Feed Your Brain- Earth Science in Public Policy

I attended a Feed Your Brain lunch session in which the focus was environmental policy. The speaker discussed how there needs to be more of helping political decision makers understand the implications the decisions they are making. Scientists are not the ones who make the decisions, but rather present information and facts for educated decision making by others. The speaker's group of workers come up with scenarios in order to prepare for natural disasters. Emergency drills were put into place incorporating tens of millions of people. The result of her efforts brought about higher building standards, strengthened water systems in buildings, and increased telecommunication standards during emergencies. I had never really put much thought into how scientists are not the ones actually making the decisions that effect us. This talk made me realize the importance of presenting the facts and educating those in charge so that the correct measures can be taken to prevent as much loss of life or destruction as possible from natural disasters.

GSA was not just field trips, talks, and lunch sessions. The exhibits and poster sessions were a way to meet potential graduate schools, employment opportunities, and other advances in science worldwide. Poster sessions were also great to attend. It amazes me that so much research and problem solving is going on by even students!

Elizabeth Haralson

GSA Talks

I apologize for the late blog post but it has taken me some time to adjust to being home. The whole trip to and from Denver was a blast. We were able to go on mini field trips along the way which greatly enhanced our over all experience. My favorite excursion was Garden of the Gods and Balanced Rock. These two geologic features were amazing to see first hand! White at GSA, I attended numerous talks all on varying subjects. Every topic imaginable had a talk associated with it! My favorite talks were the ones presented by UALR faculty. I especially enjoyed Dr. Ruhl's talk on coal ash weathering. I was a very proud student listening to one of my professors discuss her research with people from all over the country. A close second favorite was a session dedicated to bringing science to religion. It focused primarily on how the Christian Bible should not be taken literally and how geologic deep time can be explained by creationists if the focus is not so small scale. I found it very interesting, with this being my first GSA attendance, the wide range in topics offered. There was a talk for everyone, no matter their interest. It was neat how the talks also did not just focus on research, but on broader topics like the history of women in geology. After GSA, my brain felt overloaded with information and I cannot wait to attend another conference in the future.

Elizabeth Haralson

Feed Your Brain—Hope in the Sciences

On Wednesday, I attended Dr. Claudio Margottini's talk on what he termed cultural geology—an emerging field in the geosciences that combines earth science with other disciplines, specifically cultural anthropology, architectural engineering, and political science. As a UNESCO consultant, Dr. Margottini travels the world working to preserve World Heritage sites in danger from geological hazards, working both with other scientists as well as local populations. 

Perhaps one of the most thought-provoking parts of the talk wasn't the actual presentation but a question that was posed by another audience member. A high school geology teacher, she asked if Dr. Margottini had any suggestions for making the media and the public aware of their preservation efforts and successes. 

"All the kids ever hear about is that this temple was destroyed, that statue was torn down," she said. "It makes them lose interest. Is there any way we can let people know that there is actually good news too?"

I've been turning this teacher's question over and over ever since she posed it. While raising awareness about the "doom and gloom" both in current events and science certainly has an important place, all too often an invaluable piece of the greater puzzle is left out—hope. 

When we present problems without the possibility of a solution or even amelioration—whether the problem is the destruction of ancient artifacts or global climate change—we lose touch with the public. We lose the ingenuity of the younger generation—who wants to go into a field that offers nothing but hopelessness? 

As geologists and members of the greater scientific community, we should recognize the truth of an age-old adage: You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. And by searching for fresh, innovative ways to share stories of success, advancement, and hope alongside information about the problems we face, we not only present a more balanced view of science, but attract new individuals to contribute to the advancement of all fields, whether anthropological, geological, or somewhere in between. 

-M. Kellum Tate

I fed my brain twice!

Rather than go to one lunchtime talk, I decided to go to two, since Dr. Lucy Jones's talk was on science and society (an issue near and dear to my heart), and Dr. Margottini's talk was on using geosciences to save UNESCO heritage sites.

Dr. Jones's talk was very eye opening.  I was only familiar with her as an expert on the San Andreas Fault, having read her liveblog of the movie San Andreas.  She worked with the California Seismic Commission on a multihazards demonstration project, which started in 2007.  In this project she was asked to create scientifically plausible disaster scenarios, which led to the creation of The Great ShakeOut. 5.5 million people participated in the first year of the ShakeOut, and the 2015 ShakeOut drill had 43 million people participating.  Once she finished with the CSC, she created a cooperative project between the USGS and the City of Los Angeles called Resilience by Design.  This project made the discussion about the community, and changed multiple city ordinances to make the city as a whole stronger.

"The scientist's job is to make sure the decision maker understands the implications of his decision. It is not to make the decision for him."

The UNESCO talk by Dr. Margottini was also incredibly interesting. 76% of all world heritage sites are exposed to at least one geohazard.  He spoke of several sites that he had worked on, including Petra in Jordan, which is a city carved from stone at risk for rockfalls.  In Machu Picchu, they have installed and integrated monitoring system for fear of possible slope movement of the city.  Overall it was an intriguing talk and with luck perhaps I may be able to work on some of these beloved sites in the future.

Sarah

Hello all! Finally sitting down to do my blog.  I did a couple of volunteer stints at two different sessions, the first being the Volcanology session Monday morning, and the second being the Engineering Geology session Tuesday morning.  Both sessions had talks about a recently discovered landslide in south central Utah that's bigger than the state of Rhode Island! It's called the Markagunt Gravity Slide and it occurred roughly 22 million years ago in volcanic deposits.  They found another landslide nearby called the Sevier landslide.

Sunday I attended several talks on mining, including on on the characterization of abandoned uranium mines in New Mexico. They were trying to develop a quick and inexpensive procedure to inventory and categorize legacy mines in New Mexico.  Another mining talk was titled Mining, the Environment, and Health and it went through several case studies, the most interesting of which was one from 2010 in northwest Nigeria, where villagers were artisanally processing silver ore by using flour mills to grind the ore and their grain, resulting in serious lead poisoning. Around 700 children younger than five were killed from lead poisoning and thousands more were permanently disabled. The soil was highly contaminated, and the lead carbonate in the ore was highly bioaccessible, meaning it was easily absorbed by the body.  Unfortunately even the unground grain was contaminated by mercury and lead!

