Our Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences proposes to initiate a new field course on Margarita Island, Venezuela for the benefit of undergraduates in all three of our disciplines, including students form other campuses nationally. This course would address the physical environment, unlike the many biologically-oriented field courses which are offered at tropical research stations. Logistical support would come from a marine institute, Fundacion La Salle de Ciencias Naturales, which has 300 employees on Magarita Island. This institute collects data in all three disciplines and presently supports five of our graduate students. Most of the field equipment needed for the proposed course already is available. The remaining equipment would be provided under the terms of this proposal, e.g. grab samplers and peat corers, an S4 meter for marine currents, and several meteorological instruments. Much of this course would be devoted to interrelationships among marine, tectonic, and atmospheric processes. To our knowledge, this inter-disciplinary approach would be unique among tropical field courses.
