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An eventful semester teaching field geophysics

University of Oklahoma, Norman, U.S.

Corresponding author: awitten@ou.edu

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

During the fall semester, I annually teach a course in field geophysics for upper level undergraduates and graduate students. Because there is a field element to several seismic courses taught here, the methods included in my course are generally limited to ground penetrating radar (GPR), electromagnetic induction (EMI), magnetometry, and gravity. Seismic methods are not excluded but are only used if called for in a particular field study.

The most difficult aspect of the course is identifying teaching sites. In order to keep students motivated, it is important to plan field studies and acquire and interpret data at sites that address problems of real interest. This becomes an annual challenge, particularly in light of the constraints imposed by performing these field studies within the framework of teaching. Large or remote sites are difficult because the time required for travel and field work conflict with the weekday class schedules of students and must be limited to weekends. Furthermore, some could involve overnight stays that add hotel expenses to the travel costs. Campus sites are frequently used; however, these are typically limited to mapping utility tunnels that underlay the university.

Every year, I receive numerous requests for geophysical support for problems such as finding unmarked graves in old cemeteries or identifying solution features in karst geology on someone's ranch. The search for mass graves from the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 was one such request that I used as a vehicle for teaching (Witten, 2001) but, for the most part, such requests cannot be used as educational experiences either because of the magnitude of the effort or because specific situations are inappropriate for student participation.

The fall semester of 2002 was the exception to the rule. It was a coalescence of requests and funded research projects having levels of effort and schedules . . . [Full Text of this Article]