Sunday I also went to a couple of volcanology talks in the session dedicated to Don Swanson (who was awarded the MGPV's Career Geologist award Tuesday evening for his lifetime of work on Hawaii and the Cascade Range volcanoes).  The first talk was titled Milestones on the Road to Eruption Prediction, and discussed current methods of volcano monitoring before moving to lava dome observations at Mt. Saint Helens. Observations and monitoring helped the Cascade Volcano Observatory successfully predict eruptions of Mt. Saint Helens with no false alarms throughout the 1980s. There are several volcano databases and volcanologists are stepping outside their expertise and doing more interdisciplinary work, working to develop new hazard maps.

The Volcanology session on Monday morning was perhaps the most interesting session, with multiple talks on mechanisms and collapse.  The most interesting talk was the very first one, given by the year's Arthur L. Day medalist Donald Dingwell. It was titled Experimental Volcanology: Accessing the Inaccessible.  In his talk Dr. Dingwell spoke of his eruption experiments at the University of Munich in Germany.  There were several amazing slow-motion videos, which may have been the coolest part, because he had a video of when they managed to reproduce volcanic lightning in the lab!  Dr. Dingwell's experiments focused on making volcanic ash, capturing the ash, and analyzing the ash. His experiments have shown that you can make ash just by decompression. There were a couple of papers he cited that I need to look into, including one on volcanic lightning.

Tuesday morning was the Engineering Geology session. There were several talks specific to geohazards, including a talk on a new rock classification number, which is a new system proposed to remove some of the subjectiveness and discrepancy when used by personnel with varied experience. This system is more for use when building and maintaining structures. Other talks involved natural disasters, including an investigation of the 2013 Rim Fire in Yosemite National Park, and a new investigation into the causes of the 1889 Johnstown Flood in Pennsylvania.

Tuesday afternoon I attended several more talks focused on landslides. The more interesting one was on the Kumamoto, Japan earthquake in April 2016.  There were many landslides in the hilly and forested region, and they were a strange shape in the grasslands, more rectangular than teardrop shaped. The soils there were relatively dry which affected the shape and runout distance. Slides were initiated along ridgelines and convex slopes. In the forests, slides were on steeper slopes and more elongated.

The last talk I attended was on Wednesday afternoon on landslides in national parks.  They're putting together a system to monitor slope geohazards in the national parks. Denali National Park is the test for these management programs, having rated all of their slopes. They're even putting together a "new slope event form" for citizens to inform the park service about new hazards observed. Perhaps the coolest thing mentioned in this talk was that they put in a device to measure the movement of the crack running the length of North Window in Arches National Park. This device was able to track even the daily movement of the crack caused by expansion and contraction of the rock!

Overall I had a great time at GSA 2016 and am thankful for the ability to go!

Sarah

Feed Your Brain: Science In Society

Feed Your Brain

I attended the Feed Your Brain session titled Earth Science In Public Policy: What Society Needs From Scientists, given by Dr. Lucy Jones. This talk was absolutely phenomenal! I wish I could have recorded it for everyone to see, or may I suggest this presentation as an Earth Talk Lecture...? Dr. Jones delivered her material in a manor that was entertaining, serious, relatable, and just dang enjoyable/fun. Packed full of knowledge and jokes, this was probably the most entertaining talk that I attended during the trips entirety.

So, down to the meat and potatoes of the lecture. Dr. Jones founded, after retiring from the USGS where she currently still consults, The Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science and Society. She is a scientist emerita for the USGS and a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech). Dr. Jones, upon her retirement and founding of her organization, was given an opportunity to work for the mayor of Los Angeles, CA in efforts to promote public knowledge and provide awareness to the public officials in a local, state, and federal level. Dr. Jones stands firmly in her belief that, quote,"... A scientists job is to make sure that the decision maker and officials understand the implications of their actions, not to make the decision(s) for them." Dr. Jones was given a break from the USGS for the period of one year, in its entirety, so that she could work directly with the LA and California govt. officials. During this time, Dr. Jones and the mayor of LA developed the Resilience By Design campaign, the Shakeout, and a series of amazing commercials promoting public awareness of potential disasters in the area. Dr. Jones never took credit for the success that LA and California has had with their efforts to involve science in public policy more so than ever before, instead she stated that it was a collaboration between all local and scientific communities.

One of the new practices that was put in place regarding the discussion and implementation of new ideas and policies was a reorganized progression from idea(s) through the successful passing of new policies. These new guidelines consisted of, in order: the idea of a likely disaster, the problems associated with the occurrence of the disaster, solutions to these problems, peer reviews from other scientists and officials involved, the results from the reviews, changes made in response to the reviews, an action plan to minimize problems during the disaster should it actually occur, then to practice the action plan until it's learned and familiar to all government and emergency officials.

Some ideas that were proposed and have been implemented into city, county, state, and in some cases federal policy include the water and gas mains, other utility lines, and infrastructure including building codes/ordinances. Using the water main as an example, let's explore what Dr. Jones said about an idea that seems so simple. If there is a fault that slips, an earthquake, or any type of ground movement, then water main(s) could break in their fittings or split entirely. Should this happen, what's the plan? There's only so many emergency water crews available to repair lines at any given time, and there's only so many parts at the warehouse to make the repairs at that time. So, the issue is now water mains that may or may not be fixed in a timely manor. But let's keep going... Say the water department(s) are unable to flush the mains due to low pressure from other breaks in the area, then there's a Boil Order issued to the area. Well, the issue now is where there's a water main there's likely power lines and gas lines as well. If the water main broke, the others likely did too. So now there's a boil order with no way to boil the water, no power for a stove and no gas for heating the water either. Some said that water could be boiled with fire outside... True! But is it really smart for everyone to start lighting fires outside with winds and flame sparks flying around in an area of the country that's prone to wild fires? Plus, there's no/little water available to extinguish the fire should it arise. So, we have no/little water and we can't boil it for sanitation purposes if necessary. This combined with the endured wait on crews/parts to make all of the repairs needed could potentially take weeks, months, or years to fully recover from. So then the mayor of LA and other officials were asked, "would you stay in this location under these circumstances while trying to take care of yourself, family, and children, or would you have had enough and simply move elsewhere?" Theft, break-ins, water shortages, etc. can all spiral out these conditions. The officials were astonished by the question and ideas presented, imagining what it would mean to the city/area to have all these infrastructure issues and be losing the citizens that ultimately assist in the funding/from it (tax $). As you can see the issues have a domino effect and could continue well into another paragraph, but I'll spare you because you deserve it for making it this far! :)

The above scenario leads right back to Dr. Jones' first description of the role of a scientist in policy, which was "...A scientists job is to make sure that the decision maker and officials understand the implications of their actions, not to make the decision(s) for them." The results from this scenario consisted of immediate funding and repair to old, decaying utility mains, including the use of new coupling designs that have up to several feet of shifting capabilities during ground movement and new codes/ordinances governing the placement and materials used in all future lines installed. Furthermore, this and other scenarios were practiced as if they had actually occurred so that response teams would know how to react if and when it actually does take place in the future. The purpose of these styles of action are to help solve tomorrows issues today while we have time and can pay for them slowly over that time, not wait and have it all dropped in your lap at once.

