Project Overview
Polar and Planetary Research: Water track sediment chemistry and Mars landform evolution
Department(s)
Earth and Environmental Geosciences
Abstract
Climate change is coming to Antarctica, and our team aims to find out how warming is changing polar soil and frozen ground environments. In this project, you’ll be working with a lab team on satellite and drone-borne remote sensing of polar landscapes, looking to map meltwater features called water tracks. These meltwater features are expected to expand in warming conditions, and our goal is to determine the baseline of where they are found now, before thawing begins in earnest. You’ll also be working in the soils lab, analyzing the chemical composition and hydrological properties of Antarctic soils in order to learn more about how water moves through the soils, how it weathers the sediment into soil, and how that affects life in this most extreme of desert environments. Students on the team will work together collaboratively to investigate this fast changing polar environment.
Student Qualifications
Experience with at least one Geology or Geography course (or Earth-related SP course) is strongly recommended.
Experience with GIS is recommended, but is not required.
The goals of this project are to:
• Map water track position in ArcMap across a large satellite remote sensing data catalog housed on Colgate servers.
• Prepare sediment samples for wet chemistry and x-ray diffraction analysis via sieving.
• Conduct salt chemistry analyses after training from the PI and other Earth and Environmental Geosciences faculty.
Number of Student Researchers
2 students
Project Length
8 weeks