PHIPPSBURG — A walking tour at the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area led by a Bates College geologist and an artist participating in a Bates exhibition will relate geologic time and climate change to human history.

The “Chronicle of Mud Walk” begins at 11:45 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, at the conservation area parking lot, Route 216, Phippsburg. The public is invited to take part at no cost. 

Artist Julie Poitras Santos of Portland and Bates Professor of Geology Beverly Johnson will lead the walk to the Sprague River intertidal zone and salt marshes on the Phippsburg peninsula.

Through marsh core samples and soil stratigraphy, the experience will relate human experience to geologic timescales and reveal how the marsh records history and reflects climate changes. Discussion will touch on our own bodies’ relationship to time and record keeping.

Time and weather permitting, the tour will continue to the top of Morse Mountain for a discussion of sea levels 12,500 years ago. Participants can look forward to slowing down, learning about local geology, reading poems and sharing stories with a small community of walkers.

The walk is presented in conjunction with the Bates Museum of Art exhibition “Anthropocenic: Art About the Natural World in the Human Era,” and it connects to Poitras Santos’ work in the exhibition, “Chronicle Of Mud.”

For information on the exhibition and other programs, visit bates.edu/museum.

The Bates College walking tour, “Chronicle of Mud Walk,” will looks at marsh and core soil samples to examine changes over time. This event is in conjunction with the “Anthropocenic” exhibition at the college.