Manuscripts in progress

We are at the very end of the Po Plain Project and we are currently just working on several manuscripts to publish soon.  I will also be presenting a presentation on our first (hopefully soon!) publication at the National Geological Society of America Conference this November in Charlotte, NC.

My goal for this semester is to publish 2 papers, one on the stratigraphic paleobiology of the Po Plain and another on the taphonomy of Lentidium mediterraneum across system tracts and depositional environments.  Here is an example figure from the taphonomy paper we are working on.

These are just 3 shells with varying taphonomic scores with elemental maps of certain areas of the shell.  We are interested in the micro-scale degradation of the shells across different depositional environments and system tracts.  Shell A is from a delta front/strandplain depositional environment during the Holocene highstand system tract (regression).  Shell B is from an inner lagoon environment during the Holocene highstand system tract found in silty clay and peat dominated sediments.  Shell C is from an outer lagoon/bay environment during the Holocene transgressive system tract, specifically from a wave ravinement surface.

Shell A contains heavy pitting with pyrite occurring preferentially in the pits.  The shell also has the presence of barite which occurs primarily in marine waters authigenically in association with organic matter. Barite also can occur diagenetically within sulfate reducing sediment in anoxic/oxic boundaries.

Shell B has pyrite framboids forming across the shell with the presence of organic carbon.

Shell C has the presence of aluminosilicates with some iron.

All these characteristics are not seen under a binocular microscope, in order to see these things we had to use an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) and in order to get relative elemental abundances we had to use Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS).

Check out the geology video

Geology is wonderful

I know this isn't Italian geology but this is a great video about geology and geologists (there is a tiny cameo of me actually in it!).

Our Museum Display Case

Our display based on quantitative paleontology along with sequence stratigraphy

If you look at one of our previous blogs labeled "our last intern" she described all the hard work she did working on this display.  She made the poster with me that explained the Po Plain, the stratigraphy, the paleontology and the quantitative aspects of our research.  Below the poster we have images of the cores and samples along with a set up microscope with a sample displayed within it.  We further had key taxa showcased on top of the black boxes with descriptions about their lifestyle and where they occur in the Po basin.  We also tried to explain the concept of sequence stratigraphy by having a condensed depositional profile (in the plastic box) using real sand to illustrate different depositional environments.  We then made 2 hypothetical cores that correspond to the flags in the depositional profile.  These 2 cores showed Walthers Law and other basic principles of geology, by trying to show that these cores look different but are from the same area.  These cores were further described by the center description of the depositional environment, taxa that occur in those environments and other interesting features.

This was a lot of work and I wish we had more time and funds to make this display better, but this has been well-received by museum goers, undergraduate students, and junior faculty.  This project is important to display to junior faculty to guide them toward future STEM and outreach paths for their research.

Distribution of shells along the depositional profile of the Po Plain

Our last intern

We had an amazing intern this year, Lauren.  She did a remarkable job helping us on research (counting shells!) and outreach (Geofair, Museum exhibit, etc.).
As required of an intern she wrote a final report of all her findings and I would like to post it to show how much work she did with us.

Lauren's report

Research assistance on 2 cores with JW

·         Sorted shells with Jackie one day of the week. Sorted shells into three categories: bivalves, gastropods, and scaphopods. The goal was to have all shells sorted by the beginning of May and we achieved that goal with some time to spare.

Po Plain Exhibit in hallway case by Spring Break

·         The exhibit in the hallway was not completed by Spring Break but it was completed by the following week. It took time to figure out how to showcase the shells. Jackie was very helpful in this process as well. She made a display of the layers using real dirt instead of play doh & it looked much better. The display was divided into two different sections: the actual research section and the outreach section. The outreach section included a game and posters that have been used by the museum to relay the research about the Po Plain to the public.  The research side showcased real shells from the Po Plain and a poster that I spent most of the Fall semester working on.

Contact and plan with AKA for visit maybe Sat. Mar 17? advertise special Saturday hours, can also invite local community.

·         This gave me insight into how to organize an event and it really ended up teaching me a lot. I made contact with the BAW chair to get the exhibit on the schedule for the weekend. I had to stay in contact with him to make sure that everything was running smoothly. This taught me that you have to be persistent with people.  Another lesson I learned is that you have to make events relatable to people. The BAW chair’s wife was a Biology major at Virginia Tech and after relating it to that, he really seemed to take an interest in the event. After going through the chair, I had to go through a woman in Alumni Relations to figure out the exact wording that we wanted on the program and how we wanted the event to be structured. Overall, the planning process was educational.

