Studies Group
IMAGES OF THE 2004 MARQUEZ IMPACT DOME FIELD TRIP
On March 14, 2004, the Impact Field Studies Group hosted its first field trip to the Marquez Dome impact structure in east Texas. After a reasonable 2 1/2 hour drive north of Houston, 14 members from the IFSG group arrived in Marquez, TX for a day in the field. The rainy weather held off and after a lengthy hike through a brush-filled gully, we began to discover shatter cones, breccia, and vein-filled fracture material in float weathering out of the topsoil cover of the central uplift. Here's a sampling of photos from the trip. Enjoy!
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| Reuben Johnson and Lucille Petruny (Auburn Univ.) are ready to get on the road. | Sam Houston guides the way along I - 45. |
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| David King (Auburn Univ.) 'rides a rubber tire horsey'. | Welcome to Marquez, Texas! |
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| Hanging out in downtown Marquez, TX. From left to right: Sandra Ciccolella (Univ. of TN), Livio Tornabene (Univ. of TN), Shawn Wright (ASU), Gordon 'Oz' Osinski (Univ. of AZ), and Mark Thompson (Kentucky Geol. Survey) | Livio and Shawn triangulate our location. |
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Marquez field trip participants posing to the north of the center of the structure. From left to right: Gordon 'Oz' Osinski, Livio Tornabene, Sandra Ciccolella, Jan Knox, Bill Deane, Orion Knox, Megan ____, Shawn Wright (back), Reuben Johnson, Mark Thompson, Lucille Putruny, Jens Ormö, and David King. |
Same group but minus Orion Knox and with Keith Milam (right) inserted. |
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| Oz and Sandra help David King through | The IFSG team has conquered our first obstacle: the barbed-wire fence. |
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| IFSG members made their ways through marshy areas and around this lake. | After a nice hike through thick brush, Livio and Mark emerge to an open field. |
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| Reuben Johnson (Auburn Univ.) finds the base of a shatter cone in the central uplift. | Fractured rock in the central uplift contain multi-colored vein material. |
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| (Left to right) Shawn, Oz, and Livio hiking up a mound in the central uplift area. | Fractured and vein-filled nodules occur in the central uplift of the Marquez Dome. |
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| Some of Oz's shatter cones from Marquez. | Shawn and Livio examine the best 'outcrops' in east Texas. |
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| (Left to right) Megan, Sandra, Jan Knox, Orion Knox, and David King break in a shatter cone - rich area for lunch. | Enjoying our sack lunches at the Marquez Dome. |
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| Large shatter cones in a gully near our lunch stop. | Livio's samples of breccia and shatter cone (with curving fan tail). |
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| Lucille notices an interesting rock protruding at the surface during a lunch break. | Reuben and David offer their digging expertise to Lucille. |
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| A mysterious rock begins to emerge. . . | . . . displaying a number of large shatter cones . . . |
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| . . . so Lucille poses next to her discovery . . . | . . . and the natives rejoice! |
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| On our way back to the vans, Oz discovers another east Texas outcroup containing a shatter cone. | After a fun day in the field, the Impact Field Studies Group has completed its first field trip and we head back to Houston for the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. |
| For a panoramic view of the Marquez Dome, visit the 'Terrestrial Impact Crater Panorama Database' link on the IFSG home page. | |
| For more information on IFSG field trips, visit the IFSG home page. | |
