An explanation for the interlude

No, I haven’t forgotten about my blog nor my readers (all two or three of you). I figured after the end of the Fall Term I would have more time to write and get back to spreading the joys of meteorites, science, and whatever else caught my attention. Something I didn’t take into account was a little thing called an abstract. I’m at the point in my research where I have enough data to finally start telling a story about my meteorite. The goal is to have an abstract submitted for a poster and accepted for the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston in March. The dead line is January 9th and with me being gone in San Francisco from December 23rd to January 3rd, I’m under a lot of pressure to get it out of the way.

I still have my basic duties in the meteorite lab, too. Primarily that of responding to e-mails when people think they might have a meteorite. This is a task where I can easily just say “no, you don’t have one” and move on, but I use it as a chance to tell them what they possibly have and why it’s not a meteorite. Some of the e-mails get kinda long as there are some people who like to argue that their river rock is indeed a  meteorite. Or better yet, argue with me as to why they believe they have a martian meteorite. It’s science outreach and something I do take seriously. Even when someone tells me that they’ve buried half of their meteorite because they don’t want NASA coming to take it (true e-mail).

But most of my time has been spent processing data from the SEM and learning geochemistry on the fly. I’ve probably learned more from my work in the meteorite lab than I have any other class. I’m starting to become familiar with cooling rates as ascertained from Fe-Mg diffusion distances and now I’m reading a paper on the solidification of metal-troilite grains in chondrites. All of which is needed for the completion of my abstract and to give me a general background of meteorite fundamentals. I’ve enjoyed my project so far, but it’s also been very intimidating. I keep thinking one day I’m going to get exposed as a fraud who really has no clue what the hell he’s talking about. In my head, that conversation  revolves around not knowing the difference between lodranites and acapulcoites. Or, even worse, differentiating between LL3.1 and LL3.2. Okay… So, I’m being a bit dramatic, but that imposter feeling is still there.

I just keep repeating to myself that I’m never going to amount to anything if I’m not willing to look stupid from time to time. It’s in that spirit that I keep moving forward even when I think I would have been better off in a squishy major.

A Few Pictures From My Stratigraphy Trip To The Oregon Coast.

I’m not going to mince any words: it’s been a busy term. Hence my month long hiatus on the blog. My term has been busy with stratigraphy and sedimentation, scanning electron microscopy, a course on the history of modern science, and my usual work in the meteorite lab. The greatest amount of my time has been dominated by stratigraphy. A couple weeks ago I spent four days on the the southwestern coast of Oregon studying uplifted marine terraces and more shale than I ever wanted to see. In all honesty, it was like the twilight zone of geology. At one stop, the rocks got progressively younger as we went from south to north along the beach. Drive north a few miles and the rocks actually got older as we went in the same direction. To further add panic to the confusion, our instructor would ask which way was upsection, or in which direction were the rocks getting younger, and if you got the answer wrong you did push-ups or sit-ups. Not wanting a repeat of junior high hell, I learned to become very comfortable with my compass and topo map. Staying out of my professors line of sight was effective, too.

The Hunters Cove Formation at Gold Beach in Southern Oregon. This formation is composed of deep marine muds- meaning it’s more susceptible to folding than the sandstone formations on either side of it.

I wasn’t sure what frightened me more on this trip: Houses built on mud, such as this one:

Wanna know why you make friends with geologists? So you never make the mistake of building your house on marine muds. This house will probably be on the beach before next winter. (Picture taken at Light House Beach)

Or the tectonics off Oregon’s coast with the ability to turn once horizonal rock layers on their side:

These layers of sandstone and mud used to be horizontal. Now they’re nearly 90 degrees.

My favorite stop was Cape Arago. It was here that I finally understood what I was seeing. I spent most of the trip feeling lost, confused and cursing every layer of mud that I had to map. Cape Arago used to be an old submarine canyon. Then the ocean receded and slowly exposed the canyon and its cut and fill sequence from a probable paleodelta.  And I saw a lot of seals. Double win.

Cape Arago from the lookout. Tides came in and covered up much of our work area as we completed all our tasks.

It was also at Cape Arago that I learned how quickly I can map an area. Nothing makes you work faster than hearing your instructor say you have three hours and the tides are coming in.

Then there was Shore Acres. This was our last stop on the trip and it proved to be the most mind-boggling of all the sites we visited. And the weather turned to crap, too. Mother Nature decided to keep the wind and rain to herself until us lowly undergrad geology majors were exposed on the point. It was at this site that I learned even rite-in-the-rain notebooks have their limits.

One of the lagoonal areas at Shore Acres. We were charged with mapping the formations here and interpreting the depositional setting.