In the words of Dr. Lucy Jones, "Science is not a series of facts, it's presentations of evidence that provide clues and give plausibility to a hypothesis."

I thoroughly enjoyed this talk and my words herein have not provided it its deserved justice. For more information, videos, pictures, action plans, etc., you can visit Dr. Jones' website at www.drlucyjonescenter.org .

* * * Comical note: Dr. Jones stated that she received lots of letters and calls with questions and comments about all of the work she's done with public officials in the California/federal level. One that she read to us stated," Dear Dr. Jones, I know that you can't tell me when the BIG ONE is coming, but could you at least let me know when you send your kids out of town." HaHaHaHa! This was the type of talk that Dr. Jones gave... I wish you all could've been there!

Thanks for reading,

Kevin Gardner

For the required 'Feed Your Brain' talk I chose to attend the one titled 'Geosciences Save UNESCO Heritage' given by Claudio Margottini. This talk was one of the best talks I attended the whole meeting. Very interesting and eye opening to how diverse our geology world is. UNESCO is used for the conservation of cultural monuments and also used to prevent geohazards. They travel all over the world to try and save monuments/areas that are being affected by the changing world around us or even human impacts. Places that have already been visited are places such as Bamiyan, Afghanistan, Petra, Jordan, Lumbini, Nepal and Rapa Nui, Chile. Fun fact, there is a culture that actually built churches and other monuments straight into the rock. Not above it, into it. I found that absolutely amazing! There is a debate that if this sort of work is actually creating a new section of geology that would be called 'cultural geology', Either way, it's defiantly a section of geology that I could see myself getting into.

Unitl next time,
Autumn

Planetary Session dedicated to Hap McSween

Though I attended many fascinating talks while in Denver the ones I found most informative were the talks given during a session dedicated to Harry 'Hap' McSween. He is a renowned Planetary Professor at the University of Knoxville, TN. I attended this session due to the fact that I am reading one of his books called 'Meteorites and Their Parent Planets' and plan to continue my education in grad school revolving around research on meteorites. The talks were mind boggling. I almost felt discouraged at first because of all the scientific terms that I was unfamiliar with. But never to fear, familiar charts and graphs that I know all too well from mineralogy and petrology came into play. Though I may not have understood some of the talks, now that I am continuing to read the book by Hap I am running into these unfamiliar terms again and again. These once 'unfamiliar' terms have now became part of my vocabulary that I understand. Without these talks I could potentially still be stuck in the wonder of exactly what these terms mean.

Until next time,
Autumn

Chris Butterworth’s Blog Part II

Having spent Monday afternoon learning about wind-blown dust on Comet 67P, Titan, and Mars, I again did another 5-hour volunteer shift on Tuesday morning, this time standing in for the student volunteer who was late for the session on the Proterozoic accretion of the North American continent.  In the first talk, “United Plates Revisited,” Dr Paul F. Hoffman described the feedbacks between subduction-induced mantle flow and the rise of magma, speculating on which came first.  On Tuesday afternoon I went to the session on the Pluto, Charon, and the Kuiper belt.  This was held in the large room 2A/3A and was well-attended.  In a talk called “Pluto is the new Mars,” Jeffrey M. Moore, chief geologist on the New Horizons mission, described the rich diversity of geological features found on Pluto, including the weird convection polygons made of nitrogen.  This seems to be an active process.  After loading up the vans on Wednesday morning I got to see part of the session on impact cratering, the most interesting of which was about the mathematical modelling of surface roughness versus age of the crust of Mercury.

Wednesday’s “Lunchtime Enlightenment” talk was by Claudio Margottini of the Geological Survey of Italy, and was titled “Geosciences Save UNESCO Heritage.”  Margottini is the author of 300 publications, having worked in many institutions, including the Italian Atomic Energy Commission.  He explained the role of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in the preservation of cultural heritage.  Following the 1972 convention to protect cultural and natural sites, there is now a list of 1,031 sites, many of which are threatened by war, collapsing infrastructure, pollution or natural hazards including volcanoes, floods, erosion, wind, fire, vegetation, and landslides.  76% of the sites are exposed to at least one geohazard.

Margottini’s first example was the pair of Buddha statues blown up by the Taliban in Bamiyan, Afghanistan.  I was disappointed to learn that UNESCO is not allowed to rebuild structures except using the original blocks, so the statues have gone forever.  UNESCO is instead shoring up the cliffs and the sides of the alcoves which used to contain the statues.  The stone is siltstone and conglomerate, which takes in water and becomes unstable, so the drills used to insert bolts into the walls are air-cooled instead of water-cooled.  Local labor is used, paid about $3 per day, which presumably includes danger money for the risk from landmines.  UNESCO tries to develop preservation skills in local populations, and this became a recurring theme in the other examples.

Another site is Petra in Jordan, where the royal tombs are in danger from erosion, rockfalls, slides, and cracks.  A 3D laser scan has been made of the monuments, and a large block which fell in 2015 had already been identified as a risk.  Monitoring systems connected by wi-fi are now in place to warn of blocks which are starting to shift.  Local people have been trained to climb the cliffs and remove these threats to passing tourists.

An integrated monitoring system has also been installed at Machu Picchu in the Peruvian Andes, which was considered to be at risk of sliding off its mountain along downhill-dipping beds.  Analysis of data from interferometry, lasers, GPS, and optical satellite images concluded that the monument would not slide.

In Akapana, Bolivia, there used to be a pyramid.  Unfortunately the stone cladding was removed centuries ago to build houses, and an earthen core was left behind.  This was itself at risk of disappearing under the action of soil erosion and sliding.  UNESCO made a geomorphological map of it and diverted water away from it using gabions (baskets of rocks, as seen lining the Arkansas River).  They used compressed earth consisting of straw, mud and cactus juice to give the mound a water-resistant overcoat to prolong its life.

UNESCO has helped stabilize leaning minarets in two parts of Afghanistan, Jam, where a river bank had to be shored up, and Herat, where steel ropes and buttresses were put in place to prop up a group of minarets after a local river had flooded and undermined their foundations.

