Take a field trip to Arizona

This week Jim Bell's student Ryan Anderson, author of the Martian Chronicles blog, is writing about a weeklong field trip to Arizona, one of the most spectacular states (geologically speaking) in the U.S. Field trips are an integral part of the education of geologists whether they study space or Earth -- seeing rock exposures in situ helps you develop a certain kind of intuition for how geologic processes work -- weathering, erosion, transport, deposition, uplift, and back around to the beginning again -- to create the rocks that underlie Earth's landscapes. Most of this experience and intuition is translatable to Mars, so field trips are as valuable for planetary geologists as they are for their Earth-focused brethren. Anyway, check out Ryan's reports from the road, which start here.