 

Day Two of my stratigraphy trip: Tygh Valley- White River Gorge section

Day two of our trip found us doing much of the same thing as yesterday: mapping fluvial and volcanoclastic deposits. This time we learned how to measure strike and dip of the observed bedding. Here’s an aerial view of our work area:

This out crop is where we spent most of our time taking measurements. What you’re seeing is some severely tilted beds of volcanoclastic material. The dip is nearly 60 degrees at the top and becomes less angled as the bed continues dipping.

A slightly closer shot of the same area:

Here’s a close-up of the clasts present in some of the bedding:

The source of the tilting is probably some plutonic intrusion. I’m inferring this based on the presence of a sill that sits just to the left of the first set of tilted bedding.

Here’s the view at the top of the basaltic rimmed plateau. Not sure if my camera got it, but you can see Mt. Hood in the background.

Day one of my stratigraphy trip: Cove Palisades Park

Day one of my strat trip found us mapping fluvial and volcanoclastic deposits in the Cove Palisades State Park. It was nearly four hours of hiking up the road, examining the road cut, and taking measurements. What did we find? Lots of fluvial deposits such as rounded cobbles and sand stone towards the lake and volcanic teffra towards the top. Here’s a few pictures to show the sequence. I included scale where it was safe to do so. I can’t get into too much detail because I’m posting this from my phone.

Our work area seen from the top

Layer of cross-bedded sandstone on the bottom with rounded cobble on the top. All indicative of fluvial deposition.

Welded ash with pumice

An example of beautiful cross-bedding in sandstone

The meeting of fire and water. The rounded cobbles at the bottom were deposited in a fluvial environment. The thick layer in the middle is from an ash flow, while the layer directly above it is ash fall. The later directly above that is more rounded cobble.

Another example of beautiful cross-bedded sandstone and gravel.

And to end it all, nice columnar basalts.

Some SEM Purtiness

Because I need a break from homework and everyone loves an awesome scanning electron microscope (SEM) image.

 

Isn’t it gorgeous? This image was taken during my SEM course last week and was part of my homework. We’re learning how the SEM works and taking cool pictures in the process. This is a shot of some antenna filament on a mayfly. I can’t tell you much more about it, but you should click on it anyways to take in the hi-res splendor.

Meteorite Monday: A new edition to my family of space rocks

Today’s Meteorite Monday is a special one to me for two reasons: 1) I get to formally introduce my brand new meteorite and 2) this is the first time I’m updating my blog from WordPress’s mobile app. I love technology!

I posted pictures of my new jewel on Facebook, Twitter and G+ already, but I thought it appropriate to share it on the blog, too. Especially since I haven’t updated in a while.

Here she is, Northwest Africa 7109:

This gorgeous specimen was purchased at our fund raiser on Saturday. It was actually bought by a good friend of mine, Dave, and he gave it to me because I was smitten by it when I first saw it. Not only did I get a new meteorite, but the lab got a portion of the sale to apply to our research. So I wanna give a big thanks to Dave for that! Also, big thanks to those that either donated directly to the lab or purchased meteorites. Your contributions are greatly appreciated and further the exciting science we do in our lab.

The particular meteorite I was gifted is an L5. The L refers to a low metal content and the 5 refers to a relatively high degree of thermal metamorphism. In spite of that, some chondrules are still visible. That nice big broken one in the center is a good example. The piece is pretty well weathered as can be seen from it’s rust colored appearance. I believe the dark colored patches are the result of shock blackening, but that’s just a guess.

I fell in love with this sample because it’s a great teaching resource. It contains all the hallmarks of a meteorite: metal flecks, some shock features and, most importantly, chondrules. It’s the type of meteorite that I’m not afraid to break out of it’s case and let people touch and examine. And that’s incredibly important when getting people excited about meteoritics and science in general.

The Cascadia Meteorite Lab Fund Raiser 2012

I talk a lot about my work in the meteorite lab. My time here has taken what could have been a cookie cutter geology undergrad experience and turned into something far more educational and worth while. It would be one the biggest understatements of my life if I said I didn’t feel some sort of connection and debt to the lab.

And it’s for this reason I want to get the word out about our annual fund-raiser. Every year for the past six years, CML has had a get together and fund raiser. The purpose of this event is two-fold: to give donors a chance to see how we utilize their money and to further raise funds for our operations. CML is part of the Portland State geology department, but we are financially independent of the school. We are given space and office equipment, but any funds for thin section production and analytic work (SEM,EMP, etc..) comes out of CML’s own funds. We do have an endowment of sorts, but we’re only able to access the interest generated. It’s enough for a project or two, but not much else. For all other work we have to raise money or apply for grants.

The fund raiser serves as a meet and greet where space science and meteorite enthusiasts can talk with one another and tour our lab. There’s a potluck for food and we also have a silent auction on meteorites. Or if you prefer to not bid on a space rock, you can buy one outright from a couple of the dealers that normally come to the fundraiser. All purchases, regardless if it’s from the silent auction or bought from a dealer, benefit the lab either directly or indirectly.

