Modeling of Erosional Processes
This summer I worked with Lesley Perg, a geomorphologist. This is my second summer working with her through this internship program. I accompanied her on a week of field work in the Mojave Desert. We used GPS to survey surficial landforms in an area characterized by alluvial fans and faultscarps. For the remainder of the internship I worked at St. Anthony Falls Lab, modeling erosional processes. I filled a large tupperware container with a mixture of silica and kaolin and noted the erosional features that developed as a fine mist poured down on it for 8 hours. We plan to add AgCl to this model, which darkens as it is exposed to light. As the mixture is eroded, we will observe the color change throughout the model, since the areas that have been exposed to light the longest will be darker colored, while the areas that have been exposed to light the least will be lighter colored. This model with the AgCl is analogous to Lesley's work with using cosmogenic radionuclides. Cosmogenic radionuclides are a dating tool that measure the amount of cosmic rays geologic material has received (i.e. how long something has been in the sun).