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.
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