Summary: EarthScope Basin and Range Interpretive Workshop

The EarthScope National Office is sponsoring a series of workshops for park rangers and museum educators (www.earthscope.org/eno/parks). Each of the three-day workshops presents EarthScope data and science for a region, along with interpretive methods to connect EarthScope results to the public. The second in the series was held on October 19-22, 2008 at the University of Nevada-Reno.

The workshop showed how incorporating EarthScope data and scientific results into interpretive programs and exhibits can enhance the "sense of place" represented by the dynamic landscape of the Basin and Range Province. It brought together individuals from the scientific and informal educational communities to learn about EarthScope and develop interpretive programs to engage park and museum visitors on how geophysical monitoring helps us appreciate landscape formation and geological hazards in the region. Participants learned how to use EarthScope data and science results, and developed and presented interpretive programs on the evolving landscape and its connections to aspects of the natural and cultural history of the Great Basin. Organizations represented included the National Park Service; U. S. Forest Service; Bureau of Land Management, state parks of California and Nevada; state geological surveys of Nevada and Montana; Oregon Paleo Lands Institute; Southern California Earthquake Center; Nevada State Museum; Central Modoc River Center; WonderVisions; Malheur Field Station; Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center; Eastern Sierra Nevada Institute for Collaborative Education; National Science Foundation; and the Red Rock Canyon Interpretive Association.

The workshop featured presentations by scientists and interpretive specialists that help to convey the story of continental rifting and its broader meanings. Instructors were from the University of Nevada-Reno, California Institute of Technology, Oregon State University, and Grand Canyon National Park. There were also talks by staff from UNAVCO (www.unavco.org), the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (www.iris.edu), and the National Park Service Intermountain Region. Excerpts of their PowerPoint presentations are available at www.earthscope.org/workshops/basin_range/presentations.

Participants and scientists worked in teams to develop and present examples of interpretive programs during the workshop. Each program focused on a specific theme devised by the group, and it was aimed at a particular audience and setting encountered by interpreters in parks and museums.

1. "The mysterious and spectacular forces uplifting the Basin and Range Province and Colorado Plateau are being explored by EarthScope." The FBI (Forces Beyond Imagination) group performed this skit. The narrator asks questions like "Why are there fossils at 9700 feet elevation in the region?" Three scientists offer their competing viewpoints; which one is correct? EarthScope data will tell...

2. "The beauty and extremes of Basin and Range topography across central Nevada was created by tens of millions of years of repeated movements on faults." This program has one ranger using volunteers to show how Basin and Range extension works, and how EarthScope GPS instruments measure the relative movements of mountain ranges.

3. "Through the juxtaposition of the extremely low Death Valley and the lofty Mt. Whitney, the dynamic nature of plate tectonics manifests itself in extremes, inspiring and puzzling scientists, artists, and athletes." The "Sierra Nevada Extremists" performed the program. It involves a narrated slide show that could be used as a standalone audiovisual display, or as an evening program.

4. "EarthScope is like a stethoscope to monitor the health of the High Lave Plains." This program modeled a presentation to a 6th grade class prior to a 3-day field trip. "Troubadours" performed a skit investigating a sick Newberry volcano that is monitored by scientific instruments.

5. "The tectonic landscape of the Basin and Range Province has served as a stage of cultural evolution from prehistoric times to present." This "Cultural and Tectonic Crossroads" program pretends to coincide with the opening of a new visitor center funded by a $100-million, no-strings attached grant from a private foundation. It unveils a 4-dimensional exhibit showing changing landscape with time and bringing in the human component and history via Native American and other story telling.

More EarthScope interpretive workshops are being presented over a three-year period. The Cascadia Subduction Zone Workshop was held in spring, 2008 at Mt. Rainier National Park (www.earthscope.org/workshops/mt_rainier). A spring, 2009 workshop at the San Bernardino County Museum, co-hosted by the Southern California EarthScope Center (SCEC), focused on the San Andreas Fault region (www.scec.org/workshops/san_andreas). Future workshops will highlight the Colorado Plateau-Rio Grande Rift (www.earthscope.org/workshops/cprgr), Yellowstone Hotspot, and Rocky Mountain regions. Additional workshops will train scientists on interpretive methods so that they can present EarthScope science results more effectively to different audiences. The first was presented as a pre-meeting workshop at the 2009 EarthScope National Meeting in Boise, Idaho (www.earthscope.org/meetings/national_meeting_09).

University of Nevada-Reno professor Bill Hammond engages EarthScope Basin and Range Workshop participants on the GPS instrument atop Slide Mountain, Nevada. The instrument was installed in the late 1990's and is now part of EarthScope's Plate Boundary Observatory.