Preparing for Israel

View post on imgur.com

There is a surprising amount of work that goes into preparing to do the research itself. I have been spending my spring quarter determining the characteristics of sediments I will be analyzing with Dr. Torfstein in Israel. The photos above show X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy instruments used to determine the mineral types (here, samples are calcite and aragonite in shells and sediment samples). I also had an incredible opportunity to travel to my field site, Celestun Lagoon in Yucatan, Mexico to collect more samples for work in Eilat this summer. I had no idea it had so many flamingos.

Blog Under Construction

This is it!  The IRES 2015 crew is gearing up to set out for Eilat, Israel to pursue research with our international collaborators on a range of topics.  We are all in the process of packing our gear, our samples, our notes, and our bathing suits.  We are setting up this blog to document our experiences and will go live this summer.

Launch date: June 30, 2015