August 29, 2023

GSOC Crowd Enjoyed the Annual Picnic at Beacon Rock SP

August 29, 2023/ Carol Hasenberg

The GSOC Annual Picnic enjoyed a good turnout this year at Beacon Rock State Park in the Columbia River Gorge. GSOC had not sited the picnic here for over 20 years, and members agreed that this was a very good venue for a picnic. Not only did the site have a serviceable enclosed shelter building, but also a great view of some outstanding geology – Beacon Rock, a remnant of the last known outpouring of Boring lava, dated at 58,000 years ago.

September 19, 2022

The Big Kapow! Crater Lake Field Trip Recap

September 19, 2022/ Carol Hasenberg

This trip began in the mind of GSOC member Dr. Benjamin Sloan after he joined the society last year and participated in the Coaledo trip last summer. By September he was emailing me and asking whether we would consider doing a trip to Crater Lake. I replied that we’d consider the trip, then added a long list of logistical considerations that needed to be worked out, thinking that would be the last I’d hear from him. Well, one month later he had researched the technical papers, gone to Crater Lake to research lodging and travel routes, and sent me a list of tasks he’d completed. Turns out that Ben has been planning field trips worldwide and teaching geology for years as well as doing oil exploration.

August 28, 2022

GSOC Strawberry Mountain Field Trip

August 28, 2022/ Carole Miles

story text by Carole Miles

photos by Carole Miles, Denny Chamberlin, and Kate Ely

The Strawberry Mountain fault was discovered in 2019 by DOGAMI’s Ian Madin upon reviewing new LiDAR maps of the area. Andrew Dunning, looking for a project for his master’s thesis at Portland State University, realized that a lack of high-quality seismic data in this area of Oregon may have erroneously led to an inaccurate assessment of the seismic risk in Eastern Oregon on the USGS National Seismic Hazard Map. He has been working on gathering data related to timing and offset of the Strawberry Mountain fault for the past two years. He was excited to take GSOC members into the field to show us what he has learned.

August 07, 2022

Willamette East Bank Bike Geotour Recap and DIY Field Trip

August 07, 2022/ Carol Hasenberg

Recap of the GSOC Willamette East Bank Bike Geotour - June 26, 2022

GSOC participants of the 3rd Eastbank Bike Geotour field trip met on the morning of Sunday, June 26, in order to complete the tour before the 90+ degree temperatures of the hottest day of the year (so far) set in. This tour had not been run in three years due to the pandemic, and the leaders included Ian Madin, who just retired from DOGAMI, and Dr. Lalo Guerrero, who teaches geology at Portland Community College. Take a journey with the group and think about biking it for yourself!

June 25, 2022

Fluvial Processes in the Willamette Valley

June 25, 2022/ Carol Hasenberg

Recap of the GSOC Willamette Valley Transect Geotour - June 18, 2022

Thirteen happy participants of 2022’s first GSOC field trip piled into the back room of the Bear Creek Pizza parlor in Molalla this past Saturday night to eat dinner and sketch up their conclusions from the day’s journey across the Willamette Valley. GSOC Past President and Programming Director Sheila Alfsen led the group from Erratic Rock State Park on the west side of the valley to the Molalla Rosette to the east of the valley in more or less a straight line. The purpose of the trip was to observe the landforms of the Willamette Valley, concentrating on the fluvial processes at work in the sediments of the valley floor.

September 10, 2021

Goodbye to a dear friend, Bev Vogt

September 10, 2021/ Carol Hasenberg

Former GSOC President Bev Vogt — who with her partner in life and geology “Bart” Bartels — led a rejuvenation of our club in the 1990s and 2000s, died peacefully in her home on July 28, 2021. For many of us who remember Bev’s gentle leadership, Bart’s fascinating seminars, and the outstanding field trips they led together, they were very much the heart of the club.

Photo by Dave Olcott

August 29, 2021

Recap of the Coaledo Formation Field Trip

August 29, 2021/ Carol Hasenberg

The Coaledo Formation field trip began about two years ago when Dr. John Armentrout, a native Oregonian and sedimentary basin stratigrapher with a long career at Mobil Oil, came to talk to GSOC about a project he was working on. He was revisiting a part of Oregon that he had studied in the early days of his career, the Coaledo Formation centered in the Coos Bay and Cape Arago areas. He had assembled a team of researchers from the University of Oregon and elsewhere to work on the multidisciplinary project. And he proposed the GSOC field trip as a precursor to a GSA field trip he would be organizing for the GSA annual meeting in 2021.

So, we were all preparing to go on the trip in August 2020 and then COVID struck. We subsequently revised the trip date and finally this year got the trip ready to go. It turned out to be quite a fun trip and well worth the wait!

August 01, 2021

Eastern Oregon Volcanics Trip Remembered

August 01, 2021/ Carol Hasenberg

With forecasts in the Willamette Valley due to surpass 115 degrees, suddenly a four-day geology field trip in traditionally hot Central Oregon seemed to be a very cool place to visit indeed! So, off to the (relatively) cool hills and mountains surrounding Prineville and John Day did 25 geologists and geologist-wanna-be’s travel. Led deftly by three intrepid women: Carol Hasenberg (primary trip organizer), Carrie Gordon (Day 1 & Day 4 Geologist) and Emily Cahoon (Day 2, 3 & 4 Geologist), the group caravanned in up to 14-vehicles to incredibly important and fascinating geologic formations that only friends-of-rocks and aficionados-of-prevailing-geologic theory would appreciate!

June 27, 2021

John Day Raft Trips

June 27, 2021/ Barbara Stroud

Under threatening skies, 12 GSOC adventurers and 4 Ouzel guides with raingear nearby shoved off from the banks of the John Day River near Service Creek.

