Outreach Fall 2010

Pictured is the Hands on Sequence Stratigraphy Kit created

Enjoying the kit at the  VT Mineral Show.

This semester, in addition to social networking tools (Facebook, Blogspot, etc.) a new outreach medium was created. I designed and constructed a hands on learning kit for the project.  A small backdrop of the Po Plain Project is included. The public gets to mimic the process of sorting through material and debris to find “shells”. The importance of sorting is also explained in the activity. The outreach activity was performed at a Mineral Show that was held in the Museum of Geosciences, a VT residence hall, as well a community recreation center in Southwest Virginia (Danville). This activity serves as an outreach tool that also can be used on various other projects, so the community can get a hands-on visual experience for larger and more complex projects. On future projects, a kit of this nature can be used, for it can help simplify the complexities of intricate projects, and further help these ideas be presented to the public.

Research Fall 2010

Intern, Ceseley Haynes, sorting through samples

This semester has in fact been a busy one for the project. The blog wasn't utilized as much as last semester, but in the future can be a key component in communication between the Italy and Virginia Tech site. While last semester was a semester of organization, this semester was used to sort through many of the samples that were sent over to VT. A lot more samples were sent this semester, which means that a lot of samples had to be sorted through before data analysis could take place. I helped sort through these samples. Overall, I individually processed 12 core samples. Sorting involved filtering through sand, dirt, and other debris to retrieve fauna (gastropods,bivalves,etc.).

Pictured is an example of a drillhole

These samples were also measured and weighed as well as sorted for drillholes. The drillholes were noted, because this in fact can tell us whether predation has taken place.

Thsis semester was crucial in the advancement of the project. After the sorting process takes place, results can be produced from data analysis. There have been a few tentative results produced as of now.