22 May 2010 Full day at the science conference

Journal

I spent the day yesterday learning more about Lake E science. One of the things I found very interesting about the Lake E project from day one was the variety of people who were interested in the project. This project not only involves, but depends on scientists from many different disciplines each contributing to describing the big picture of this special environment. Yesterday at the conference several presentations summarized the research that has begun on the core samples. We also had presentations about the first science results from the Impact rock research, Paleomagnetism, Pollen studies, Diatom studies, General geology and geochemistry of the sediments, how modern weather records may be used to understand the lake history and finally how all of these different climate proxies may be used with global climate modeling.

Examining lake core — Scientists examining unusual lake core that includes a layer of volcanic ash.

In the morning there was time for more tours of the labs where the cores are being processed and studied.

Core opening — A student works with one of the scientists to prepare to open one of the sediment and rock cores.

I was excited to hear that that a few cores were going to be opened… as it turned out the cores that were scheduled to be opened were the ones from the boundary between sediment and rock. Those of you that read my journal from the lake may remember the personal significance of these cores for me. (See Journal Entry 37 from 4/15/2009) As soon as I walked into the lab, I recognized my handwriting on the core samples. These were the cores that Julia and I documented out on the lake on April 14, 2009!