Earth Science Explorations Down Under

GISetc (Anita & Roger Palmer) and Geological Society of America education (Gary Lewis) decided that taking educators to Australia would be a tremendous way to learn about the physical geography and geology of this far away continent. So we did! On July 18, we took off from Los Angeles at 10:00 on Saturday evening, flew for fourteen hours and crossed the International Date Line (180 longitude), and landed in Sydney at 6:30 Monday morning. After having “lost” Sunday while on the plane, nineteen educators and their family members converged on Sydney, Australia.

The first thing we all noticed when we left the airport was that it was cold! All of us were traveling from North America, where typical northern latitude temperatures were very hot, and we needed to switch our thoughts and bodies to the southern latitude winter of Sydney. At 26 S, which U.S. city would be a best comparison in winter? (You can check out weatherunderground.com or weather.com to verify your answers.)

After adding another jacket layer and some gloves, we ventured out and were transferred to our hotel right in the heart of Sydney, near the beautiful downtown Hyde Park. Hyde Park is a wonderful public space in the heart of the city where residents walk and play. In Hyde Park, Gary did an introduction to GPS use and geocaching (geocache.com), and the participants proceeded to search for three geocaches in the park. They learned what a “taperline” in Australia is, which helped them find one of the geocaches. (Look up “taperline” and “Australia” in Google to find out for yourself!)

Looking down into Hyde Park
from 45 stories above Sydney

After the fun of geocaching, our GPS walk continued to Sydney Harbor, which, historically, served as a working port for exporting Australian manufactured goods. Sydney Harbor has been undergoing a metamorphosis to become an urban center housing fantastic hotels, dwellings, and world-class displays of all Australia has to offer. The Circular Quays and Sydney Harbor area is a wonderful amalgamation of botanical gardens, ocean aquaria, Australian animal encounters, harbor tours, and the iconic Sydney Opera House on Bennelong Point.