August 11, 2020

DIY Geology Trip to Eastern/Central Washington State

August 11, 2020/ webmaster

by Carol Hasenberg

What do you do when you can’t go on a GSOC field trip?!? Well, my husband John and I have been watching Nick Zentner do his video thing all spring and summer on YouTube, and we really wanted to see some of the features of Washington state that have been highlighted on the series. So, we decided to go ourselves to eastern and central Washington and see some of this geology. This article is an interactive travelogue of that adventure!

November 01, 2019

Floral Notes From the GSOC Wallowa Field Trip

November 01, 2019/ webmaster

by Teresa Meyer

For those of us who were fortunate enough to participate in the Wallowa GSOC field trip, along with stunning geology we were immersed in an abundance of wildflowers. We were surrounded by an unbelievable variety of wildflowers everywhere we went. At any one time you could stand still and see more than a dozen or more different flowers surrounding you.

August 30, 2019

Tyee Country and Marys Peak Trip

August 30, 2019/ webmaster

GSOC participants had a great little trip to the Corvallis area in mid-July to observe the geological features of Marys Peak and the Tyee formation along US 20 between Philomath and Newport, Oregon. Sheila Alfsen led the group on Saturday, July 13, on a tour of Marys Peak. Her tour was partially based on the very excellent book by Robert J. Lillie, Oregon’s Island in the Sky: Geology Road Guide to Marys Peak. This book is available online at a very reasonable cost.

August 06, 2019

Wallowas Field Trip with Ellen Morris Bishop

August 06, 2019/ webmaster

I’ll begin this article with a picture of the Buckhorn Overlook taken on May 18, 2019, when Evelyn, Julia and I did the reconnaissance for the Wallowa trip. We were directed up here by guest field trip leader Ellen Morris Bishop as this is the best overlook of the eastern canyons area for observing the ranks upon ranks of Columbia River Basalt flows that override the exotic terrane rocks of Hells Canyon, Imnaha Canyon and the Zumwalt Prairie through which we had travelled to get there. We are actually looking down into Imnaha Canyon here and Hells Canyon is just over on the other side of the last green ridge you can see. The blue ridge beyond is the eastern wall of Hells Canyon.

November 01, 2018

Fond Memories of Our Recent Camp Hancock and John Day Basin Field Trip

November 01, 2018/ webmaster

This past President’s field trip organized by GSOC President Paul Edison-Lahm was representative of the best that GSOC has to offer its members – world class geology, knowledgeable speakers, activities for active and less robust participants, fellowship within our group and other science-oriented society members, ground-breaking club history (past and present), breathtaking scenery, great weather, and just plain fun! Special thanks to Paul for his hard work!

November 08, 2017

Helicopter Trip to Mt. St. Helens

November 08, 2017/ webmaster

A small party of GSOC members braved the iffy weather on September 9, 2017, to take a new view of Mt. St. Helens, aboard a helicopter owned and piloted by Hillsboro Aviation Company, on a trip of geologic discovery organized by Sheila Alfsen. The flight was launched from North Fork Survivors tourist complex on Spirit Lake Highway east of Toutle, Washington.

August 30, 2017

The Great Eclipse Camp-Out

August 30, 2017/ webmaster

Twenty four GSOC members and their guests made it to the camp-out in Mill City, Oregon, hosted by GSOC member Dennis Chamberlin, and led by GSOC President Rik Smoody. The purpose of the field trip was to get a bunch of science-minded individuals together to observe one of the most accessible eclipses of this century, and enjoy a bit of geology and camping.

July 28, 2015

Mt. Hood field trip

July 28, 2015/ webmaster

Larry Purchase writes about our recent amazing GSOC Mt. Hood field trip "My thanks to all who contributed, especially..."

Janet for her firm Presidential direction: "No Matter What! Don't Cancel!"
Ellen for naming the flowers and appreciating the hydrology of the White River stream flow.
The Smoody Family for reconnoitering the area for years.
Julia for taking such great photos. Wrecking yard junk at the bottom of the Parkdale Lave Flow?
The park rangers for warmly welcoming us and giving us a wonderful tour of the Cloud Cap Inn.
Eric & Paul for organizing a last minute car load of participants.
Most of all to Bo! — for devoting so much time and energy in researching the geology and preparing such a concise, to the point, field trip guide.

June 27, 2015

Jan and Janet Discover Mima Mounds from Google Earth Image

June 27, 2015/ webmaster

President Janet's SE Oregon Scouting Trip (Take Two)

On Monday, June 1, Jan Kessler and I headed down to SE Oregon to scout my field trip stops for the September GSOC trip. My husband Doug and I did a preliminary trip last August.

We had Marli Miller's new Roadside Geology of Oregon with us so the navigator could read aloud from it as we travelled. It was very helpful. We stopped at Glass Buttes off Hwy 20 between Bend and Burns. Neither of us had been there before. The turnoff is on the south side of the highway, just west of milepost 77. Look for a cattle guard. I was disappointed that it wasn't a sparkling glass mountain as I had imagined.

October 28, 2014

GSOC 50 Years Ago, 1964 Annual Campout

October 28, 2014/ webmaster

Friday, September 4th, 1964, GeeSockers began to gather at the Rujada Forest Camp. As shadows vanished in the twilight, the dancing council fire drew everyone to exchange views with the stars and each other. Trip Chairman Truman Murphy wore out his thumb with his guitar accompaniment of the songfest from “Barney Google" to 'Goodnight Ladies", while Echo II sailed overhead.

September 07, 2014

Sheila's 2014 President's field trip to Silver Falls and Eastern Cascades

September 07, 2014/ webmaster

Recent pictures from Sheila Alfsen's President's field trip to Silver Falls State Park and the Eastern Cascades. Photos & selfie courtesy Carol Hasenberg.

Articles