Other people went tanning this summer, but for Kim Roe '08, half-way around the world, it was winter again. "I had to put a hot water bottle in my sleeping bag," joked Roe, a native of Maryville, Tenn., who spent the month of June doing geology field work in Tasmania. Roe spent a total of three weeks on the Tasman peninsula, the first two with Hamilton's geology field study program and one doing field work on her own.
This summer, Hamilton ran a course in Tasmania as part of Geosciences 295: The Geology of Tasmania. The group focused on the geology, botany and natural history of the region, and on wilderness ethics. The emphasis of the field work is on the geology of the southern continents, economic resources and wilderness conservation. During their trip across the island, Roe and her classmates visited the Ferntree mudstone, a geological formation in the southeast of the island. After the program ended, Roe remained in Tasmania to do more research on these unusual cliffs.
Mudstone is a soft, sedimentary rock made of clay-size particles. The Ferntree example rests on a more solid base of sandstone, both of which date to the Permian period, 290 to 248 million years ago. Roe's project was to analyze the stone by dividing the lower layers into cycles, and the cycles into sets and subsets based on various characteristics. She planned to successfully characterize the cycles in terms of grain size, sediment, fossils, color, components, and other traits.
Analysis of the cycles, however, will not tell Roe under what environment the mudstone formed. She hopes to run a carbon/nitrogen analysis on her samples, which will allow her to better understand how the stone was formed and what the climate was during the period of formation.
A rising senior and geology major, Roe had previous experience in field work from participating on Hamilton's Antarctica trip in 2006, but this was the first time she had worked alone. She enjoyed the experience of working on the mudstone and chatting with the people who shared her backpackers hostel, as well as the hostel's eccentric landlords. After collecting her samples, Roe was able to travel around to the other geological sites in Australia – "it's beautiful," she said, of the Tasmanian rainbows and of the continent as a whole.
Although part of her summer focused on the mudstone, Roe's senior thesis will deal with the carbon/nitrogen ratios of the surface sediment in Antarctica's Weddell Sea. Her research deals with cases when the ratios in the surface sediments allow a researcher to see how and if sources of carbon have changed pre-ice shelf break-up post-ice shelf break up. She is also looking at these ratios on a core from a cold seep site that was once occupied by the Larsen B ice shelf. The results from this analysis will show the changes over time, which in turn will indicate a climate change.
During the year, Roe is a tutor in the Writing Center and a member of the Outing Club; she was also involved in this year's Adirondack Adventure. Her work this summer was funded by the research stipend of her Hans H. Schambach Scholarship. Schambach Scholars also receive substantial research funding to be used before graduation.
-- by Lisbeth Redfield
This summer, Hamilton ran a course in Tasmania as part of Geosciences 295: The Geology of Tasmania. The group focused on the geology, botany and natural history of the region, and on wilderness ethics. The emphasis of the field work is on the geology of the southern continents, economic resources and wilderness conservation. During their trip across the island, Roe and her classmates visited the Ferntree mudstone, a geological formation in the southeast of the island. After the program ended, Roe remained in Tasmania to do more research on these unusual cliffs.
Mudstone is a soft, sedimentary rock made of clay-size particles. The Ferntree example rests on a more solid base of sandstone, both of which date to the Permian period, 290 to 248 million years ago. Roe's project was to analyze the stone by dividing the lower layers into cycles, and the cycles into sets and subsets based on various characteristics. She planned to successfully characterize the cycles in terms of grain size, sediment, fossils, color, components, and other traits.
Analysis of the cycles, however, will not tell Roe under what environment the mudstone formed. She hopes to run a carbon/nitrogen analysis on her samples, which will allow her to better understand how the stone was formed and what the climate was during the period of formation.
A rising senior and geology major, Roe had previous experience in field work from participating on Hamilton's Antarctica trip in 2006, but this was the first time she had worked alone. She enjoyed the experience of working on the mudstone and chatting with the people who shared her backpackers hostel, as well as the hostel's eccentric landlords. After collecting her samples, Roe was able to travel around to the other geological sites in Australia – "it's beautiful," she said, of the Tasmanian rainbows and of the continent as a whole.
Although part of her summer focused on the mudstone, Roe's senior thesis will deal with the carbon/nitrogen ratios of the surface sediment in Antarctica's Weddell Sea. Her research deals with cases when the ratios in the surface sediments allow a researcher to see how and if sources of carbon have changed pre-ice shelf break-up post-ice shelf break up. She is also looking at these ratios on a core from a cold seep site that was once occupied by the Larsen B ice shelf. The results from this analysis will show the changes over time, which in turn will indicate a climate change.
During the year, Roe is a tutor in the Writing Center and a member of the Outing Club; she was also involved in this year's Adirondack Adventure. Her work this summer was funded by the research stipend of her Hans H. Schambach Scholarship. Schambach Scholars also receive substantial research funding to be used before graduation.
-- by Lisbeth Redfield
