Geologist Blaine Hall, former interpretive ranger at Big Bend Ranch State Park, will be the guest speaker for September’s Public Science Lecture Series at the Center for Earth & Space Science Educatio
The event will be held 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28, at the TJC science center, located at 1411 E. Lake St. on the TJC main campus. Admission is free, and the event is open to all ages.
In his lecture topic, “Geology at the Crossroads: Big Bend Ranch State Park,” Hall will cover the park, the largest of the Texas State Parks covering an area of over 300,000 acres. Its southern boundary follows the Rio Grande from about 10 miles below Presidio through a series of Basin and Range grabens for some 40 miles down-river to Lajitas at the northwest corner of Big Bend National Park.
Hall will discuss the geology and climate that have determined the character of the landscape, which in turn greatly influenced the cultural development of the area, and the cultural development through time determines the history of the region.
He joined Texas Parks and Wildlife in 2010 as an interpretive ranger at Big Bend Ranch State Park, where he used a hands-on approach in explaining the natural and cultural history of the park. In particular, he helped visitors understand the geology of the park, how the geology controls the development of the park’s landscape, and how the landscape has affected the historical and cultural development of the park.
Hall completed his Bachelor of Science in geology at UT El Paso, received his Master of Science in geological oceanography from Dalhousie University, and did research in marine geology and geophysics while at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.
After leaving the oil industry, where he worked in minerals, exploration and production, he returned to his native West Texas and spent the next 10 years teaching geology and mathematics at Sul Ross State University.
Since his retirement from TPWD in 2015, Blaine resides in Fort Davis and continues studying the geology of Big Bend Ranch State Park.