Phy Sci! & Engr GUIDE FIELD QE 89 GEOLOGY ANDFTECT Al C32 no. 122 OF TH|<g£^HERN c.l T* * ,-SIE ^v ••• /S S3 I'd!? I: [r .:•«•.* 5 • NATIONAL ASSOCIATION 4/ OF GEOSCIENCE TEACHERS ! — Far-Western Section Fall Conference*^ 2000 W- ±. Special Publication 122 CONSERVATION! Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of California, Davis Libraries http://archive.org/details/fieldguidetogeol122nati Special Publication 122 GUIDE TO THE GEOLOGY FIELD AND TECTONICS OF THE NORTHERN SIERRA NEVADA National Association of Geoscience Teachers Far-Western Section — Conference 2000 Fall Editors Elwood R. Brooks California State University;, Hayward and Lena Tabilio Dida Division ofMines and Geology MINESANDGEOLOGY UNIVERSITYLIBRARY CALIFORNIA U.C DAVIS CONSERVATION I NOV 6 2000 CALIF. 0EP0S. GOV. INFO. DEPT. Euhedral augite phenocryst (gray) replaced along its edges by actinolite (red and blue) during Jurassic greenschist-facies metamorphism. A twin lamella runs down the middle ofthe phenocryst, through both augite and actinolite. The phenocryst is 1.5 mm long, and was collected from a Devonian basalt sill in the Lakes Basin, Plumas County. Photomicrograph byE.R. Brooks. Cordell Durrell 1908-1986 This memorial to Cordell Durrell is an abridged standouts. One was an undergraduate course in version of one written by Eldridge Moores for the hand specimen petrology, in which he spent hours Geological Society of America. Permission to re- on a one-to-one basis with each student. Many produce it was kindly granted by Faith Rogers, students remember facing their conferences with Managing Editor, Geological Society ofAmerica. Durrell with a great deal of apprehension; after- ward they recalled the experience as one of the Born in 1908 in San Francisco, Cordell Durrell most memorable of their college careers. Durrell's received his A.B. and Ph.D. other famous course was a degrees in geology from the graduate seminar in the geolo- University of California, Ber- gy of California. This course keley, in 1931 and 1936. He involved thoroughly analyzing, was an instructor in geology at and usually demolishing, U.C. Berkeley in 1936-37. In selected primary references 1938, he became an instruc- on field geology of California. tor in geology at the University For most students, this sort of of California, Los Angeles, critical analysis of an individual beginning an association that author's arguments was a real lasted for 25 years. In 1943 eye-opener. A measure of he received a two-year leave of his memorable qualities as a absence from UCLA, during teacher was demonstrated in which he worked with the 1974 when Durrell became U.S. Geological Survey help- one of the very few professors ing to assess U.S. resources in in the history of the Universi- barite and optical-quality cal- ty of California ever to receive cite. He returned to UCLA in a promotion to over-scale 1945 as assistant professor, professor based upon his life- receiving promotions to asso- long effectiveness as a teach- ciate professor in 1946 and er, rather than his research. professor in 1951. Durrell began work on the Blairsden Quadrangle In 1963, Durrell went to the University of Cali- in the northeastern Sierra Nevada in 1938, a fornia, Davis, as professor and chairman of the study that continued throughout his career. During Geology Department to oversee the growth of the the course of this work, he became the principal then-small department into a first-rank research authority on the Cenozoic geology of the northern and teaching group. During his chairmanship Sierra Nevada and surrounding regions. He wrote (1963-67), he laid the foundation for departmental Geologic History of the Feather River Country, expansion and planned a new building, occupied California, documenting his lifelong Sierran work. in 1971. The University of California Press published the Durrell was principally known as an outstanding book in 1987. Cord was a tireless and indefatiga- and dedicated educator and an expert in Sierra ble field geologist. Even after his first heart attack Nevada geology. As an educator he inspired hun- in 1966, he would set a pace on a field traverse dreds of graduate and undergraduate students at that left much younger geologists panting in his both UCLA and UC Davis, many of whom went dust. He remained an active and influential mem- ber of the Geology Department at UC Davis even on to distinguished geological careers in industry, government and academia. Two courses were after his retirement in 1976. in Cover Photo: Stream runoffor surface springs form water- falls in several locations visible from Highway 49 near Downieville. Photo byMax Flanery, DMG.