| MISSION
STATEMENT
Geoscience is the study of planet Earth, its materials,
the processes that act upon them, and the history of the planet
and its life forms since its origin. The mission of Skidmore's
geosciences program is to apply the understanding of Earth processes
to contemporary issues such as Earth resources, land-use planning,
and global change. The program's curriculum includes ocean and
atmospheric sciences, Earth surface processes, and the history
of global change. Our courses are designed for students with a
general interest in the geosciences as well as for students planning
to pursue a graduate degree. We accomplish this mission by providing
an environment in which students acquire sound scientific problem-solving,
research, and communication skills. Geoscience students obtain
a strong foundation for lifelong learning, professional development
in the geosciences, and enhanced career opportunities in other
fields that require a broadly based background in this discipline.
A liberal arts degree in geosciences prepares a student for a
number of professional activities related to resource management,
climatology, oceanography, hydrology, Earth hazards, land-use
planning, and environmental consulting. Our department contributes
to the broader mission of the college by providing courses that
enhance student awareness of, and appreciation for, Earth's dynamic
systems and the scientific methodologies by which they are understood.
Our program complements and is complemented by Environmental Studies
in additional to other Natural Sciences.
GEOLOGIC
SETTING
The Saratoga vicinity lies at the intersection of the Hudson and
Mohawk River valleys. The region is bounded by the Proterozoic
metasediments of the Adirondacks to the north, the Cambro-Ordovician
Taconics to the east, the Devonian Helderbergs and Catskills to
the south, and flat lying Cambrian to Silurian strata to the west.
The Woodlawn fault passes through the center of Skidmore’s
Jonsson Campus, which itself is underlain by the lowermost Ordovician
stromatolite- and chert-bearing Gailor Dolomite southeast of the
fault and Grenville age garnitiferous gneiss to the northwest.
Immediately to the east of the campus, the Gailor is dropped into
the shallow subsurface by the Saratoga fault system. East of this
fault the Middle Ordovician Canajoharie Shale overlies the Gailor
and serves as the cap rock from beneath which the world famous
Saratoga Springs flow on the down-dropped eastern side of the
fault. It can be truly said without exaggeration that the City
of Saratoga Springs owes its existence, and Skidmore College owes
its location, to a unique and complex interplay of geologic phenomena
that extend in time from the Holocene back to the late Proterozoic
Grenville Orogeny.
The preceding could stand alone to afford any Geosciences department
a wealth of proximal field study sites for its students, but in
Skidmore’s case that need not suffice. The world famous
stromatolite “reefs” of the uppermost Cambrian Hoyt
Limestone outcrop immediately to the west of campus in the “Skidmore”
quarry and at Lester Park. The latter is the site of the first
report of stromatolites and of ooids in North America as well
as the type locality of Cryptozoon proliferum, which is globally
the first stromatolite to have been given Linnaean name. Just
a few miles to the east of campus, Stark’s Knob, New York’s
State’s only “volcano” is exposed on the west
side of the Hudson River north of Schuylerville. Stark’s
Knob is an Ordovician pillow basal that is now part of the Taconic
overthrust belt. It is named for General John Stark who mounted
a battery of cannon on the site to block the retreat of the British
army’s northward retreat following the fall 1777 Battle
of Saratoga, otherwise known as the turning point of the American
Revolution.
On the way to Saratoga from Quebec, the British army traveled
on lakes and through valleys that occupy down dropped blocs of
fault systems that are generically related to the Woodlawn and
Saratoga faults. The Battle of Saratoga itself was largely fought
on the topset beds of a Holocene delta complex of postglacial
Lake Albany. A small part of the Jonsson Campus stood as a small
island above the 450’ high stand elevation of Lake Albany.
Dune and beach deposits, along with glacial tills, constitute
the surficial sediments of the campus and lake bottom varved clays
underlie the sports fields to the west. A drumlin field and a
buried channel of the Pleistocene Hudson River lie only a few
kilometers to the west in the Towns of Greenfield and Milton.
The channel fill, now known as the Kayaderosseras aquifer, is
one of the Saratoga vicinity’s primary sources of potable
water.
Skidmore's proximity to such a unique and diverse set of geological
field sites rivals almost any college or university in the country
for teaching undergraduate courses in the geosciences and also
in interdisciplinary venues that highlight the interactions between
Homo sapiens and the natural environment.
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