Geochemistry trip to UCSC and UC Davis

Over the summer I will be working for Dr. R as a sort of undergraduate lab assistant, and my first proper stretch of work for him was traveling for a week through California to run samples on ICP-MS machines.  It was an enlightening, if exhausting experience and I feel really privileged to have been taken along.

We began our trip by heading out on  23rd and drove most of the day.  We stayed at a motel about three hours out and got up early to head the rest of the way to Santa Cruz.  From there we met most of the people who work at the University of California at Santa Cruz W.M. Keck Isotope Lab.  We performed some quick chemistry to prepare our samples while the lab tech prepared the Neptune we used and when everything was ready we began to run samples' Thorium.

The standard we were using (Thorium A) was producing very consistent ratios, implying that our samples were being analyzed precisely as well, so with such reliable stability we decided to run until the machine couldn't keep up the consistent results.  We continued to analyze samples throughout the night and the next day until late that night, reluctantly shutting down the Neptune after such a good session.  It was both a privilege and a chore to personally run the machine for a good stretch of that time, but it will have been good practice if Dr. R's proposal to get a similar machine goes through.

The next day we had to wait three hours to successfully restart the plasma torch on the Neptune.  It kept arcing and blowing out when we added Argon or Nitrogen gas to the system during the usual start up procedures.  The tech finally got it started and finished up our Th samples that night and had a late dinner before driving to just outside of Davis.

The next morning we headed in and got our first look at the UC Davis campus.  I was very impressed by how large and modern it seemed.  All of the buildings seemed very new and the (ICP)² lab there was shocking.  They had two ICP machines (a Neptune "Plus" and an Element) as well as a no doubt expensive air shower to presumably keep the room clean.  The machines seemed well maintained and much newer than the ones at UCSC, and we were ready to begin running our samples in no time.

Here we were running Lead isotopes, so the procedure was slightly different on this machine, but what really shook things up was the auto-sampler on the Neptune Plus.  The auto-sampler seems like a good idea, but the calibration on the aiming of the sampler to place a tube into our sampler to analyze it did not work very consistently.  We had to babysit the auto sampler most of the time, but beyond that our analyses went very smoothly for Pb.  My only other complaint about our experience at the lab was their clean room was temporarily in the engineering building across campus and since it was there we had to wear bunny suits to protect the nano-engineering clean room next door.

After two good days of Pb analyses, we tried to analyze some samples for Uranium isotopes that we had brought along in case we got ahead of schedule.  The software that ran the Neptune was acting up however, producing odd levels of certain isotopes, despite a careful tuning and peak-centering procedure.  With nothing left to run, and the Uranium samples out of the question we left early and drove straight from Davis to Las Cruces in one long drive.

Along that drive we went a little out of our way to pass through Owens Valley.  Long Valley Caldera is in this valley, and we stopped for a short hike to Obsidian Dome. 

It was my first time in the area and after hearing so much about Long Valley (as a caldera produced by a super volcano like Valles Caldera here in New Mexico) and Owens Valley itself as a field area, it was nice to see everything for myself.  It was also nice to get some fresh air and see some geology beyond analytical work.  Overall, it was a great week of getting to know Dr. R a bit better and the incredible opportunity to get some hands on experience with an ICP-MS as an undergraduate.

Colorado Plateau Trip (Sunset Crater)

Reading all of the current anniversary posts on Mount St. Helens in the geoblogosphere has reminded me that I should write about my trip throughout parts of the Colorado Plateau.  The trip lasted for nine days (May 9-17) and focused mainly on Utah.  Our guide for the trip and the teacher of our Geology of the Colorado Plateau class was Dr. L, he was insistent that our trip was merely a "sampling" of the geologic area and after spending eight days in the region I think I now understand what he meant.

We began our trip with a 7 AM departure time, agreeing beforehand that we would stick to "New Mexico" (Mountain) time throughout the trip to avoid confusion when traveling through Arizona.  We drove solidly through New Mexico, stopping only in Gallup for lunch before continuing on to our first national monument.  Throughout the drive it was interesting to note that the graduate students who made up the majority of our car were fascinated by the young, scattered volcanic features of Central and Western New Mexico.  They were thrilled by a paleovalley that had been filled by a basaltic flow and the cinder cones along the roads we took were often pointed out, even from a distance.  It was an enlightening experience to see how spoiled the Southwest (and New Mexico in particular) had spoiled me for dynamic geologic histories compared to the graduate students in our company.