In Kogurio, North Korea, a mound containing a tomb was being eroded by rainwater, so UNESCO provided a waterproof cover to protect it.

Rain was also causing erosion of the rock churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia.  These are carved out of solid basalt scoria containing montmorillonite, which unfortunately swells when it gets wet, causing the host matrix to crumble.  UNESCO has built scaffolding and roofs above the churches to protect them.  These are not very pretty, and Margottini says the churches now look like gas stations.

After he had finished his presentation, I asked Margottini if anything was being done to restore Palmyra, the ancient city in Syria partially destroyed by ISIS.  He said UNESCO had made a model of the gates, using a 3D printer.

Lunchtime Enlightenment with Dr. Lucile M. Jones

This is Matt Carey.  Tuesday last week I had the opportunity to sit in on a lunchtime talk titled "Earth Science in Public Policy: What Society Needs from Scientists".  The talk was given by Dr. "Lucy" Jones, an earthquake specialist, recently retired USGS employee, and serving now as consultant to the mayor of Los Angeles through the formation of the Seismic Safety Commission.  The focus of her talk was on pointing out breakdowns in communication between the general public and science community and the much needed steps for bridging these gaps.  As an expert in earthquakes, she pointed out, her knowledge and research was needed not just within her own community, but for assisting in the future safety of communities living within earthquake prone areas.  This is where the need for effective communication comes in.  She talked about proper ways for sharing information minus the common data and jargon heavy style often spoken within scientific circles.  This was followed by the showing of a humorous video that outlined do's and dont's during tsunami events.  Essentially, don't hang around shore and watch the wave; move to high ground immediately.  This discussion brought a lot of my own personal experiences to mind such as accidentally slipping up and talking (rather, lecturing) dense science in public around a crowd of 100% not interested friends.  The things I study with water quality are important to society and her examples of learning how to relate what I know to others are things I will be putting into action.

Feed Your Brain: Geosciences Save UNESCO Heritage

The Feed Your Brain speaker the Wednesday of  the GSA meeting was Claudio Margottini. He spoke to us about the use of geological engineering techniques to restore and protect UNESCO heritage sites in danger from natural events, war, development, or improper management. The techniques discussed at this talk involved the use of ground penetrating radar, LIDAR, radar interferometry, seismology, and other various techniques and technologies.  

One great example of how Mr. Margottini used his expertise in geology and geological engineering is his work on the Minaret of Jam in western Afghanistan. The 203 ft. tall minaret was in danger of collapse due to the settling of sediment underneath, as well as erosion from the Hari River near the site. Using seismic data, the foundation and surrounding alluvial sediment were characterized, allowing Mr. Margottini and his team to stabilize the foundation without causing any further damage to it. 

Minaret of Jam

Mr. Margottini and his team were often limited by the location of the UNESCO sites; the countries that needed his help were generally quite poor, and could not always provide equipment that would be ideal for the job. Despite this, they managed to make due with the limited equipment; he even went as far as using erosion mitigation techniques employed by ancient Incans to preserve the remnants of a pyramid in Tiwanaku, (in modern-day Bolivia). 

Mr. Margottini's talk was very interesting; his work is unique, and his story proves that a background in geology can be applied in wide variety of situations. 

Attending Talks

Going to GSA was very exciting in the beginning. We were going to watch presentations on research that is happening in the field, making connections, meeting graduate schools, and seeing if we are really interested in our desired fields.

I enjoyed most of the talks I attended, they were informative and well presented. Basically all of the presenters spoke well, were genuinely interested in their research, and were relayed to the audience in a way that even undergraduates could understand. They understood that there were more than just professionals sitting in on the talks.

I really struggled with what talks to go see because there were so many! Hundreds of talks and presentations were given everyday. It was amazing to see so many unique projects. One forgets the sheer number of fields and opportunities when taking broad classes.

I sat in on hydrologic talks, Landslide talks, talks by the National Park Service and MANY more. I seen talks I didn't really care about (but thought I did based on the title) and talks I found very interesting and have been looking into.

For instance, asbestos is a very common secondary mineral more common than previously thought. There were talks about asbestos in Washington state and Nevada. Two places that were completely different. The projects were wonderful to sit in on because I learned so much about the role of water in the production of asbestos and how important it is to study where asbestos is and its potential to destroy natural areas as well as farmland and water sources.

Some of the talks were incredibly boring. They were mostly interpreting graphs and talking about what that means for an area. I know that some of the talks were only boring to hear about but the work itself is more fun. Going out into the field and collecting data and samples can be a lot of fun.

I really look forward to future meetings and giving my own presentation.

-Jurnee West

Feed Your Brain

When I read the title of the Feed Your Brain talks I was uninterested. They sounded boring. I went to the talk titled "Geosciences Save UNESCO Heritage." I was curious to hear about the application of geoscience in saving monuments across the globe. The speaker, Claudio Margottini, is a geologist and engineering seismologist. His talk took us all across Asia, the middle East, and South America. Over 70% of monuments are susceptible to natural destruction. That is a lot of potential for monuments to be destroyed.

In Afghanistan, giant Buddhist statues had been destroyed. In order to preserve what was left of the monument, a survey of the surrounding rocks was completed then locals were trained to scale the cliff and repair the rocks so that it did not collapse. This area was especially interesting because the Taliban was sending threats, in the form of bombs, to the people trying to repair the area.

Mr. Margottini spoke about how terrified for his life he was when he seen rocks painted red indicating a bomb was near. He had to work with the thought of losing his life everyday that he was there. In order to preserve certain monuments, he has put himself in danger. There were other monuments he spoke of that they had to design the recovery plans in Europe and give the plans to local engineers because it was too dangerous for them to go.

It was very inspiring to hear of the work that he was doing across the world. Some places were very peaceful and gave the workers medals for their work. In Machu Picchu, they determined that the city was not going to be destroyed by a landslide. In other places, they were a third party paid to save monuments. Mr. Margottini used a lot of different techniques and technology on all of the projects. I really enjoyed the talk and would love the opportunity to learn more about working with UNESCO.

-Jurnee West

GSA 2016 - Denver, Co

Kevin Gardner :

Hello, UALR!!!

 I have yet to post to until now due to the adventurous journey from Little Rock to Kansas, Kansas to Denver, in Denver, and then the flight home. But I will admit, waiting to blog until now was a huge mistake! I have so much to talk about!

