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Lydia M. Staisch
fieldwork photos
Below are a selection of field photos from various beautiful places I've had the pleasure to work, including the western US, Tibet and Argentina.
 Photos from the Pacific Northwest, starting with a pinnacle of sediment atop Saddle Mountain |  I'm at the base of this hoodoo. |  Jura poses on top of a cliff of deformed caliche in the hanging wall of the Saddle Mtn. fault |
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 Amazing calcified rhyzoliths on Saddle Mountain |  SEKB at the Burbank Creek trench |  BL Sherrod oversees trenching |
 Boom! Uncovered a fault. |  Right-lateral oblique faulting uncovered from trenching near Yakima |  More images of the fault in the Burbank Creek trench |
 Nap time under the caliche |  I pose under an appreciable amount of caliche |  Fixing our Jacob's staff |
 Rest assured! Our measurements are safe. |  Caliche developed directly on top of basalt. Crazy! |  Tilted CRBG interbeds |
 Tilted seds are the best seds |  Conglomerates ahoy! |  Lapilli tuff for age control |
 Jura poses in front of the Spencer Canyon fault |  Arrow-leaf balsamroot |  Atop Saddle Mtn. looking eastward |
 Ash layer in loess. w/ HM Kelsey, J Lasher, and BL Sherrod |  Jura and Brian chillin' |  Baked horizon in the diatomite interbeds. |
 More views on top of Saddle Mtn. |  These roots are amazing! |  Checking out some paleosols |
 More absurdly well preserved roots! |  Yay kinematics! |  Fault gouge collection. |
 Now for Tibet! The Tanggula Shan looms in the back |  more sediment infill |  sediment infill in small mtn. valleys |
 inside a fault! |  collecting fault gouge |  not a small wolf... |
 dinner! |  |  home sweet home! |
 fresh tracks |  fossilized horsetail in Triassic (?) sediments |  lake sediments |
 collecting bedrock along a vertical transect |  rudimentary clast count |  impressive field assistants! i didn't make it across quite so gracefully. |
 minor time sink |  ripple casts |  Dr. Niemi inspects the outcrop |
 nice oblique slickenlines |  the Fenghuoshan ferry |  interbedded rhyodacitic flow |
 fault rock in Dongdatan Valley |  family photo |  the Fenghuoshan Group |
 granodiorite |  mini bathtub rings |  granite |
 salt precipitating |  the Yanshiping Group |  last night's stack of beer bottles |
 fossilized precipitant |  the Kunlun Shan |  basalt |
 nap time |  the most impressive scour I've ever seen |  salt precipitating out of the river - not great for drinking... |
 so much salt... |  structural transects across the Kumbuyan Shan with P. Yakovlev |  basalts in the Fenghuoshan Range. |
 Dongdatan Valley |  what happens in Tibet, stays in Tibet. Just kidding, it's a cosmo pit. w/ P. Molnar |  N. Niemi taking his turn to dig |
 river crossing |  delicious dinner |  tibetan mastiff |
 looking for fossil fish with C. Garzione |  2001 Kokoxili rupture monument |  N. Niemi in the Fenghuoshan Range |
 North side of the Kunlun Shan |  South side of the Kunlun Shan |  fault gouge |
 possibly the most spectacularly obvious thrust fault I've ever seen |  sampling fault gouge in Dongdatan Valley |  DSCN2634.JPG |
 Fieldwork in NW Argentina, starting with the best fold ever. |  |  |
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 Not a particularly successful experiment... |  |  |
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 oh hey ignimbrite |  |  |
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custom teardrop camper construction
I had the insane idea to build a teardrop trailer for fieldwork in 2017, with few to no construction or electrical skills at the time. Something about endless PacNW rain must have made me want a better shelter than a tent. I customized everything from the kitchen to the little hidden desk that allows me to work on my computer comfortably in the field. Over spare weekends and evenings, I somehow succeeded in building the skills (and the trailer!).
 building up a base atop a simple steel 4'x8' trailer frame |  I used roofing goop (technical term) to seal the base |  I then added a little insulation in the base between plywood sheets |
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 yay! a finished base... |  with a secret desk embedded! |  Adding the walls made a big difference - it looks like a camper! |
 I added insulation here too. It's not required but makes it quieter and warmer inside. |  I then added a shear wall with cut-outs for shelving, as well as sconce lights |  Next, I added the outer plywood on the curved walls. I used 3 mm plywood to produce the curve. |
 the kitchen begins... |  Cutting out doors. If I skipped one step, it would be making these custom doors. Buying pre-made would have saved me a lot of frustration. |  My rudimentary carpentry skills exposed... |
 not bad? |  The kitchen hatch was awful. I had to make it twice. |  Safety first for epoxy time! thanks Richard for the help! |
 I got the good stuff - marine grade clear penetrating epoxy resin |  so shiny! |  Epoxy on the doors - it just makes the wood look beautiful! |
 I was fairly sure this would start a fire. Thanks YouTube for teaching me about electrical diagrams and wiring a solar system! |  IT'S ALIVE! |  Flower power! I added some decor to break up the monotonous wood. |
 Flower decor detail |  First paint layer and YIKES. This was a little too Lisa Frank for me. |  Teardrop camper? Or duck blind? |
 Maiden voyage! We took the camper on a quick trip to Deception Pass. |  I love this little kitchen! It has just enough room for essentials and a little sink (made from a metal salad bowl). |  Alas, fieldwork in Oregon ruined my paint! I quickly learned that quality paint and primer really does matter. |
 Stripping the paint was quite depressing |  Primed - no short cuts this time! |  Shopping for colors! |
 Repainting with the first layer. |  I decided it needed topography |  Side view |
 I then added the silhouetted grass details. |  Back view |  I added accurate constellations too |
 aaaand I decided the constellations needed to glow! |  FIN. Now it's ready for the road (again!). |
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