Bryce Canyon. Photo by Tim Standish.
Field Conference
The 2002 Field Conference for educators from Korea began on 4 August with orientation and lectures in Las Vegas, Nevada. This year’s conference would not have been as successful without the commitment and support (hard work!) of Dr. Park Dong Seung (Korean Union Education Director), Dr. Lee Kyu Bong (Vice President of the Korean Creation Institute and Physics Professor at Samyook University), Mr. Choi Chong Geol (doctoral candidate in geology and teacher at NoMok), and Dr. Masaji Uyeda (Education Director for the Northern Asian Pacific Division).
Dr. Jim Gibson opened the evening lectures with a overview of the issues we would be studying at a wide variety of localities. Monday morning began with a devotional message by one of the participants followed by a lecture on the Limitations of Science by Dr. Ben Clausen. Mid-morning we began our journey, traveling through Zion National Park with its spectacular exposures of the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone. During this drive the infamous bus lectures began which included a variety of videos. The bus stopped at Sunset Point in Bryce Canyon National Park so participants could take a short hike to view the unusual erosional features of the Eocene Claron Formation (identified in Utah and Wyoming as the Wasatch Formation). Our day ended in Kanab with a lecture on the fossil record by Dr. Raul Esperante. At the close of the evening lecture, Dr. John Baldwin (Theological Seminary at Andrews University) presented the first in a series of inspirational evening worships. His contributions were much appreciated.
Bryce Canyon. Photo by Tim Standish.
We spent three days in the Flagstaff area to study the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater and the Chinle Petrified Forest. The hike on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is always a highlight of the trip, and this year we had very unusual cool, comfortable hiking weather. Field lectures were given on the Grand Canyon geology by Dr. Elaine Kennedy. Classroom-style lectures included “Design at the Molecular Level” by Dr. Tim Standish; “Trilobite: Enigma of Complexity”, as well as “Paleocurrents” by Dr. Arthur Chadwick (Biology Department at Southwestern Adventist University; and “Extraterrestrial Impacts” by Gibson.
Complexity of the trilobite fossils that are found in the lower Cambrian
deposits emphasize the need for a Designer. From the GRI museum collection;
photo by Katherine Ching.
From Arizona we traveled north through Utah over a period of four days. Classroom lectures included: “Research Report on Fossil Whales” by Esperante; “Time and Radiometric Dating” by Clausen; “Data and Interpretation” by Kennedy; “Mass Extinctions” by Gibson; and “Dinosaurs” by Kennedy. Field and bus lectures on Monument Valley, the Goosenecks of the San Juan River, Arches National Monument and associated Mesozoic deposits, turbidites, burrows, and clinker deposits by Kennedy. Sabbath was a special blessing in Moab. Dr. Baldwin consulted with several of the participants to produce a series of spiritually uplifting programs.
Carmel Formation in Arches National Monument. The large-scale,
soft-sediment deformation in the Carmel Formation underlying the Entrada
Sandstone is thought to be the result of a meteorite impact at Upheaval Dome in
the northern Canyonlands National Park region. Photo by Elaine Kennedy.
Two local SDA colleagues joined us to assist with brief lectures and information. Dr. Ivan Holmes (retired professor from the Chemistry Department of La Sierra University) shared with us at Upheaval Dome. Tom Lloyd, a coal geologist from the Price, Utah area, joined us at the museum in Price and traveled with us to lecture on the coal and sandstone beds near Helper, Utah.
Examining a coal seam in Utah. Photo by Tim Standish.
The remainder of our trip was spent in Wyoming where our studies focused on the Heart Mountain Detachment Fault and geological features in Yellowstone National Park including fossil “forests,” volcanism and geysers. Classroom lectures included: “‘Junk’ DNA” and “Endosymbiosis and the Origin of Eukaryotes” by Standish; “Plate Tectonics” and “Cosmology and the Big Bang” by Clausen; “Heart Mountain” and “Evidences Consistent with a Global Flood” by Kennedy; “Taphonomy” by Esperante; “Yellowstone Fossil ‘Forest’” and “Mt. St. Helens” by Dr. Harold Coffin (retired from GRI); and “Speciation” by Gibson. Two research reports were presented: “Dinosaur Egg Sites” by Kennedy and “Molecular Genetics” by Standish. During our morning worship services led by Baldwin we received a report from Dr. Urias Takatohi on the Creation Institute at Brazil College in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We spent Sabbath afternoon in Yellowstone National Park where we photographed a wide variety of animals and watched Old Faithful for several minutes.
On Sunday, 18 August, we ended our trip at the airport in Salt Lake City. Our
Korean guests rejoined us a week later at GRI for a tour of our facilities.
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