THE JOURNEY:

Let us begin with the drive. Simply, it was great! I have never been north of Belle Vista, Ar on I-49 until this trip. Observing the scenery was a wonderful experience! We stopped at the Joplin History and Mineral Museum that had rock and mineral specimens from the mines in the area, and lots of historical artifacts and replicas. Though I enjoy unique rocks and minerals, I will say that at this stop I enjoyed the history more. The stories and pictures from the old, original town and mines were interesting to see and put the work that went into establishing the area into major perspective.

We spent the night in Salina, Kansas and continued our journey the next day. The windmills were EVERYWHERE!!! I'm talking ~400 feet tall! The blades that are manufactured near the LR airport are actually being put to use in rural Kansas... Pretty cool!

We made a stop at the Fort Hays University Museum of Natural History where we able to see an extensive collection of live rattlesnake species (photos not allowed for snake safety/stress on the snakes), which was fascinating. They also had lots of fossil displays, and even showed how they removed the fossils from rock to display them within the museum.

You may have heard of the newer fish species that can breath outside of water and has arms that allow them to walk across land... Well, here you go! The little fella actually does breath air outside of water and has real, little arms!

Even though I enjoyed this stop very much, I will say that I had a constant feeling of insecurity. I'm not quite sure what the problem was, but I felt uneasy, followed, and VERY SMALL! I even heard strange noises behind me at times (image below)... Perhaps we will never know the real reason behind these feelings?

We eventually arrived in Colorado and, after a short time, the Rocky Mountains were visible. We entered Denver and were all very excited to be there. I never realized that Denver sits before the front range of the Rocky Mountains and is actually a flat city. The mountainous landscape in the background sure was good for pictures though!

The GSA meeting began with an "Ice-Breaker" social gathering for all attendees. It was nice, but very crowded. We rested off our road trip tiredness and prepared for the busy schedule of talks and presentations ahead.

TALKS:

I attended lots of great sessions, posters, discussions, and talks of current work being done in the earth science field. One of the talks was from Dr. David London, University of Oklahoma. Dr. London is working on pegmatite (a large, course grained, igneous rock) research. I had the privilege of visiting OU and Dr. London about two weeks ago for my own research presentation being presented in Denver at this meeting. Dr. London in his talk was attempting to identify why the zoning of minerals normally always occurs in pegmatites, and what causes the zoning of the minerals in very uniformed and predictable ways. Long story short, through his experiments, Dr. London was able to correlate the host rock of the pegmatite intrusion to the zoning across the pegmatite. If the host rock where the intrusive melt makes contact is calcium (Ca) rich, then the melt begins to crystallize Ca-rich minerals first, against the Ca-rich host material. The melt will deplete its Ca content as it works towards the center, making component substitutions as it loses components in the melt. This, overall, will give the appearance of zoned minerals in the pegmatite once it has cooled and viewed as a whole. Very interesting stuff, especially since my research presentation is on pegmatites. I also attended a mineralogy/petrology teaching talk. It was amazing!!! I can not wait to talk to Dr. DeAngelis about the details of this teaching research and the new tools for teaching the material that I observed.

I gave my presentation on the last night of the conference and enjoyed my experience very much. This was the first time that I have presented any material outside of the UALR campus and the EIT research expo. I was a bit nervous initially, but quickly got over it as the evening progressed.

(Photos courtesy of Dr. Wendi Williams)

I was able to meet several interesting people from across the country and world that all have an interest in pegmatites and the minerals that form them. One notable attendee that I spoke with was from the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. and is friends with one of my references/sources that I have used in my research presentation(s).

It was a great trip and atmosphere to experience. I hope that I am privileged with another opportunity to attend a GSA meeting and present further research in the future.

*** More to come shortly: an amazing Feed Your Brain discussion that was definitely a highlight of the trip.

Fulfillment of Dreams at GSA

Wow! What an exceptional great time I have had attending the 2016 Geological Society of America conference in Denver, Colorado the "Mile High City". This was not my first GSA conference, nor will it be my last.

What can I talk about that won't be a bazillion words long?

I attended so many talks in these past few days. Much of my time has been spent literately "camping" out in one room all morning. Much of this time has been spent with me mouth open in aww with all the exciting topics coming out of the Hydrogeology division and the Karst division. I went to other talks as well regarding Geoinformatics, Energy Conservation, and even Geology and Religion.

This year was the first year that I knew what people were talking about in the talks. I can safely say that after all of my core classes in the UALR Geology program that it has made me gained the knowledge that is needed to think like a Geo-scientist. I feel like I have taken something away from this conference and that is that I cannot wait to spend everyday with awesome professionals and researchers doing the things I enjoy. Learning, Collaborating, Motivating.

While at GSA, I met with so many bright and intelligent people. I was selected to participate in the GSA Hydrogeology Division lunch and award ceremony where I had the opportunity again to use my formal dinner etiquette skills. I also had a table full of top researchers from schools like Nebraska and UC Davis.

  Also I got to meet with several different graduate schools.

My most exciting moment of this trip was when I had the opportunity to me with Jason Polk from Western Kentucky University, a professor in the Karst division. I talked to him and his students about the exciting things going on at WKU. It's a top school on my list of schools I will be applying to for the Fall '17.

Another person I got to speak with was John Mylroie, professor emeritus from Mississippi State University. Mylroie is one of the leading researchers for Karst environments on San Salvador, Bahamas. I have read several papers that he has published and when we saw each other both of our faces lit up. He remembered me from attending a talk that he did at UALR. Mylroie is my idol in the Geoscience world.

Overall, this has been a great trip!

I want to think the University and the Department of Earth Science for allowing me to attend this conference.

Ryan J. Hefley

Quandaries and Questions: A GSA Experience

At the end of each conference day, it's all come down to questions. 

Today is Wednesday, and we have only a few more hours left at GSA 2016. I've gone to over thirty different talks on everything from preservation of rivers in the rock record to the role sexual versus asexual reproduction plays in survival likelihood during major extinction events. During these presentations I've been struck by a number of different emotions: excitement, boredom (I do not give a single damn about microbial mats, no matter how hard I try), confusion, and (on Monday after seemingly endless fancy statistical analyses that I couldn't make heads or tails of) utter despair that I'll ever be smart enough to make any meaningful contributions to the geologic community. 

However, my main take-away from these technical sessions hasn't been discouragement but overwhelming curiosity. Almost every talk has inspired new questions. After several discussions about megafaunal extinctions at the end-Pleistocene, I want to learn more about the influence of body size on survival chances during extinction events. A geoscience education talk about using phylogenetic trees in a non-major historical geology class made me wonder what other creative tools could be used to engage non-science majors in geology classes. In a session about the conflict between the conservative religious and the scientific communities, I started thinking about how some of the approaches presented by the speakers could be incorporated into introductory geology courses. 

