Wooster Geologists Present at AGU 2013

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Today was a big day for Wooster Geologists Alex Hiatt (’14) and Mary Reinthal (’16). They presented their work on subglacial volcanic ridges, along with Ellie Was (’14, Dickinson College).

Ellie (left), Mary (center, and Alex (right) presented their posters in a physical volcanology session at AGU 2013.

Ellie (left), Mary (center), and Alex (right) presented their posters in a physical volcanology session at AGU 2013.

You may remember these fantastic undergraduate researchers from last summer’s field season. They’ve been hard at work since then, processing the images and samples that we collected. Ellie was lead author on a poster titled, “Along-axis variations in volcanology and geochemistry of a pillow-dominated tindar: Comparison of exposures in Undirhlithar and Vatnsskarth quarries, Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland.” She carefully traced individual pillow lavas on Gigapan images and constructed the first ever (we think) pillow-size distribution. Her work can help us understand permeability and fluid flow in pillow-dominated crust.

Alex was lead author on a  poster titled, “Estimated hydrostatic/cryostatic pressures during emplacement of pillow lavas at Undirhlithar quarry, Reykjanes Peninsula, southwest Iceland.” He is conducting a high-resolution FTIR study of volatiles in the quenched glass rims of basaltic pillow lavas. His ultimate goal is to estimate quench pressures and, by extension, ice thickness. Thanks to all of those who visited his poster this morning and offered excellent suggestions for next steps!

The last four days have been packed with science, far too much to cover here. Here are some final highlights from this year’s meeting:

  • SolEx: SolEx is a model that we’ll be able to use to calculate CO2 and H2O solubility in basaltic melts at low pressures. Thanks to Dr. Jacqueline Dixon for pointing us to it!
  • Northeast National Ion Microprobe Facility (NENIMF): Since SolEx takes into account melt composition and total volatiles, like S and Cl, we might be interested in using the SIMS at NENIMF to analyze our glasses in the future. Thanks to Dr. Adam Soule for sending us to the NENIMF booth in the exhibit hall.
  • 3-D Photogrammetry: Some researchers have used 3-D photogrammetry of oblique photos taken from aircraft to trace inaccessible lava flows near the tops of mountains in eastern Iceland. Our solution in the quarries has been to combine Gigapan with high-precision GPS and laser range finder. Perhaps the 3-D photogrammetry approach could be useful.
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1 Response to Wooster Geologists Present at AGU 2013

  1. Mark Wilson says:

    Well done, Wooster Geologists! Nice summary post. And Meagen, you won’t need 3-D photogrammetry in Iceland once you deploy the quadrocopter!

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