Duke Geological Labs

Below, for educational interest, we provide an On-The-Rocks Trip List of all of the regions visited during the decade-long On-The-Rocks Field Trip Series conducted by Drs. Charles Merguerian and John E. Sanders. The OTR series consisted of forty-two all-day (and some two-day) geological field trips conducted to 24 regions between September 1988 and November 1998. The field trips were sponsored through June of 1996 by the New York Academy of Sciences. Later in 1997-98, a few trips were sponsored by the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan and by the Hofstra University College of Continuing Education in Hempstead. With limited geographic overlap, the trips covered twenty-four specific destinations or regions within a radius of 150 miles of New York City. Because some trips were conducted more than once, the result of popular demand, a few dates are typically listed below under each trip heading. The Annotated OTR Trip Listing is more comprehensive in that it includes brief geologic descriptions and UTM grid coordinates and USGS quadrangle information for each of our 185 localities. We recommend reading the preface (this page), then looking into the trip- and annotated listings. The annotated file is large so be patient. 

In the Annotated OTR Trip Listing the trips and their individual localities ("stops") are organized under each region's Guidebook # (#1. through #24.). UTM Grid coordinates and USGS quadrangle names are specified for each individual locality. In some cases, where "free-form" field trips or traverses were conducted, a central UTM position has been approximated or the end points are identified by their UTM grid. Eventually, the regionally scattered trip stops will be keyed to a map and by clicking the "hot spots" on the map, you will be ported to a brief description. For the time being, you might scroll through this entire document to visit all of the 185 localities covered by our On-The-Rocks Field Guides. Providing complete detailed road logs, regional background, a reference list, illustrations, and considerable more locality detail than found in the Annotated OTR Trip Listing, fabulous two-color (stunning black and glorious white) printed Field Trip Guides are available from Duke Labs for a nominal cost.

Unfortunately, as time goes by more and more classical geological teaching localities have become overgrown, built upon, or removed from public access by land owners, entrepreneurs, (or as former Dukelabs consultant Ernest P. Worrell would have said, entremanures), and various legal departments. In the two years since our last "official" field trip, ownership and access conditions may have dramatically changed. Please be advised that permission must be sought in almost all of the areas visited on our trip series and that state and local law precludes stopping at interstate highway roadsides. Our legal department, such as it is, forces us to state that:

1) "If you plan to visit any field locations, use your best judgement and always seek out appropriate permission", and,

2) "We do not endorse trespassing or unlawful activity of any kind by offering this compilation of specific localities but provide the listing, map, and accompanying database for purposes of enlightened public education, as a teaching resource, and for scientific research".

Under constant revision, three useful tables originally created during the On The Rocks Series by the John Sanders and Charles Merguerian include a Geological Time Chart with selected local geological events and a more comprehensive Description of the Major Geologic Layers in SE New York and vicinity.  We also include a compilation table showing our New Classification of the Pleistocene Deposits of New York City and Vicinity.

References cited in any of the supporting links can be found in the guidebooks or can be searched from our long-standing NYC/Appalachian/Cordilleran Reference Database. The reference database is a 1.6 Mb file (~600 p. text) so it will take a short while to fully load. As mentioned above, a compiled listing of all 185 field localities visited on our decade-long field trip series can be accessed at the following link: Annotated OTR Trip Listing. By scrolling to a locality, you can read a brief description of the geology found at that particular stop. We are still working on a searchable database and map-based linkages. Detailed descriptions of OTR field-trip stops, including driving directions and commentary, figures, maps, and orientation data can be found in the individual On-The-Rocks Field Guides.

 E-mail: info@dukelabs.com

Filename: OTR Preface.html