Open House is a great chance to take a hands-on approach to science. Geological Oceanography Lab student Briar Kitaguchi shows visitors how wind can sort sand grains by size by moving them different distances. Ocean waves and currents can do the same thing, allowing geologists to interpret the history of sediment movement by looking at the size of the grains.
by Jeremiah Brower, Geological Oceanography Lab
Over the last couple of years I’ve learned that certain grants have been difficult to get because some people don’t consider Marine Geologists (or Geologic Oceanographers…the terms are interchangeable, one just seems to roll off the tongue better) as “actual” geologists because they don’t consider us to be “field scientists.” While there is a certain amount of truth in that, due to advances in software technology (much of our work involves computers and mapping programs), we still need to go outside to collect the data in the first place! Even the oceanographers who focus on the creation of habitat maps need to spend years surveying in the field before they can sit down in front of a computer and decide how best to play with the numbers.
Case in point – early one Saturday I was out on the beach, hunting not for shells like so many tourists, but little green rocks. Another student from Moss Landing needed to find iron-rich rocks to see how iron affects the growth rates of various species of kelp. I offered to help him out and so I grabbed my rock hammer, hand lense, field notebook and we meet up at a beach just south of Santa Cruz. It was early in the day but we still needed to weave our way through a plethora of tourists to find a good exposed cliff-face. We were on a hunt for Glauchonite, a green, rounded rock that is formed in shallow marine sediments by the compaction of iron ore and…..well…….fish poop! (Or ‘fecal pellets’ as they are very scientifically called.) Small samples of Glauchonite can be found all over the Purisima formation I wrote about earlier, and they are rich in iron, so would provide a good test for the kelp experiment.
Traveling down the beach and climbing up cliffs, I guided my kelp-loving friend through thousands of years of history until we found a promising exposure of rock. Hacking away at it may have drawn some questionable looks from the beach-patrol, but humans are agents of erosion anyway, so we were just doing our part! We found some good samples of the green rock and took a moment to enjoy the day before heading out. I think it was a smart move to pick a profession that would let me spend most of my life on a beach, and Saturday’s “rock hunt” was a perfect example of why I love the science. Marine Geology IS Geology……now if we could just get that grant we could buy a new cappuccino machine!
Sand man signing out.
You may not believe me when I say this, but not all marine science takes place underwater. That’s right… you don’t even have to get wet to study the seafloor! No, I haven’t been sucking the helium from my SpongeBob balloon, and I’m not off my rocker – I just got back from my first Geological Oceanography field trip.
Keep in mind that as an invertebrate biologist I’m hardly qualified to discuss geology on an intellectual level, but that’s never stopped me before! Please keep your arms and legs inside the blog at all times, because this could get rocky…
As sea levels have risen and subsided over the past 4.5 billion years of our planet’s existence, beachfront properties have changed their locations and altitudes dramatically. The earth’s crust has actually been swallowed up and spit back out through the mechanisms of plate tectonics and volcanic activity. So it just stands to reason that what was once found at the bottom of the ocean can now be found on the tops of mountains and vice versa. Oceanic sediments and fossils of ancient marine life even appear on top of the Alps!
Fast forward to current geologic times (namely, last Friday), when the Geological Oceanography class here at MLML took a fun day-trip out to Pinnacles National Monument. We learned from our esteemed professor, Dr. Ivano Aiello of the Geological Oceanography department, that the rock pinnacles jutting out of the ground were once the sides of an ancient volcano. Most of the rock outcroppings we walked over and under that day had once been subducted along with seawater into the mantle of the earth before being spewed out by an explosive volcanic eruption.
In fact, right where we were standing marked the birthplace of modern plate tectonic theory (where scientists realized the plates of the earth must be shifting and moving). It turns out that some brilliant geologist noticed that the pinnacles at this location exactly matched an outcropping near Los Angeles. Part of the same volcano in two different places! Did these rocks hitch a ride to vacation in the Monterey Bay area? No, it appears that the volcano was sitting right on top of a transform fault, and part of it has been slowly migrating north for the past 23 million years until it wound up here. And it won’t be sticking around, it seems. According to the USGS, the west side of the fault zone creeps north at a rate of several centimeters per year!
Don’t touch that dial! Stay tuned for more geology field trip ramblings as the class camps out in beautiful Point Reyes and takes a cruise to collect sediment cores in the Monterey Canyon…
Infrared laser-scanning robots may sound like something straight out of Star Wars, but lucky top-notch scientists get to play with them too. Come hear Professor Ivano Aiello of the Geological Oceanography Lab talk about how these cool tools can continuously monitor our shifting coastline of beaches and sea cliffs, capturing the effects of both pounding storms and sneaky erosion. It’s free!
Friends of Moss Landing Marine Labs presents:
Come enjoy free refreshments and join the dialogue about some piping-hot science! To download the event flier, click here. Did we mention it’s free?
The Friends of Moss Landing Marine Labs sponsor Science Cafes at MLML to engage the local community with science happening in their backyard. Past Science Cafes at MLML have featured Dr. Lara Ferry-Graham, research faculty of Ichthyology at MLML, Dr. Tierney Thys of Sea Studios Foundation, and David Maguire of Sea Stewards.
