Early on Friday, September 30, 2022, the GeoSystems Master students in CE 281 Engineering Geology left for the Sierra Nevada Foothills. The first stop of the trip was Auburn Dam. The students were able to see the foundation for Auburn Dam, which was never built and learned about the surrounding geology. The second stop of the trip was another dam, Spaulding Dam. PG&E hosted the class and took the students to the spillway of the dam in order to learn about joint sets and to make strike and dip measurements on the rock to use for stability analysis.

 Day 2 of the trip started with a stop at Genoa Fault in Nevada. This is one of the most western normal faults in the Sierra Nevada Basin and Range complex. Here the students measured strike and dips of the fault plane and learned their pacing in order to more accurately estimate distances and heights of geologic features. 

The afternoon of the second day was dedicated to learning about the geology of Lake Tahoe and learning about water quality protection measures from Jacques Landy from the US Environmental Protection Agency.