They let us out to do "field work" *gasp! ;-)

This is what Steve and I usually look like...

Dissolving sediment

Stimulating plankton feeding

It's no secret that our projects are a bit less glamorous than the field work of the other students: squirreling through Timna mine tunnels, building saltwater pools for culture experiments, or SCUBA diving for coral samples.

However, yesterday, this all changed!

...Steve and I went outside. *gasp!

I needed a groundwater sample from the coastal well ~5 m from our office and I needed a "field assistant."

So, we packed our "gear" and headed out the door.

A 0.45um filter #NotABeerBong

We then "hiked" the whole 5 m, across the sand, in the sun, along the beach, uphill both ways until we arrived at our "field site:" 

The Well

Don't fall down!

Lowering the bucket into the well

Phew!

Nobody fell down into the well.

Mission accomplished!

Success!

Sample - collected!

Then, after all our tireless minutes of work, it was time to kick back and celebrate.

A job well done!

Lemons and lemonade

People always say "life gives you lemons? make lemonade."

Of course, science is full of these opportunities. Just yesterday I got given one.

This is how barite (BaSO4) separation usually works for me:
1. I attack the samples with a bunch of different acids at room temperature, some bleach at 80 degrees C, a little AlCl3, and ash at 700C, and - poof! BaSO4 powder is left.

However, that's on open ocean sediments, where there really isn't that much terrestrial material.

Working in the Gulf of Aqaba, which essentially serves as a natural dust trap for several different deserts, is a whole different story.

After conducting a similar procedure, I'm still left with tons of dolomite crystals, clay particles, and some other terrestrial, "indissolvable" materials.

Normally, people dissolve this with some hot HF + HNO3 and - poof! Dissolution! However... this also dissolves the BaSO4 crystals, which I need in tact...

So, I've sieved my samples through a 20um filter, am putting all of this (>20um and <20um fraction) through a warm, 1N acetic acid dissolution in a sonicating bath to attack the dolostones (I walk upstairs to shake them regularly too). Then, later today, I got to take a look at what's left in each fraction.

A bright, white oval BaSO4 crystal?

Another BaSO4 crystal?

A bunch of terrestrial junk...

Now, I'll get the "opportunity" to characterize the Ba-isotopic composition of an "indissolvable, >20um terrestrial fraction." So... one extra data point and a learning opportunity.

#science

Jordan: the land of camels and '1 dinar' (a photo blog)

This past weekend, we were in Jordan.

It all started with some turban shopping in Aqaba, followed by a slumber party at the Jordanian Marine Science Center.

Aqaba, Jordan

Jordanian Marine Science Center

Hands down, my favorite thing in Aqaba is the coral reef - it was amazing!!!!! (...and I forgot my underwater camera to document it, of course)

We headed to Petra early in the morning on Friday. Obviously, took way too many photos, but here are the highlights:

'The Treasury' + Adina's fingers?

The best photo our group had gotten thus far

The Monastery
(no photos available of the 850 stairs to get here...
if we had stopped to take a photo, a behouin kid would certainly have charged us 1 dinar
"I make you good price")

Camel riding!!!!!! 

The beautiful Fe-rich sandstones

Stephan got this picture of Adina without her sunglasses.
Let's see if she reads the blog this far...

Riding in the back of a Toyota Hilux to the Bedhouin Camp

Steeeeeeeeeve!

Back of the truck chillin'

The camp at night

Lantern-lit

Above the camp

Then, the following day, we went to Wadi Rum.

To be honest, we expected this just to be a day of wandering around a hot desert wondering why we were there...

It turned out to be incredibly awesome!

First, we jumped into 4x4 trucks to race around the desert - stopping at cool sites every few minutes.

Stephan gazing out over the Wadi (dry riverbed) between two boulders

Our guide, Mohammed, ghost ridin' the whip

Group shot!

Our token police officer, who went along with us the whole trip

Adina and I are good at yoga?

Maybe we aren't that good at yoga... 

But meditating... we can do!

Titanic!

Smiling Steve

Photo credits all go to Stephan!

Now, we are back here in Eilat and I'm procrastinating on my Goldschmidt talk preparation. Hence why I wrote this blog.

Time to work I guess...

Micro-SEM: my new favorite insturment

Today was epic!

So you can understand how cool it was, you need some background info first.

1. When things (dust, dead plankton, etc.) fall from the surface ocean down into the deep, we catch some of it on 'sediment traps.'

WHOI.edu

2. Since my project is analyzing barium (Ba) in the Gulf of Eilat, I wanted to look at these falling particles from the sediment traps under a really fancy microscope [micro-Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)] to search for BaSO4 (barite) crystals (these have so far been shown to be the #1 influence on Ba isotopes).


3. To search for BaSO4, you are looking for symmetrical, oval-shaped, bright, white crystals ~2 micrometers in size.

4. Then, you play 'I Spy!'

This is what the overall image looks like:

The BaSO4 crystals are likely the bright, white dots in these images:

 

Then, there's these beautiful images of dead plankton and salt crystals that I couldn't help but take photos of:

Salt Crystal

Top left: pinnate diatom, Top right: salt crystal, Bottom right: plankton

Plankton!

Plankton!

I dunno... but I like them!

A Danish pastry?

No idea.

Reminded me of a skull...

Popcorn ball?