As you will discover, you are living in an area that has been shaped in large part by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.  This course requires that students get out into the real world and look at what surrounds them.  The course description says "includes a field trip", so you may not use trips you took before this term.  If you are going on a field trip for another class that is appropriate to this course, you may use that field trip, but do a separate write-up for this class.

For this project, you should spend some time researching the features that you want to see and provide some background information on these features (for example:  the Columbia Gorge, the Boring Lavas, faults in the Portland area, evidence of the 1700 quake along the coast).  Be sure to provide references for all of your background information.  Then you will go out and photograph a minimum of 4 different features associated with either volcanoes or earthquakes in the area surrounding Portland (you can include the coast, the eastern end of the Gorge, up to Seattle WA, and down to Roseburg OR).  You may be able to find all of the features you need inside Portland.  You may go by yourself or with others in a group (you'll find it more fun in a group), but the work that you turn in must be your own, not work done by another student in the class.  

What will you turn in?  A title page; a background section, which involves researching your material, a journal of your exploration.  By this I mean that you will put together a journal describing in detail your explorations and illustrated with the pictures you have taken.  You should include information such as where you went, when your went (date), what the weather was like, what sort of food you had (I like restaurant recommendations), with whom you went.  If you go in a group, describe some of the group dynamics.  You should also include some personal reflection (this is a journal).  Again, while you may go exploring in a group, your journal must be your own individual work.  You may not turn in joint projects.  The journal must be typed with one inch margins all around, using a 10 or 12 pt legible font.  The journal should be a minimum of 5 pages of text (this does not include images or references).

Your photographs should be large enough to show clearly whatever feature you are photographing.  With your photograph, you should include a figure caption stating what feature is being shown in the photograph and where the photograph was taken.

For outside references, you should indicate the references in the main body of the text and a list of references should be given at the end of the journal.  I don't care about format, but I should be able to find your information or illustration in a second or two, not have to wade through a list of references.

You will be graded on

• background material - did you do some research to help you understand what you are looking at (and perhaps help you plan out your excursion)
• features - did you find 4 different features
• content - do you provide enough information for me to know fairly well where, when and with whom you took your images.  
• do you provide references in such a way as to make it easy for the reader to find your informaiton
• proof you went on the trip - make sure you get someone to take your picture in front of one of your locations
• quality - do your pictures do a good job of showing the reader the features you've seen and are your descriptions of those features informative
• personal voice - do you have an interesting and readable narrative of your search for your features

There are lots and lots of acceptable features.  I give a partial list below, but this is by no means everything.  If you have a question about what is acceptable, please ask me.

Some possible features:
cinder cone
shield volcano
stratovolcano
lava flow
columnar jointing (or other types of joints)
soil liquefaction features (plenty along the coast)
a fault (try to determine if normal or reverse)
slickensides
mineralization along a fault
pahoehoe texture
pillow lava texture
dikes and sills, particularly if you can show a baked contact of a chilled zone
baked soil along a contact between two lava flows
tree molds in cooled lava
ash deposit