Los Alamos Historical Society Online Teacher's Guide

The unusual geological formation of the Pajarito Plateau played a large part in the founding, structure and isolation of the Los Alamos. Even without the secret laboratory, locating a town on separated mesa tops creates unusual traveling and housing situations.

A picture of the solidified lava flows with Los Alamos and the original volcano site (Valles Caldera) is located below.

Photo taken from Road Geology of selected sections in the Pajarito Plateau and the Jemez Mountains, North Central New Mexico http://www.ees1.lanl.gov/roadgeology/RoadGeology.html retrieved 7/12/06

Suggested activities:

• Visit the Los Alamos Historical Museum and view and read the displays. Use the museum brochure to direct the students’ attention toward the area of the original volcanic eruptions.
• Project the information from the Los Alamos Historical Society webpage on the geology of the Pajarito Plateau and read and discuss as a class. (Or direct students to the webpage during computer lab time.)
• Have the students read the page from the Los Alamos website and locate the Valle Grande, the Los Alamos townsite, the airport and Main Hill road. Locate the area of your school.
• Download Google Earth and look at the satellite pictures of Los Alamos and the surrounding area to initiate similar discussions.)
• Have students research the geology of the surrounding area:
  • Potential research sites:
    • Start with http://www.ees1.lanl.gov/
    • Take a field trip with: http://www.ees1.lanl.gov/roadgeology/RoadGeology.html
    • Local Geology Society contact: http://home.netcom.com/~hoffmans/LAGS.html
    • Excellent site from the Pajarito Enviornmental Education Center: http://www.pajaritoeec.org/3a_nature_guide/rocks_ng.htm
• Create a classroom or individual “New Mexico Rocks and Minerals” collection. To represent the geology of Los Alamos, students should collect obsidian, volcanic tuff, basalt, fossils and rhyolite.
• Bring in local geologists and their collections.
• Draw the Valles Caldera exploding. Show the lava forming the mesa tops.
• Work in groups to create a brochure describing the surrounding geology for tourists coming to Los Alamos.
• Create a relief map in clay of the geology of Los Alamos.
• Create a working model of a volcano.
• Describe the origin of volcanic glass. Collect samples. Explain why it became a good source to create early American tools, arrowheads, etc.
• FIELD TRIP: Use the local geology club to access expertise on the rocks and minerals of the surrounding areas.