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Geologist Life List

Completed : 21/74

I have gone through several bucket lists in the last decade or so that range from unsubstantial, 'see the Taj Mahal'-type lists, to more physically-demanding, adventurous ones. One that I recently came across was popularised by a blogger called Geotripper way back in 2008. His list was catered for geologists (not that I am one), but was sadly very US-centric. Since I personally never intend to go back to that country (at least until drastic changes are made to its oppressive foreign policy), I have struck out all the location-specific entries for the US, which leaves a total of only 74 entries.

General : 12/39

No.	Description	Examples, Locality, or Continuation of Description	Country
01	See an erupting volcano
02	See a glacier	Crossing the Ngozumpa glacier in Nepal
03	See an active geyser	Strokkur Geyser, Iceland
04	Visit the Cretaceous/Tertiary (KT) Boundary	Gubbio (Italy), Stevns Klint (Denmark), Red Deer River (Canada)
05	Observe (from a safe distance)...	a river whose discharge is above bankful stage
06	Explore a limestone cave	Crazy Horse Buttress, Thailand
07	Tour an open pit mine	Butte (USA), Bingham Canyon (USA), Chuquicamata (Chile)
08	Explore a subsurface mine
09	See an ophiolite	Ophiolite complex (Oman), Troodos complex (Cyprus)
10	An anorthosite complex	Labrador, the Adirondacks (USA), Niger
11	A slot canyon	Antelope Canyon, Spooky Gulch, Round Valley Draw (USA)
12	Varves	Type section in Sweden
13	An exfoliation dome	Sierra Nevada (USA)
14	A layered igneous intrusion	Stillwater complex (USA), Skaergaard Complex (Greenland)
15	Coastlines along the leading...	and trailing edge of a tectonic plate
16	A gingko tree	Lone survivor of an ancient group of softwoods from the Mesozoic
17	Living and fossilized stromatolites	Stromatolites of Lake Thetis, Cervantes, Western Australia
18	A field of glacial erratics	The Burren, Ireland
19	A caldera	Caldera Blanca, Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain
20	A sand dune...	more than 200 feet high (61 metres)
21	A fjord	Killary Fjord, Ireland
22	A recently formed fault scarp
23	A megabreccia
24	An actively accreting river delta
25	A natural bridge
26	A large sinkhole
27	A glacial outwash plain	Kangshar Glacier, Nepal
28	A sea stack	Cliffs of Moher, Ireland
29	A house-sized glacial erratic
30	An underground lake or river
31	Continental divide	Titiwangsa Range, Malaysia & Thongchai Range, Thailand
32	Fluorescent and phosphorescent minerals
33	Petrified trees	Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), Malaysia
34	Lava tubes
75	A catastrophic mass wasting event
82	Feel an earthquake...	with a magnitude greater than 5.0
83	Find dinosaur footprints in situ
84	Find a trilobite or any other fossil	Kali Gandaki Valley, Nepal
85	Find gold, however small the flake

Atmospheric & Celestial Events : 05/14

No.	Description	Examples, Locality, or Continuation of Description	Country
86	Find a meteorite fragment
87	Experience a volcanic ashfall
88	Experience a sandstorm
90	Witness a total solar eclipse
91	Witness a tornado firsthand
92	Witness a meteor storm	A particularly intense (1000+ per minute) meteor shower
93	View Saturn and its moons...	through a respectable telescope
94	See the Aurora borealis
95	View a great naked-eye comet	An opportunity which occurs only a few times per century
96	See a lunar eclipse
97	View a distant galaxy...	through a large telescope
98	Experience a hurricane
99	See noctilucent clouds
100	See the green flash

Location-Specific : 02/21

No.	Description	Examples, Locality, or Continuation of Description	Country
35	The Grand Canyon (USA)
36	Meteor Crater (USA)	Known as the Barringer Crater
37	The Great Barrier Reef (Australia)	The largest coral reef in the world
38	The Bay of Fundy (Canada)	The highest tides in the world (up to 16m)
39	The Waterpocket Fold (USA)	To see well exposed folds on a massive scale
40	The Banded Iron Formation (USA)	To better appreciate the air you breathe
41	The Snows of Kilimanjaro (Tanzania)
42	Lake Baikal (Russia)	World's deepest lake (1620m) with 20% of Earth's fresh water
43	Uluru (Australia)	Inselberg of nearly vertical Precambrian strata
44	Devil's Tower (USA)	To see a classic example of columnar jointing
45	The Alps (8 European countries)
46	Telescope Peak, Death Valley (USA)
47	The Li River (China)	Rock Climbing in Yangshuo - Fantastic karst towers
48	The Dalmation Coast (Croatia)	Original Karst
49	The Gorge of Bhagirathi (India)	The river flows from an ice tunnel beneath the Gangatori Glacier
50	The Goosenecks of the San Juan River (USA)	An impressive series of entrenched meanders
51	Shiprock (USA)	To see a large volcanic neck
52	Land's End (United Kingdom)	Fractured granites that have feldspar crystals bigger than your fist
53	Tierra del Fuego (Chile & Argentina)	Straights of Magellan and the southernmost tip of South America
54	Mount St. Helens (USA)	To see the results of recent explosive volcanism
55	The Giant's Causeway (Northern Ireland)
56	The Great Rift Valley (9 African countries)	(East African Rift)
57	The Matterhorn (Italy & Switzerland)
58	The Carolina Bays (USA)	Along the Carolinian and Georgian coastal plain
59	The Mima Mounds near Olympia (USA)
60	Siccar Point, Scotland (United Kingdom)	Where James Hutton observed classic unconformity
61	The moving rocks of Racetrack Playa (USA)
62	Yosemite Valley (USA)
63	Landscape Arch (USA)
64	The Burgess Shale (Canada)
65	The Channeled Scablands (USA)
66	Bryce Canyon (USA)
67	Grand Prismatic Spring (USA)
68	Monument Valley (USA)
69	The San Andreas Fault (USA)
70	The dinosaur footprints in La Rioja (Spain)
71	Volcanic landscapes of Canary Islands	Timanfaya National Park, Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain
72	The Pyrennees Mountains (France & Spain)
73	The Lime Caves at Karamea (New Zealand)
74	Denali (USA)	An orogeny in progress
76	Zion National Park (USA)	For the giant crossbeds
77	The black sand beaches in Hawaii (USA)
78	Barton Springs (USA)
79	Hells Canyon (USA)
80	The Black Canyon of the Gunnison (USA)
81	The Tunguska Impact Site (Russia)