Hi all,
This is Gaby writing again, it has
been a while since my last post. Since the beginning of the semester, the lab
group has run quite a few of the samples that Dom and I are working on. In
fact, I think we have less than 10 samples to go, which is pretty exciting. Another
good news is that the samples that the team collected in China this January
arrived today! We are going to be pretty busy this spring with all the projects.
So, what are the next steps after
running the samples for our watershed? Well, after inputting the first wave of
data into our excel sheets (excel is incredibly useful!), we need to record the
energy peak information to make sure all is going well, and that the channel
that the detector has assigned to particular energies is not moving around and
giving us misleading results. We want to make sure that we are always measuring
the right “spot” or the right energy peak, so that results are more consistent,
but also it makes it easier when subtracting background noise from the raw
data. The step after this one would be to learn how to use a software called
Angle, which helps us calculate further corrections that regard the volume and
shape of the sample (more on this when we start using it).
Since I’m taking the geomorphology
class this semester, there have been a lot of interesting connections that have
occurred these past weeks between our work at lab and the class. One of the
most basic but important concepts that I had an interesting time working
through is that soils are not just simply deposited in sedimentary layers. This
might seem pretty basic, but in geology there is strong emphasis on the idea
that newer stuff deposits on top and that things are in chronological layers,
with the deeper stuff at the bottom.
Soils do not fit this model very
well. In fact, soils can be easily deposited or eroded, and they also can form
“from the bottom” of the soil horizon, adding new soil that won’t necessarily
receive radionuclides if it is deep enough. Besides all this ways soils can be
moved around, there are also processes of bioturbation and other types of
mixing that also conflict with the idea of chronological deposition. Just the
fact that the “soils” are on top of each other is not an assurance about how
the landscape formed. Like I said before, this might seem pretty basic, but
realizing this did shatter a lot of my assumptions about landscapes. From now
on I’ll be having a more critical mind on both the work that I do and the
papers we read for lab.
Looking forward more connections
and findings this spring semester, write to you soon,
Gaby
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