TALES FROM THE FIELD An Early Start at Working in the Field
Albert L. Lamarre, CPG-06798 With valuable input from Robert A. Lamarre
Senior Honors project in Guatemala. This was part of an ongoing geologic mapping program spearheaded by the world famous Central American volcanologist, Richard Stoiber of Dartmouth’s Earth Sciences Department. We were nominally employed by the Instituto Geografico Nacional de Guatemala (Geological Survey of Guatemala).
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Our project involved geologic mapping in the Guatemalan Highlands of south-central Guatemala. The map area was located a few miles east of Guatemala City. We stayed in the town of San Jose Pinula, where we lived with a Guatemalan family of two teachers and their two young children. We had previously taken an introductory Spanish class and our hosts spoke very little English, so we spoke only Spanish to them and they spoke only English to us. It was a wonderful learning experience for all of us. I remember that our host and hostess made sure that we learned about their culture and enjoyed ourselves during our stay with them.
The Instituto provided us with an old four-wheel drive vehicle and a driver who took us out to our field area every day. We spent most days looking at and recording the various rock types in the somewhat hilly terrain that was used by local farmers for cattle grazing and raising a few crops. The locals were often quite puzzled by these “gringos” who were walking around in their fields spitting on rocks and then throwing them away. We enjoyed seeing all the brightly-smiling little children lined up along fences to watch us pass by.
Our final product consisted of a geologic map published by the Guatemalan Instituto Geografico Nacional and a detailed report of the various volcanic rocks in our field area. The report became our Senior Honors Thesis, for which we each received a Citation.
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54 TPG •
Jul.Aug.Sep 2021
www.aipg.org
ere’s a tale from the field that happened way back before three of us became exploration geologists. We got a good start.
During the Winter term of our Senior year at Dartmouth College, from January through March 1971, four of us worked on an independent
Before leaving the states, Professor Stoiber presented us with a list of six things he wanted us to do to enhance our learning experience while there. Item number 6 follows:
“The sixth duty seems mickey mouse, but it has proved very helpful. Please write a letter to me every Sunday. It should include at least 7 sentences - one for each day. I want a running commentary of what is going on. If you each write on two Sundays this will about do it. I have letters from other years. I want them from this year.”
Being smart-alecky twenty-year-olds, in one of our weekly letters to Stoiber we wrote: “They shot two guerillas last night, but it wasn’t us.” We were pretty sure Stoiber did not see any humor in this because this was a time during the Guatemalan Civil War when militias could be seen on the highways and gunshots were sometimes heard. Sorry for being wise-guys, Professor Stoiber!
We had a wonderful time during our stay in Guatemala and learned a great deal about the people, culture, life-style and of course, geology. Having been born and raised in the very small town of Bath, New Hampshire, with a population of about 500 people, this really expanded the world for the two Lamarres.
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