The Nannoworks Laboratory and the Engineering Geology Laboratory led the Geology 170 Field Geology for this year’s midyear fieldwork class. Dr. Alyssa Peleo-Alampay, Dr. Allan Gil Fernando, Dr. Sandra Catane, and Dr. Leopoldo de Silva, Jr. brought the 26 BS and 1 MS Geology students in the municipalities of Kabayan and Buguias, Benguet Province for a 14-day fieldwork on June 19 to July 02, 2025.
The Geology 170 students in Lake Ambulalacao during their Geology 170 Fieldwork.
Some of the faculty in Lake Ambulalacao during the Geology 170 Fieldwork.
The class was divided into nine (9) groups composed of three (3) members per day to cover the two municipalities. Several outcrop exposures were studied from the main and peripheral road outcrops. Exposure at the foothills Mt. Pulag and other volcanic domes were also studied. A wide variety of rocks were observed during the fieldwork including andesites, dacites, diorites from the Central Cordillera Diorite Complex, and limestones and clastic rocks from Balili/Zigzag and Bauko, and rocks from younger terrestrial volcanism evidenced by tuffaceous exposures.
An outcrop exhibiting thin clastic beds in the Kiangan-Tinoc-Buguias national road.
This yearly fieldwork is an essential component of the BS Geology program for the development of basic field mapping skills necessary for future geologists. Halfway and at the end of the fieldwork, the students synthesized their findings to create an initial lithologic map, another essential skill a geologist must acquire.