Field Trip to the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve

A guide to visiting a fossil playground in the Bay Area's backyard.

Did you know that the San Francisco Bay Region has been beneath the ocean? Would you like to see direct evidence of those ancient seas? Here's your chance to see critters that lived in the ocean, but are now preserved as fossils along the rocky coastline of the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve.

Fossils are an important tool for reconstructing the geologic past. For example, small creatures that once lived in the sea can tell us about past climates and sea levels.

Geology is a hands-on, field-based science; we must go to where the fossil plants and animals are to make direct observations. This FIELD TRIP GUIDE TO THE FITZGERALD MARINE PRESERVE provides directions, maps, website links, and diagrams to help you understand the fossils found at this local marine sanctuary.

Download this Field Trip Guide (click here) in PDF format to begin exploring!!

Click here for information on viewing PDF file formats.

Go to the San Francisco Bay Region Geology Field Trip page

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The URL of this page is http://sfgeo.wr.usgs.gov/sfbay/fitzgerald-ft.html
Updated: 19 March 2002