Even though I felt as lost as an accountant in a mineralogy class in a good portion of the talks, what I did understand greatly enhanced my knowledge base and, even more importantly in my opinion, started me thinking in terms of potential research directions that I myself would like to pursue rather than simply learning from the research of others. And this, I believe, is the first step towards the next phase of my career. 

-Kellum Tate

Best GSA Ever

Good Morning, 

Today is the last day of GSA, and I feel like I have taken full advantage of the conference. Monday and Tuesday I volunteered, with yesterday  being the most interactive day.  I hung around the speaker ready room helping presenters upload their presentations.  This was really fun, and a great opportunity to meet as many professors from all over.  It was also great to meet Phil Wernette from Texas A and M.  We talked a lot about research, and had an immediate bond, and connection due to our fondness of geology.  I will go to as many talks today as possible, and take off some time around noon to catch my flight at 3:45.  For now this is me signing off.  

Chris 

Harper's GSA Poster

Poster Time! Man I need to lose some weight!

Sunday was time to present and I was a little apprehensive, but after a few moments and several visits from my compadre's from UALR, relaxation finally set in. Many people came by who were interested in the carbonatites. Dr. Peter Modreski shared with me the similarities between the carbonites at Magnet Cove with those of the Iron Hill Carbonatite Complex in Colorado. Another related them to those in the Rift Valley of Africa.

One of the more interesting visits was with Dr. Nelson Eby from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He has done EPMA analysis on the mica of Magnet Cove and steered me to his website. There he has a wealth of information on the mica. This should be of great help with the future work I want to do regarding the Magnet Cove Mica.

So, the contacts I have made here at GSA have made the trip worthwhile. Looking forward to our remaining time here and the people I will meet and information I will attain.

David H.

Feed Your Brain

Monday afternoon, I attended a "Feed Your Brain" lunch time discussion. The discussion was led by Jen Russel-Houston. Jen works at Osum Oil Sands Corp. located in Alberta, Canada.


What are oil sands you may ask? Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and water, saturated with a dense and extremely viscous form of petroleum technically referred to as bitumen.


Canada is right behind Saudi Arabia for number or oil reservoirs. Most of this oil that comes from Canada will filter to the United States for refining. Canada ranks in at number 3 and the United States ranks in at number 6 for producing oil. Together however, we are ranked number 1.


In Jen's talk, she stated that retrieving oil from oil sands is hard. Her company is developing new ways in better locating and extracting it. One method that the company uses is called Steam Assisted Gravity Drilling or (SAGD)


Using such method requires a lot of wells, more water, and a larger footprint


Jen's goals is to eventually lower cost, safer operations, lower water use, and reduce the footprint


In the future she [Jen] wishes to optimize and become more efficient with steam, she wants to put more wells on one pad, and wants to have better well placement and reservoir quality


~Ryan J. Hefley

Monday Blues

Attended a couple of excellent sessions today. The first was on Evolution of the Rocky Mountains. The discussion of the Larimide orogeny was informative. The second session I enjoyed was on petrology and orogenic systems. Use of garnet-spinel-corundum ternary diagrams brought back fond memories of Igneous Metamorphic Petrology.

David

Chris Butterworth’s blog:

On our way to GSA we stopped at Joplin History and Mineral Museum in Missouri, where there are displays of mining equipment and samples of the minerals mined there.  These are mainly galena and calcite.  Upstairs are models of the local mines, showing shafts and seams.  There are also displays of items from a bygone age, as are found in most local museums.  There were vendors of gems, minerals and fossils, and I bought a couple of 40 million year old (according to the vendor) shark teeth for my son.  I avoided the Moroccan trilobites as they have a reputation for being fake.

In Kansas we stopped at Fort Hays State University’s Sternberg Museum of Natural History.  This is a large building under a dome, with a simulated journey through time in the middle, with large mockups of dinosaurs, one of which growls so loudly that it can be heard all over the museum.  For a local museum this one has an impressive set of collections, which are Paleontology, Paleobotany, Geology, Botany, and Zoology.  Most of these were relevant to us.  I photographed all the snakes in the exhibit at the lower level under the central dome.  These were of interest to me, having studied zoology in the spring.  Then I walked up the slope representing different geological periods, with models of various reptiles.  For the 80 million year point was also marked by a boundary between Kansas and Colorado, mainly because of the location of local sites where many fossils were found.  The actual fossils were displayed in glass cases, including their famous “fish within a fish.”  I took a selfie in front of a mammoth skeleton, and then tried to take in the dozens of minerals on display.  I would have liked to stay for longer but we were on a schedule.

I spent my first day at the annual meeting of the GSA in Denver listening to talks about Mars.  The morning session was a collection of talks about sedimentary geology in Gale Crater, based on satellite photos and data collected by Curiosity Rover.  The afternoon session was about igneous geology from previous Mars missions and from meteorites from Mali.  I have chosen to write about a morning session talk by Kathryn M. Stack called “Facies Analysis and Stratigraphic Context of the Pahrump Hills Outcrop, Type Locality of the Basal Murray Formation, Gale Crater, Mars.”

Curiosity Rover has spent the last four years climbing Mount Sharp in Gale Crater.  This sounds dramatic but the “mountain” is actually not steep and the rover can easily drive up its gradient.

The rover landed at a place called Aeolis Palus at the foot of Mount Sharp, which lies within Gale Crater.  The area is named for the type of deposits found there: wind-blown sediments, with coarse cross-bedding.  Satellite photos show that this is in the lowest unit of Mount Sharp, the Murray Formation.  Curiosity spent two years there and then crossed a facies boundary into the Palump Hills outcrop.  Here it photographed features such as conglomerate rocks, resistant ridges, platy-bedded lenses, and resistant outcrops.  In the distance could be seen the mesas of the Bradbury Group and the Stimson Sandstones.

The field strategy used was to walk this outcrop using Curiosity’s ChemCam, which can do laser spectroscopy, and its MastCam.  Several stops were selected because they looked interesting, and, for the sake of objectivity, other points were chosen between these spots precisely because they were not interesting.  The rover’s core sampling drill and its “hand-lens” tool were used to examine the rocks at some of the points.  The sandstones and gravels found here were of fluvial origin but the mudstones had grains so fine that they could not be resolved under the lens.  They must have been deposited under deep water, and some of their laminations were fine and regular, others less well-expressed.

