In the summer of 1998, 17 interns spent 4-10 weeks in the Department of Geology & Geophysics. The research projects were supplemented by optional fieldtrips to the caves of southern Minnesota and a cruise on a research vessel on Lake Superior.

Description of 1998 summer projects

Caitlin Callahan (Mt. Holyoke College), Professor Subir Banerjee. Geoarcheology/rock magnetism.

Sarah Diny (Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison), Professor David Kohlstedt. Sarah studied the flow of melt in partially molten mantle rocks when the rock was subjected to a temperature gradient, and demonstrated that there is a dramatic migration of melt from the colder to the hotter regions. She is now working on an extension of this project with Ried Cooper at the University of Wisconsin.

Andy Du Frane (Northern Arizona University): Professor Donna Whitney. Andy spent a couple of weeks in British Columbia as a field assistant for Dave Taylor (PhD student), collecting metamorphic rocks for an isotopic study of progressive metamorphic sequences to determine heating and burial rates. Back in Minnesota, Andy carried out a systematic study of garnet fracture and mineral inclusion patterns to understand the role of inclusion shapes in fracturing garnet during metamorphism. He co-authored an AGU abstract and a paper in review for the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Colin Fishwick (Oberlin College): Professor Kerry Kelts. Limnological Research Center.

Hannah Friedrich (Univ. of Minnesota - Morris): Professor Emi Ito. Hannah worked with fossil and modern lacustrine ostracode shells for paleoclimate reconstructions.This work involved sample preparation and stable isotope and trace element analysis. Samples were from a sediment core retrieved from a wetland in east-central North Dakota.  The results, along with the ostracode asemblage data, are now being interpreted with a view to submitting an abstract for the Spring American Geophysical Union meeting. Dr. Ito's interns finished their 10-week stay with a week-long field trip to the Dakotas and western Minnesota where we collected water and surface sediment samples for the study of the the relationship between water and ostracode shell chemistry.

Lisa Gilley (Stanford University): Professor Christian Teyssier. Lisa spent most of her internship in the field. First, in Montana, then for the rest of the time in the Shuswap Complex, British Columbia, measuring structural features and collecting samples with Britt Norlander (PhD student) for an integrated structural and petrologic study of the role of partial melting in mountain belts.

Shalini Gupta (Univ. of Chicago): Professor David Kohlstedt. Shalini looked at melt infilitration into very fine-grained dunites. She made samples of dunite with a grain size of about 5 microns, then placed a disc of basaltic glass against the dunite at high temperature and measured the amount of melt that moved into the dunite 'sucked in' by capillary forces.

Jeff Hanna (Cornell University, SUNY-Binghamton): Professor Kerry Kelts. Limnological Research Center.

Quyen Huynh (Mt. Holyoke College): Professor William Seyfried. Quyen  primarily worked with Ph.D student Doug Allen on developing and applying a new technique for the extraction and analysis of chlorine from rocks and minerals. Her work on this project made a real difference in terms of productivity and present state of knowledge about Cl exchange between fluids and minerals at elevated temperature and pressures, as Cl metasomatism and isotopic fractionation during fluid-mineral equilibria in subseafloor hydrothermal systems plays an important role on the Cl budget of hot spring fluids at mid-ocean ridges.

Alyssa Lanier (Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison): Professor Chris Paola. Alyssa worked with Chris and two graduate students on channel dynamics at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, located near campus on the Mississippi River. The work involved development of new methods to measure depth and velocity remotely in experimental channels, and working with depth and velocity data and video images of channel patterns to study channel migration. She also worked for short periods on other experiments involving formation of basin stratigraphy and submarine debris flows and turbidity currents.

Maureen Long (RPI): Professor Shun Karato. Maureen studied the preferred orientation of olivine aggregates deformed at upper mantle conditions as part of a project involving seismic anisotropy in the upper mantle. This project included work with x-ray diffraction data and testing of software used to analyze this data.

Justine Owen (Brown University): Professor Marc Hirschmann. Justine investigated the origin of giant rhyolite ash flows (from Namibia), by looking at the composition of melt inclusions in feldspar and pyroxene phenocrysts.

Justin Pearce (Univ. of New Mexico): Professor Kerry Kelts. Limnological Research Center.

Carolyn Riess (Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison): Professor Emi Ito. Carolyn worked with fossil and modern lacustrine ostracode shells for paleoclimate reconstructions.This work involved sample preparation and stable isotope and trace element analysis. Samples were from a sediment core retrieved from a wetland in east-central North Dakota.  The results, along with the ostracode asemblage data, are now being interpreted with a view to submitting an abstract for the Spring American Geophysical Union meeting. Dr. Ito's interns finished their 10-week stay with a week-long firldtrip to the Dakotas and western Minnesota where we collected water and surface sediment samples for the study of the the relationship between water and ostracode shell chemistry.

Jennifer Ryan (Notre Dame): Professor Mark Person. Hydrogeology.

Beverly Shade (Rice University): Professor Calvin Alexander. Bev Shade worked with the karst hydrogeology research group for about 1/2 of the summer (after she returned from her field camp).  She assisted severalof the graduate students on the various field and laboratory projects involving the collection and analysis of water samples, dye samples, sinkhole location and karst geophysics.  Bev then focused her efforts on the systematics of fluorescent dye tracing.  She completed a project on the stability of commonly used fluorescent dyes against photodecay.  She was able to document a wide range of photo decay rates of common tracing dyes and some potential tracers.  At the end of her stay she had prepared a draft manuscript on "Photodegradtion of Dyes in Diffuse Sunlight". Bev also helped organize and lead a field trip to southeastern Minnesota cave and karst lands for the rest of the summer interns.

Erin Young (Arizona State University): Professor Peter Hudleston. Erin spent the first part of the summer on campus in Minneapolis, and then traveled to northern Sweden with Prajukti Bhattacharyya (PhD student) to study Caledonide shear zones. See Erin's homepage for more information about her fieldwork experience.