GSA 2015

Hey all you bloggers out there in Blogland!

This is Matt Carey signing in live from GSA 2015 in Baltimore, MD.  So far, this trip is great!  My day has been filled with non-stop geology.  This morning, I started things off with 2 big cups of coffee and a quick talk with friends about all the technical sessions going on.  I was torn between sessions on Caribbean tectonics, karst geomicrobiology, and urban geochemistry.  Since my research is focused on urban geochemistry of the Arkansas River through Little Rock, I went with the geochem.  I sat through 6 speakers.  My favorite was given by Meredith K. Steele titled The Cation Conundrum: benign indicators or important mechanisms in aquatic ecosystems.  An interesting thing I learned from this talk was that a common source of sodium in urban surface water flows is from the weathering of buildings and associated materials.  Prior to this, I had only understood sodium presence being related to waste waster discharge from treatment facilities and pesticides.  After the technical sessions, I mulled around a bit and thought about what I had just learned and how it related to my studies.  I ended the day by talking with several schools about graduate programs in the exhibition hall.  Two schools I am interested in are in Texas and New Mexico, one of which is building their own drones and remote control airplanes for use in aerial imagery and remote sensing.  Totally cool work.  I am very excited about the present and the future.  Tomorrow I present my first poster for research I have been doing with Dr. Ruhl.  I'll keep y'all posted on how it all goes!