Kathryn described some bedding features called “scour and scrape” structures, along with the “climbing ripples” found at a feature called Newspaper Rock.  Rover was able to examine sandstone from a higher elevation without going there, because a large boulder had rolled down the hill.  At this point Kathryn’s team was able to reconstruct the depositional environment as being plunging plumes which created mudstone in lacustrine varves, without aeolian ripples.  The scour and drape bedding was, apparently, indicative of hyperpycnal flows.  The overall environment was a deep body of varying depth, with plunging river plumes flowing turbidly down the slopes.

One of Kathryn’s team members is Dr Linda Kah, with whom I hope to do some research for my Master’s in Applied Science.  This talk gave a very interesting background into the work being done by Curiosity Rover in Gale Crater.

On Monday I spent the morning as an alternate student volunteer, and in the afternoon attended the sessions on Aeolian transport mechanisms.  Most of these talks were about Mars, and there was much overlap with the previous day’s material.

Good Evening Everybody!

Today I had a great time at GSA.  For the first part of the day I went to a bunch of Geomorphology talks, and learned a lot of information about what type of research there is in the geomorph field.  After lunch where I ate at fresh market on 16th street mall, I had a volunteer spot.  This involved being trained to help as a technical session helper.  I aided at 1:30-5:45, on the talks about national parks, research, mapping, and more.  One particular talk I found interesting was on phosphate in Loch Vale lake, in Rocky Mountain National Park.  According to the speaker 0.1 % of apatite (a mineral composed of Ca5(PO4)3(Cl,F,OH))) was being dissolved off the rocks nearby, and deposited into the lake.  He was looking at how much phosphate (PO4) was being left behind in the lake after snow melt.  Quite the beautiful lake if you haven't ever been up to Loch Vale Lake, crystal clear, with scenic views of Longs Peak, and Timberlake Falls.  Personally this is one of the lakes I've been to many times.  In fact I believe it was one of the hikes I did in Rocky Mountain National Park at the age of 6.  At any rate, I hope you enjoyed the read.

Signing off,

Christopher DeGarmo

GSA 2016

Hi all,

As of today (9/26/2016) I have been to talks on topics ranging from 3D models of field areas created using photogrammetry to paleoenvironments associated with the origins of the genus homo. I have learned much from the talks so far, but the most productive time I have spent has been the time I've spent at the posters. There were "digital poster sessions", at which the presenters demonstrated a variety of digital models and virtual field trips created from an even larger variety of relatively recently-developed software. At these poster sessions I was able to pick the brains of those applying this software and network without the time constraints of the talks. 

That's all for now! 

Aaron

GSA 2016-Monday September 26

Hey Readers,
This is Matt Carey and I will be writing about the past couple days at the GSA 2016 conference.  I had the opportunity yesterday to sit in on a talk given by Dr. DeAngelis, on a class he taught a couple of semesters ago about planetary geology.  Dr. DeAngelis is a fantastic speaker and his enthusiasm for teaching is very clear.  After that Jason and I checked out the Celebration of Lakes technical session.  The most interesting talk I heard was on Garibaldi Lake of British Columbia, Canada.  This lake was formed volcanically by a dacite flow damming snowmelt.   The research was mostly focused on bathymetry calculations and orthoimagery created from drone photography.  The use of drones is a popular thing I've noticed and has got me interested in learning how to use one for my own research.  Later that day, after some Indian buffet and a nap, I checked out the poster presentations.  I met a man from the University of Santa Barbara who has been studying giant stromatolites in the Green River Formation of northwest Colorado.  Let me tell you, these suckers are huge.  A standard size was 5 meters tall by 7 meters wide.  At the bottom of most of these stromatolites were logs.  The logs served as a base for the stromatolites to grow off of.  Having only been exposed to stromatolites that formed within marine type environments, it was so cool to have something new to compare with my past knowledge.  Earlier this morning I sat in on talk titled Unearthing the History of Women in Geosciences.  Geological history is something I have not been exposed to much and after the talk I want more.  I heard the life story of a woman named Tilly Edinger.  She was the founder of a paleontological subfield called paleoneurology.  If you would like to know more about this come find me and I will blabber wildly about it.  Another great thing about today was I have got to spend time with my greatest friends ever and UALR graduate Ashley Horton.  Conferences are great for reconnecting with friends who I do not get to see often.  Thanks for the read.

Tri-State Mineral Museum

The Tri-State Mineral Museum in Joplin, MO is impressive! Be prepared for LOADS of Galena (hint: it's the state mineral - thanks Kuper). The best part is, the meseum is free! My favorite piece so far, the giant chunk of Galena with Sphalerite, Marcasite, and Dolomite.



See you soon,
Jason

Last full day in San Salvador

Evening to all!

Today was our last full day, and I think it's bittersweet for all of us.  We explored the East side of the island which we hadn't visited a lot.  We started out at East Beach, the "trash beach".  It's an area where trash washes up on the shore from people littering.  It was an eye opener and crazy to see how much trash there was.  I would say the items we saw most abundantly were liquor bottles and shoes.  There were hundreds of them.  We actually found a message in a bottle that we are going to open up and read tonight in class, exciting!  

After that we went on to Storr's Lake to see the ever so rare stromatolites.  They are only found living in two parts of the world so it's super cool that we were able to visit one of those places.  The water was hypersaline and super muddy.  We trecked through it linking arms, it was a little difficult with our feet sinking in the mud and stepping on the sharp remnants of stromatolites, but we eventually made it and it was well worth it. 

Next we went to Pigeons Creek.  We stopped at the top of it to check out the mangroves before heading down to eat lunch in a house that was destroyed by Hurricane Joaquin.  We swam up the Creek against the tide which was definitely a little challenging for some of us, but were able to float back with the tide.  That was super nice because the tide was so strong that we didn't have to do much work at all at that point.  

Lastly we went and did some much needed relaxing at French Bay before heading back for some yummy dinner!  We had a little change in our flights, so we are actually flying to Nassau tomorrow instead of Sunday and staying one night there.  We are then going to catch our same flight from Nassau to Little Rock (layover in Houston) Sunday.  It's been an amazing trip full of adventures, but I know I'm ready to get home to see my baby (with four legs)! 

Best regards to all!

