Wooster Memorial Park Field Trip – Hydrology Lab Fall – 2026

Guest bloggers: Amrin Sazia, Amelia Crowley, Keiryn Keener and Maddie Ostapchenko.

Figure 1. Our Hydrology class during the field trip at Wooster Memorial Park (Buried valley).

On the 7th September 2026, our Hydrology class visited Wooster Memorial Park to look at how geology and water work together to shape the landscape around Wooster. During the trip, we stopped at six places to see how glaciers and erosion shaped the landscape and bedrock around Wooster. The main goal was to see some of the features we had discussed in class and understand how they affect the movement of water. The weather was pretty sunny on that day, and we got to eat apples for hydration.

Figure 2: Dr. Wiles pointed out how this rock that was not native, it was a glacial erratic which came here most probably 20,000 years ago during the last ice age. The clast is a bullet shaped boulder, a tillite from Snowball Earth time hundreds of millions of years ago. A sedimentologist would classify it as a matrix-supported diamictite.

Figure 3:  At Site 3, we looked at alluvial fans. These are areas where sediment carried by small streams builds up at the bottom of a slope. They were hard to see from the ground because of all the trees, but they were much easier to recognize on the LiDAR map. Dr. Wiles also explained that the sediment in these fans is very permeable, so water can soak into the ground and recharge groundwater .

Figure 4: At Site 4, we talked about how people have changed the landscape over time. The area used to have mills and mill ponds, and fine sediment collected behind the dams. Some of this old sediment is still being eroded into the stream today. We also saw how much the stream has changed and cut down through the landscape over time.

Figure 5: At Site 5, we saw a large exposure of sediment that helped us understand the buried valley. The valley was filled with sediment during and after glaciation, and some of the material was also moved by meltwater streams. These sand and gravel deposits are important because they can store groundwater and form aquifers.

Figure 6: At our last stop, we looked at compact glacial till along the stream bank. The till is packed very tightly, so water cannot move through it easily. Instead, groundwater moves along the top of the till and comes out as a spring. Gabe tried to find the wet layer using a well point, and we could see orange iron staining where the groundwater was coming from.

Overall, the field trip helped us see how Wooster Memorial Park has changed over time. We talked about how it changed after the Last Glacial Maximum till now. It was interesting to see the same features we talked about in class out in the field. Some parts of the park also look very different from photos taken only a few years ago because the stream is still actively eroding the landscape.