We drove onward until arriving at Sunset Crater National Park.  Here we saw our first and last exclusively igneous parts of the trip.  Sunset Crater is a young cinder cone just north of Flagstaff.  It is 340 meters (1,120 ft.) tall, and erupted between 1080 and 1150 AD according to paleomagnetic data.

I found this cinder cone interesting mainly for how colorful it is (due to the young scoria deposits that cloak the cinder cone) and the impact it had on indigenous life in the area.  It appears that the 2100 km² of ash that blanketed the area forced out the native people known as the Sinagua Indians.

The educational and cultural aspects I gained most from this park were more small and personal than the cinder cone and the volcanic field that produced it however.  While walking the short trail at the foot of Sunset Crater I learned about a fascinating feature of volcanic fields: hornitos.

Apparently, these small openings are eruptions within eruptions and are produced by upwelling within lava tubes.  What is significant about hornitos at Sunset Crater is that the natives who evacuated the area apparently placed corn and presumably other goods within the hornitos as a ritualistic gesture, and some of the impressions from the sacrifices were preserved in the lava and are on display at the visitor's center.

Beyond that, this young volcanic field (the San Francisco Volcanic Field) held another treasure.  San Francisco Mountain, an eroded stratovolcano, was within view of the park and is believed to represent an analog to Mount St. Helens, due to its significantly eroded, asymmetrical body.

We camped that night on cinders, within sight of Sunset Crater at a place called Bonito Campground.  A cold front moved in late that night, raining and hailing on us in between strong gusts of wind.  Not a very auspicious first night, but it certainly wasn't the worst we saw on the trip...

Finals Week

So ironically enough, finals week has always been a time of relative relief for me.  Projects are turned in and all that is left is studying and hoping I can wake up early and still function enough to take an exam.  This will hopefully mean that I will be writing a bit more often than usual up to the 9th when my Colorado Plateau class departs for our field trip.  It really is a relief to have the poster for the class done.  I ended up covering the Late Cretaceous rocks on the Kaiparowits Plateau, and I found enough figures and sources to be both proud of the poster and know enough of what I'm talking about to not sound like a complete fool (knock on wood).

I made it through my entomology final easily enough, taking an indulgent half-hour to double check my work before heading out.  My peers seemed to care less than me, some heading out significantly earlier than I could believe possible.  Maybe they just finished enough of the test and had better things to do.

My chemistry final was another story.  I can't determine if it was the 8 AM time slot or if I just didn't study enough, but the final was significantly harder than it should have been (and would have been any other time).  I was terribly embarrassed when my professor joked after I turned my exam that some of the class wouldn't know how acid affects carbonate and I had to admit that I wrote on the test the carbonate became carbonic acid rather than obviously effervescing to CO2 and water.  Still, I am confident I did well enough on the exam and time will tell where I stand in that class.

Speaking of chemistry, I finally got to apply for the summer job as Dr. R's laboratory assistant and hopefully I'll be officially employed before the end of the semester.  I have to admit I am a little nervous about my mineralogical knowledge being strong enough to pick out grains from the samples I will be testing, but more than that I just don't want to break any of the expensive equipment I will be working with all summer.  Still, the job really is ideal and although I am a little sad to have to stay behind in Las Cruces over the summer when everyone else is returning to their homes, I will learn a lot and be earning some money while I am at it.


Money will be less of an issue than I expected this semester, since I was awarded a significant scholarship tonight at our department's awards ceremony.  I'm elated and slightly uncomfortable by the award, since it is so large and it is given to students who work while in school.  While my potential job for Dr. R certainly counts, I know a lot of other more than deserving peers I was selected from.  It is hard to avoid sounding snobbish complaining about an embarrassment of riches like this, but accepting any form of praise has always been difficult for me (monetary or otherwise).

I hate to publish a post without any pictures, but I am much too tired to really continue writing any more and I can't seem to think of anything appropriate to accompany everything I've written today.  Maybe I'll edit in some photos later if something comes to mind.  Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to fall asleep after reading a bit from The Map that Changed the World.