Central Wisconsin contains hundreds of small outcroppings of pink quartzites, most of which are cleaved, underlain by a rhyolite (1.76 Ga) and overlain by Cambrian arenites. The biggest and best-exposed of these outcrops is the Baraboo syncline that makes up the Baraboo Range an hour north of Madison. Analyses of detrital zircons in these quartzites (Holm et al., 1998, Geology) allows for a regional structural synthesis of the Mazatzal orogen (1.63 Ga), that includes strain and AMS studies with regional aeromagnetics.

The trip will visit structural and sedimentological stops around the overturned Baraboo syncline.