and enthusiasts while gaining an appreciation for the sheer scale and complexity of the physical world around us.”

Asher agrees. “The whole trip was a great experience, thanks to the other members of Geoclub as well as Professor Stone and Sophie, who were extremely knowledgeable and entertaining. I would recommend trips like this to other students, both ESS and non-ESS majors, who want to understand geology on a more personal level, have fun with fellow geology enthusiasts, and collect rocks and minerals.”