Amber

Days 3-5:

Day 3:
     It was very windy, and made for some very heavy surf. We checked out the Grotto Beach formation, and got sprayed by the crashing waves on the cliffs. Grotto beach is quite lovely, and the karst features on the formation really show the power of these waves. We then moseyed over to Waitling's Quarry, where we saw some of the fossilized dunes that were cut to mine the limestone. Part of Waitling's mansion is still standing atop the hill, however, we weren't able to find a feasible path to explore it. We then made our way to Sandy Point Pits, where we saw some of our first Bahamian caves. We found the infamous Owl's Hole Cave which was a large pit in the limestone with a gargantuan tree growing out of it. We finished the day by snorkeling at French bay, where the corals were often and large.

Day 4:
      The wind has died down, but the weather is still cool. We started our expedition by checking out the fossilized Cockburn Town Reef, which was covered with sediment in a somewhat catastrophic storm even. We stopped off to see the Inkwell Blue Hole, which is one of the brackish karst ponds you can find here. This one was quite brown with tannic acid, nonetheless the well had an abundance of plant growth around the edges. Next we stopped at several more of the caves where we got to see some Funnel Eared Bats. We ended the day with a refreshing dip in the water where we relaxed and body surfed on the Sandy Point Beach.

Day 5: 
       Today was very hot, but not too windy. We began with the death march hike which followed some of the ponds and lakes near the Gerace Center. The Karren features (basically really sharp limestone rocks) were brutal, but it was really interesting to see some of the other bodies of water on the island. Then to my favorite part... we went to the island lighthouse, and I saw my first lighthouse. This particular one is one of the last existing kerosene fired lighthouses. After climbing up it, we hiked to the cave that formed near it. The cave was filled with water and it even changed with the tide. We made sure to go at low tide so the water wasn't too high, but it was a wonderful experience to trek through the cave (rather swim) and explore the dark unknown.

      The last few days have been exhausting but so rewarding. We have spent many hours exploring the reefs, caves, and lakes on the island. I have to say Lighthouse Cave has to be my favorite stop on this trip thus far. Although, I know there's many more still to come. I have absolutely fell in love with this island, and kitsch as it might be, I cannot think of a better way to spend my spring break.

Technical difficulties have prevented me from being able to upload pictures, but I will be sure to update when I get back stateside.

Cheers,
Heath B.

Day 5 on the Island

There are moments this feels more like purgatory. We are all officially sunburnt, wind burnt, covered in bug bites and scratches but we are all still looking forward to all the adventures of the next few days. Today went from being terrible to awesome. The limestone determines all of our day. Ooids can be fun as long the wave energy is low. Karren is awful. She made our day miserable especially at moon rock lake. The bays around the island have been very different. The wave energy, size of the ooids, and reefs have been amazing even with the hurricane damage. 

May Dr. Rene's hand and nose rest in peace. 

-Jurnee

Thursday in the Bahamas

It's been a long week, but such a great experience. So many memories and experiences each day; we found a stray dog that hadn't been fed in days that we took along with us for a few hours on Tuesday, although it was extremely windy so we didn't get to do as much in the water as we would have liked. 

On the way back to the research center, out truck ran out of gas and luckily we had some kind locals help us out and call for help to get us up and running and back in time for dinner. On Wednesday, we had to drop Dr. Lewis and Amber off at the medical clinic to get illnesses checked, as the rest of us went to see a fossilized reef in Cockburn town. This was, up to this point, my favorite part of the trip. There were so many fossils that one could spend an entire day there looking, and still not see all of them. That afternoon, we went to a blue hole and a cave, saw bats in the cave, and finished the day off with some body surfing in French Bay at the southern portion of the island. Today, we went on "the march of death" behind the research center and saw a few saline lakes and some fossilized rocks and ended up at the rain catchment facility that captures our drinking water. This afternoon we went to lighthouse cave and then finished the day at the bay directly across from the research center in which we saw lots of fish and crabs and a few coral formations.

It's been a great trip so far, and with a few days left I am starting to miss home, but so thankful that I got the chance to step away from the normal day to day routine in Little Rock and see this beautiful place. I hope to cherish the memories made and experiences had for a long time.

See you soon LR,

JT Poole

Wednesday March 23, 2016

My Favorite part of today was exploring the Cockburn Town Member of the Grotto Beach Fomation. This area is a preserved fossilized reef. Walking around we were able to spot all sorts of coral to include Staghorn Coral and Brain Coral. While walking along the formation there was a Terrarosa Paleosol. We learned that the Terrarosa Paleosol formed by sediment filling in the cracks then experiencing a rebound. The Terrarosa Paleosol can be found today in the center of the formation with a near vertical dip. It was very interesting to find shells preserved in the rock. Some of the coral was even in a growth position, while others had already fallen when they were cemented. The dark gray areas in the photos are being affected by the waves creating karen. The water is dissolving the limestone away, also uncovering organisms. 

The water has uncovered a conch shell.

Terrarosa Paleosol

-Alicia Stephan

Hey everyone! this is a joint blog from Elizabeth and Abigail. We did a lot of exploring today! Everyone is exhausted and sunburnt* but we are still eager for more tomorrow. We began our day looking at the Hannah Bay member of the Rice Bay formation, the youngest rock on the island being only 420-3500 years old! We saw Karren features and we took samples of sediment that we later observed in the lab under microscopes. Next we headed over to the North Point member of the Rice Bay formation and saw older rocks that were about 5300 years old. There were cerion (snails) everywhere, it was hard not to step on them. There were hermit crabs, regular crabs, a white tailed tropic bird, and several polyplacophoram. We then took a drive to Columbus' landing site when he discovered North America (supposedly). After that we went snorkeling at Lightpole reef (Fernandez bay), a patch reef. A lot of the coral was washed up onto the shore by the hurricane last fall. Overall we had a great day and we are ready to get back out tomorrow!

-Abigail and Elizabeth

*Elizabeth was the only one who did not get sunburned but a nice tan is starting to develop :) 

P.S. From Elizabeth: The conch shell I found was really heavy but super awesome so I'm going to have to figure out a way to fit it in my suitcase and not go over the weight limit on the way back home. 

 Candice holding a tiny gecko

 Where Columbus supposedly first landed

 Checking out North Point

 Abigail and Samantha

 Candice with the snails..watch your step!

 More snails

 Laminated cross bedding. Field book for scale.

 Karren, a karst feature. Field book for scale.

 The huge conch Elizabeth found. Found while snorkeling.

 Hannah Bay member of the Rice Bay formation. These are the youngest rocks on the island.

The world's worst classroom.

North Point exploration!

Dr. Ruhl loves rocks!

Elizabeth, Ryan, and Jurnee at the North Point member of the Rice Bay Formation

Polyplacophoram!