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2025 Desert Symposium and Field Trip
April 18-21, 2025Desert Archaeology and Extending the Great Basin
Symposium: The 2025 Desert Symposium will be held at the Desert Studies Center, Zzyzx CA Friday and Saturday, April 18 and 19. Rooms are available the night of April 17 for early arrivals. Room and board are wrapped into a package at this off-the-grid mellow oasis. Friday night will feature a keynote speaker TBA.We invite presentations on all desert-related subjects, as usual. The theme-oriented session has two themes and accordingly seeks presentations on archeology and the early history of the Mojave Desert and southern Great Basin area, as well as all aspects of the geology, geography, and environment of that area over the past ~20 million years. While the geologic focus is Death Valley to Lake Mead and the margin of the Colorado Plateau, we welcome even broader topics!
Field trip: Leader: Steve Rowland, UNLV Prof. Emeritus of Geology
The 2025 field trip on April 20-21 will focus on the geologic story of extensional tectonics in southern Nevada, along with investigations into local archeology. Accompanying the trip will be a musical to be performed during the evenings! We will visit spectacular exposures of extensional faults and related geology and develop the tectonic evolution of this classic part of North America.
We plan to leave the symposium venue on Saturday afternoon (4/19/2025) for our campground at Valley of Fire State Park. Sunday night will be at the same campground. (Abundant hotel options also are in the Las Vegas region). We will end the trip by mid-afternoon on Monday, allowing all to get home at a reasonable time.Read the field trip flyer to learn why the duel themes and also about the opportunity to join evening performances of a musical written for the trip!
2025 Desert Symposium Field Trip Flyer
It's never too soon to start mulling about contributions you can make to the meeting and trip! As usual, any topic related to deserts is welcome and topics focused on the themes are great. Both oral and poster presentations are options. Students: there is a steep discount on registration for students as well as a substantial cash award for the best student presentation. This is a great meeting to learn that presentations can be fun and rewarding.Original and previously unpublished scientific research papers relating to the Mojave Desert or any subject involving any desert are welcome. All papers submitted will be peer-reviewed for relevance to desert topics and scientific content before acceptance.
Contact: Steve Rowland: steve.rowland@unlv.edu or Dave Miller: dmiller@usgs.gov
And we promise to do better than our 2024 Field Trip at describing roads that are suitable for cars…
About the Desert Symposium
The Desert Symposium is a gathering of scientists and lay people interested in the natural history of arid lands. The meeting consists of two days of scientific presentations followed by a two-day field trip. Recent meetings have been held at the Desert Studies Center in Zzyzx, CA, on the edge of Dry Soda Lake, Oral and poster presentations are given, and a keynote lecture is presented. Student papers are judged with the best being awarded prizes, and an annual grant is given to a promising student. Field trips are lead by professional scientists and often require 4WD vehicles. The Desert Symposium and its field trip take place annually, usually in April. Each year the Desert Symposium publishes a proceedings volume including relevant research papers and a field trip guide built around the annual them.
You can download the 2024 volume from this link.
View northeast from Zzyzx across Soda Lake at rainbow
David Lynch Photo
TOPICS: geology, biology, botany, ecology, archaeology, hydrology, paleontology, tectonics, climate, history, mining, mineralogy, conservation, desert resource management
History of the Desert Symposium
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