This year is going to be a little different. Brother Guy Consolmagno, also known as the Vatican Astronomer, will be speaking about the Vatican’s meteorite collection. Some might scratch their heads at the idea of someone being a scientist and working for the Catholic church, but Brother Guy is legitimate. Check out this interview to see what he’s all about.

Brother Guy Consolmagno posing in front of a rather handsome collection of meteorites. (Picture from Wikipedia. Courtesy of Kevin Nickerson)

Here are the details for the event:

• When- September 15th from 2-6 P.M. Brother Guy’s talk starts around 3 P.M.
• Where- Cramer Hall at Portland State University. The pot luck will probably occur in the Geology Office in room 17. Look for the trail of space nerds and you’ll be set.
• Who- Everyone is invited. It doesn’t matter if you’ve donated to the Lab or not.

Something I greatly want to emphasize is that this is a fund-raiser. Even if you can only chip in five or ten bucks to the general CML fund, please do so. Every little bit helps and we’re not looking to get hundreds of dollars out of individuals. Although we certainly won’t say no if someone is feeling extra generous. And if you can’t make it to the event, but would like to donate, this link will take you to this years newsletter. It not only talks about all the awesome work we do, but also has a form with instructions on how to donate to the lab.  You can donate to either the E.F. Lange Endowment or the Cascadia Meteorite Lab Fund. If you do decide to donate, please consider giving to the CML fund as we’ll be able to use all of the donation instead of just the interest generated from it.

For more information about the event visit our website.

New JPL Website Offers NASA Infographics + Data to Create Your Own

Reblogged from OSGC Educational Resources Blog:

Researchers, Teachers and Students should take note of the new NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory website based around infographics!

Infographics are those colorful graphics with lots of data that you have probably seen a lot of lately.  They are a popular way to quickly explain complex information in a visually interesting and easy to understand way.

JPL wants to help you to create great infographics.  

Read more… 106 more words

This. Is. Amazing.

Why I love science.

 

She survived the landing! (Image from JPL)

You see that shadow? That’s the shadow of the Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity, shortly after touching down on Mars. That shadow is what gave us confirmation that she survived one of the most difficult landing procedures in NASA’s history. It’s a beautiful image and I’m not ashamed to admit that it moved me to tears. That single image is simple and rough compared to what we’ll see in the coming months, but it’s a reminder of the awesomeness that humans are capable of achieving in the name of exploration and science.

Crossroads, a fork, divergent paths….

Or whatever you want to call it. No matter the word or phrase used, I find myself at this strange intersection in my undergrad training. Either I can continue pursuing the Geology B.S. or I can switch to the Earth Science B.S. Both programs have their pros and cons and I’ve spent most of summer thinking about which way to go.

Here’s a breakdown of my quandary:

Pros of Geology B.S.

• Better employment opportunity upon completion
•  More rigorous from the quantitative skills development standpoint
• Coursework is better suited towards grad school

Cons of Geology B.S.

• Course load is not flexible in terms of being able to take classes that actually interest me
• Upper level courses will ultimately take me out of the meteorite lab due to work load
• Most upper level courses do not pertain to what I ultimately want to do
• GPA killer. The way the course work is structured means I’m taking numerical modeling courses at the same time as vector calculus and linear algebra. I’m not dumb, but taking multiple math courses in one term has never proven beneficial for me.

Pros of Earth Science B.S.

• Greater flexibility in taking courses that pertain to what I want to study. i.e., some organic chemistry, physical chemistry, geo chemistry
• More time honing my research chops in the meteorite lab and getting stuff published
• Graduate faster
• Allows me to structure the program in a way that I’m not juggling calculus and MATLAB courses all at the same time.

Cons of Earth Science B.S.

• If not planned out properly, won’t be as academically rigorous as Geology B.S.
• More generalized than Geology B.S. which may not lead to as great of employment opportunities should I need a back up plan.

Things get further complicated when I consider my graduate school options. Ideally, I’d do my grad work at PSU and continue working in the meteorite lab there. However, to get into the PSU geology grad program requires that I take the upper level undergrad geology courses. Those are all MATLAB based, and as I noted above, means that I won’t be in the meteorite lab working with my space rocks.

Other grad programs don’t seem to be as course specific as PSU. They mostly look at your general science background such as physics, chemistry and math.  But those are Space Science/Planetary Science grad programs and not Geology grad programs, so it’s not the best comparison.  But it’s what I have to work with so far.

At this point, I feel like I should end this post with the all familiar Twitter hashtag, #firstworldproblems. I should be grateful that I have such choices before me because neither path is a bad one. Each comes with their own road blocks and bridges, which if managed properly, can lead to a great career.

But it’s the uncertainty of the path that scares the hell out of me.

I felt this post should end on something a little humorous.