Monica here!
I've had such a blast working with Josh on the Plum Creek Project. While we may not have posted about it a lot, I've been sampling 4 locations twice each month since the 1st of May this past Spring. It's been a total blast, and despite Harbin (our esteemed Gamma counter) being on the fritz, I was able to muster up enough data to present a couple ideas about what could be happening to both scientists in the field and my enthusiastic Oberlin colleagues at GSA this Fall.For all of y'all, essentially I am focusing on completing both a spatial and temporal analysis of Plum Creek, investigating the geomorphology of the creek over the course of the year for inconsistencies, patterns, etc. I've done quite a bit of work on the basic 4-spots, twice a month analysis, so Josh has taken to helping me with that, but also thinking about analysis side projects to help flesh out/clarify my data. Before we move to check in with him - here's some fin pics he took of my overtopping my boots in the field. We've had a rainy fall, which means that sometimes you have to get that barely above freezing creek water in your boots, but it's all for the sake of research.
Josh here!
My first semester working in the geomorph lab has been a lot of fun. I've been working closely with Monica on her sediment transport work, and learning a lot about both the underlying geology and the practical aspects of working in a lab. As a physics major, I don't get to go out to do thing very often, and its cool to drive around plum creek collecting samples. I also get to fill the sample analyzer with liquid nitrogen, and dry down samples to prepare them for analysis. In addition, I spent some time trying to learn how to successfully analyze XRD data on different clays, and hopefully I can have Marcus or Ely catch me up on what they've been doing. Something I've really enjoyed has been engaging with all of the relevant literature, as a lot more of the content of the papers is relevant when actually doing research, as opposed to being in a classroom. Even with just this narrow slice of one branch of geology, there is so much out there, and so much to be gained using the techniques. Two thing I want to focus on next semester are continuing to read papers and simply absorb more knowledge and finding my own small project to take ownership of. All in all, the work has been engaging and satisfying, and I look forward to continuing with everything.
Josh's finest photograph of our high-tech sieving equipment:
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