Black Alumni Weekend (Mar 16-18) AKA visit to exhibit, OmniGlobe, MoGs ?March 17

·         The event for BAW had its success and places for improvement. The upside is that the people who visited seemed to learn a lot and have a great time. But there weren’t as many people here as we would’ve hoped for. The biggest issue seemed to be location. The BAW events were all held at the Inn except for this one so even though it was a short car ride or walk, many people did not want to make the trip. Also, not too many people actually knew where Derring was. Most people never had class in the building and if they did they had a tough time remembering where it was. I had to physically go to the Inn to lead people to Derring. Another deterrent was that schedule was packed that weekend. There were many other events going on at the same time that were at the Inn so I think this museum fell by the wayside. In the future I would suggest finding a better time in the day to have the event, if at all possible. Also it could maybe me marketed as a reunion for all Geology or College of Science students instead of an AKA reunion. Finally, I would suggest having some sort of exhibit at the Inn as a teaser and then that person could lead people over to the museum.

Social media presence, blog updates

·         We just seem to be having a hard time catching up with the social media trend. There is a Facebook page and a blog.

Reports of EPO activities and outcomes, make a polished one as well as abbreviated.

VAST

·         Llyn, Jackie, & I planned to have a whole presentation together for VAST. The presentation included having the participants find shells out of a model core, plot the points, and then connect them to show sea level change. We completed all of the instructions, an intro to the project, and all of the other necessary handouts to make the activity work. It was intended for a previous intern as well to join in on the presentation. Last minute it was decided that instead of doing a full presentation that it would be easier to just have a booth manned by Llyn. VAST fell on Thanksgiving Break weekend for Virginia Tech and this meant that many of the people that were supposed to help with the presentation were not able to do so. Also, our attempt at making a model core was not successful. We based it off a lesson plan in [that white binder]. We tried many different materials but nothing seemed to work correctly. The feedback Llyn received while at VAST was generally favorable but teachers said they would never do the activity in a classroom because it was too intricate for children.

GeoFair

·         The GeoFair is an open house for the museum that showcases all of their exhibits and community partnerships. At the Geofair, Pamella (a previous intern) and I did the outreach for this project. We used the game that Pamella had designed in a previous semester and a simple display poster. The same simulated the process of picking & sorting shells except it used little glass beads. It was a great opportunity to see how the community would respond to the projects and the results were generally favorable. The children who came to the table loved trying to pick the shell up with a toothbrush and looking at the real shells we had on display. Overall, the GeoFair was a great experience.

Display Poster

·         I spent a great deal of time last semester working on the display poster. The first challenge was that I didn’t know anything beyond the basics about geology and this project stretched way beyond what I knew. It was difficult for me at first to understand the basics of the project. Sometimes people would just use jargon around me and it sounded like they were speaking a different language.  Another challenge was technology. For the poster we decided it would be best to use Adobe Illustrator (after an unsuccessful try in PowerPoint). This was a challenge for two reasons. The first is that the computer I was using didn’t have Illustrator downloaded and it wasn’t able to handle the size of the files. Secondly, the version of Illustrator I knew how to use was completely different from the newly updated one so I basically had to learn how to reuse Illustrator. After these challenges were tackled making the poster became simpler. Jackie & I worked together on this poster & the finished product is gorgeous. Another issue came up at the end and that was printing. The file ended up being really large & this caused issues with the printer. Jackie ended up staying late one night to get this resolved. In the future, I would check the file size & leave enough time at the end to troubleshoot printing.

The last semester of the Po Plain Project

Alas, we are almost done with the majority of the Po Plain project.  We have processed 14 cores in all and we only have 2 cores left to process, identify, and count.  The progress has been slow because of Troy leaving to do a postdoc at Arizona and that we have used our interns for the past semesters on more outreach activities.  Our goal outreach wise, is almost complete; we are going to be doing the final stage of outreach this semester making an interactive museum display.  I hope that our display will be a success.

Research has been ongoing, along with processing cores, we have redone the analyses that Daniele and Michal did in their pilot paper and have found better and more interesting results with the addition of 11 more cores.  We have looked at the diversity, paleoecology, and taphonomy so far and hope to further explore predator-prey interactions and paleobiogeographic distributions.

Back from Italy

Well, I got back from Bologna Italy, and I come bearing samples. We have collected three new cores. One core was cleaned, processed, and counted while I was in Italy. The other two were cleaned of sediment and brought back here to be processed and counted. When completed, this should bring our total number of cores to 16. These new cores are from a different project (and have different quadrant numbers) but were taken from the southern part of the Po plain. Our sampling in this area has been a bit sparse compared to the northern area, so we wanted to get a descent spread of the entire area. Now we have the entire area well sampled and can do east/west and north/south transects when we analyze the data. The two remaining new cores that were brought back to Virginia will be processed in the early part of this summer, adn then the project will focus on data analysis and the writing of papers.

The time I spent in Italy was both productive and an amazing learning experience. I had never been to Italy before, and had only been to Europe once previously when I was very young. Italy is an amazing place. I hope I get the chance to go back there again.