The photos on this page were taken during several field days for Ge 107, an introductory geologic field mapping class at Caltech. We spent a total of seven days in the field, visiting several sites in the Devil's Punchbowl area of the San Gabriel Mountains, near Valyermo, California. The majority of the rocks in these photos are Eocene to Miocene (57.8 to 5.3 Ma) sedimentary rocks.

All photos Copyright 1998, Aron Meltzner.

1 2 3

(1-3) Photos of the Devil's Punchbowl area. Photo 2 shows a sharp contact between a red unit on the right and white Punchbowl sandstone on the left. In photo 3, a hill consisting primarily of rocks of the red unit is in front of Punchbowl sandstone.

4

(4) More Punchbowl sandstone.

5 6 7

(5-6) A photo and a close-up of unusual weathering patterns in Martinez sandstone. (7) More unusual weathering. This time, a boulder in a creek bed has been weathered into the semblance of a mushroom.

8 9

(8-9) A stream in Devil's Punchbowl. In photo 9, the stream has ground through Punchbowl sandstone.

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(10) A major syncline in the Devil's Punchbowl area. The rocks in the foreground strike a direction different from that of the rocks further away.

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This page created by Aron Meltzner.
Initiated 15 August 1998.
Last modified 15 August 1998.