“Broadening their horizons” is what SUNY Fredonia science students will accomplish on an ambitious field trip to Utah.
Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences Associate Professor Thomas Hegna has coordinated a week-long expedition during spring break for 16 students to the Great Basin region of Utah. It’s an area near Great Basin National Park that Dr. Hegna knows well.
“There are really a lot of diverse features that we can look at from a geological point of view. A lot of options,” he said. They include examining sedimentary rocks that are over 100 million years older than rocks in western New York. Some rocks in Utah are actually over 500 million years old.
“The world is a big place, and staying in our backyard only gives them a small glimpse. There are more things to see; the examples they learn about in class they can actually see and touch them [on field trips] and add them to their mental library.” - Dr. Thomas Hegna
“We will get to see the results of the eruption of volcanoes and see deposits from the precursor of the Great Salt Lake, the Bonneville,” Hegna noted. World-class fossil collection sites are also a prized destination.
“I am a big believer of the importance of field experience, getting out and actually seeing things, doing things,” explained Hegna, who also serves as chair of the Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences and of Physics. Exploring areas around the Great Basin National Park with students is a goal he’s had for several years.
SUNY Fredonia alumnus Randy Blood (‘03), who has worked with Hegna on several student field trips in recent years — including to Sturgeon Point, NY, in the Fall 2025 semester — will join the SUNY Fredonia contingent and work alongside with Hegna and students. Mr. Blood’s own fieldwork as a geologist/petrophysicist will take him to that part of Utah when the field trip begins.
Students seem to really enjoy these field trips, Hegna noted, and often ask about going on the next one. Some have gone on multiple field trips supervised by Hegna and Blood.
“The world is a big place, and staying in our backyard only gives them a small glimpse. There are more things to see; the examples they learn about in class they can actually see and touch them [on field trips] and add them to their mental library,” he explained.
“Sturgeon Point [a recent field trip experience in western New York] was about job experience,” Hegna said. “Utah will be all about broadening their horizons.”
