Field Trips -- Lake Michigan beaches - Chicago

Field Trips by Ellin Beltz

Self-guided field trips to Lake Michigan. by students of Northeastern Illinois University - Geology Resources and Environment 123 - Spring, 2000
See how far down you have to dig to hit ground water, a pebble beach in the City, deposition/erosion and more in this fascinating glimpse of 124 students' interactions with our local landscape. Photos from March/April, 2000. Page created April, 2000.
Part I: Observe the Lake.
Lisa Do. Small waves and gull looking south to a sand spit.	Kiennesha Eades. Ripples under gentle waves.	Kiennesha Eades. Wind ripples in dry sand.
Asia Momin. Stone beach at 6000 North.	Jacqueline Leanza and Joseph Storelli. Deposition upstream; erosion downstream.	Joseph Storelli. Surface expression of the groundwater within the outermost beach strand.
Part II: Find the water table.
Pinal Gheewala. Digging a hole to find the groundwater.	Pinal Gheewala. Eureka! Pinal Shah and Rimpal Shah find groundwater at seven inches.	Kevin Gibbons. Three feet from waterline, eight inches down.
Nicole Cristofano. Five inches deep, three inches from the waterline.	I was very proud of what my students found and observed. For some, this was their first trip to the lake; others were very familiar with it, yet still found new things. The assignment was to take the book to the lake and attempt to find and document as many coastal processes and features as possible. In addition, they were to find the top of the water table, which several of them did in interesting and creative ways.	Jacqueline Leanza. Who says you don't need an ice scraper in springtime Chicago?
Reference material to prepare for the field trip.
Read First Families of Chicago: Local life until about 400 million years ago an illustrated view of local fossils with suggestions of where to see them. Read about topography and geology in Chicago - long before high rises and Lake Shore Drive - in in William Alden's 1902 Chicago Folio. Visit my Chicago Links for up-to-the minute links to tourism, maps and other reference materials. Geological Illustrations Standard rock symbols ^. Complete Geologic Column ^. Ordovician fossils ^. Silurian fossils ^. Devonian fossils ^. Mississippian fossils ^. Pennsylvanian fossils ^. Illinois top of rocks map ^. LaSalle and Kanakakee geological column ^. LaSalle area cross-section ^. Northern Illinois top of rocks map

Take another field trip... In Illinois: Montrose Beach^. Chicago River^. Kankakee River^. Dinosaur Lab Tour^. La Salle^. Lake Michigan Beaches^. Chicago's Michigan Avenue^. Southern Illinois^. Thornton Quarry Beyond Chicago ^. Hawai'i^. Humboldt County^. Wyoming
Travel back in time... William Alden's 1902 Chicago Folio	Learn Paleozoic fossils... Read my First Families of Chicago
Visit my Nifty Links... Amphibians ^. Archaeology ^. Astronomy ^. Australia ^. Botany ^. California ^. Chemistry ^. Chicago ^. Dinosaurs ^. Earthquakes ^. Environmental Issues ^. Ferndale ^. Fossils ^. Glaciers ^. Humboldt County ^. Illinois ^. Kinetic Sculpture Races ^. Lake Michigan ^. Maps ^. Math ^. Minerals ^. Moon ^. National Parks ^. Oceans ^. Physics ^. Plate Tectonics ^. Rocks ^. Rock Art ^. Science Culture ^. Volcanos ^. Whole Earth
Visit my home page ☯ Ellin Beltz - ebeltz@ebeltz.net Updated: January 10, 2008