Here are some photos from previous Hydrocamps.
We have been teaching this camp almost every year since 1995.
Students and faculty gathering around the sign at the entrance to the Hydrogeology Field Site of
the Geology and Geophysics Department of the University of Minnesota.
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Close-up of the sign. Our site contains
a pumping well and 11 monitoring wells (every year one more monitoring well is added during hydrocamp).
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Class members collected water samples from horizontal drainage wells on the Minneapolis campus
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On one of the field trips: Lake Itasca State Park, head water of the Mississippi River. You can hop rocks across the Mighty Mississippi.
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Every year the USGS visits us at field camp and drills a new monitoring well for us. Students get to observe, ask questions, and
analyze the drill products. They also install the well and of course later conduct pumping tests using all of our
wells.
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USGS people drilling and students observing.
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Students analyze the sediments from the split-spoon samples that just came from the drill rig 30 yards away.
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Measuring pumping rate by various means. Shown here is the so-called "Calvin's cold-water Jacuzzi." The pumped water discharges
into the tub and drains from it through 500 feet of pipe so that the aquifer is not immediately recharged.
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Taking a bath in Calvin's cold-water Jaccuzi at our field site. It's "nice" on a hot day and one of the many amenities we provide
during our hydrocamp. In this photo the white drainage pipe can be seen.
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The Deep Portage Nature Preserve is equipped with an inside climbing wall and outside awaits fishing, hiking,
canoeing -- and the Minnesota mosquitos. Insect repellent is required equipment at camp.
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Evening sky at Deep Portage. Star gazing is great here as there is very little light pollution, so bring star charts,
binoculars, or small telescopes.
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Bring your fishing gear. It's northern Minnesota, so there should
be about 10,000 lakes nearby! A class member caught a big one!
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Class members collected water samples from vertical wells on the Minneapolis campus.
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The Stone Arch Bridge below St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. Part of the local scenery in Minneapolis.
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Class members collected water samples from contaminated springs not far from the Stone Arch Bridge
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Fractured, conduit carbonate aquifers from the outside.
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Fractured, conduit carbonate aquifers from the inside. Class members visiting Niagara Cave, Fillmore County, Minnesota
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Conduit flow in Niagara Cave.
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Conduit flow spring, Fountain Spring, MN.
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Class member in Niagara Cave.
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Two instructors, Bob Tipping (left) from Minnesota Geological Survey (MGS) and Scott Alexander (right) from
Geology and Geophysics at U. of Minnesota (UMN) preparing
exercises on the lap top in
the common room at Deep Portage.
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Students working on their assignements in the common room in the evening after a day in the field.
We provide laptops (2 students share one) but bring your own if you can. We also set up wireless internet (so yes, you can email),
a laser printer, and a projection system for presentations.
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The dining hall at Deep Portage. There is always lots of food so that everybody can have
several goes at the buffet. The hall is about 3 times the size of what is shown here and has its own large fire place.
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A student analyzing the day's data in the common room. Behind him is the other large fire place of the building.
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Students studying groundwater-lake interactions in a relaxed way and ...
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... in a more hands-on way (instructor Don Rosenberry from the USGS-Denver, left).
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Students are often split into groups and thus while some analyze drill-samples ...
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... others take a break playing hacky sack.
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Deep Portage has a look-out tower next door that provides a great overview over the landscape. At night there is great
star gazing up here and at any time most cellular phone plans work up here.
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The USGS runs a weather station near our camp and we can use the data for our analyses. Shown are devices
that measure solar radiation and cloud coverage.
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Oh yes, we also try to go to the Wood Tick Theater every year. It's our way of providing real Minnesotan culture in
this tiny theater in the middle of nowhere in north-central MN.
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The Wood Tick is sold out almost every evening during summer, so there is something fun and strange about it.
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Students studying sunset-lake interactions.
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Students and faculty from UMN and Macalester College during a stay at Deep Portage conducting
a step-drawdown pumping test at our field site.
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The Minneapolis sky line. Minneapolis (and nearby Saint Paul - the capital) offer something for everybody. The
first week of hydrocamp is located on the University of Minnesota - Minneapolis campus right next to downtown Minneapolis.
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One of the attractions in Minneapolis is the Metrodome. Typically during hydrocamp season the Minnesota Twins play here
(this photo was taken by hydrocamp students in summer 2005). In 2010, the Twins will play in their new outdoor
stadium for the first time.
Minneapolis also has a lively music scene ranging from noise music to opera and anything in between.
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This is the University of Minnesota Student Union which houses a huge bookstore, a movie theater, lounges with
fire places, a food court, the faculty club, a travel agency, a post office, and much more. The dorms, where hydrocamp
students can stay during the first week, are right next door to it on the banks of the Mississippi River
(other direction of this photo). There are also 2 wells right at this building we use for collection of data every year.
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The bridge connecting the East and the West Bank Campus on either side of the Mississippi. Everything hydrocamp is concerned with (dorms,
Geology and Geophysics Department, ...) is located on the East Bank campus. Downtown Minneapolis (not shown) is to the left of this photo.
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More groundwater-lake interaction studies.
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Martin Saar (Assistant Prof. at UMN, back-right) enjoys teaching hydrocamp.
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All our monitoring wells are hooked up to data loggers that monitor water levels every second or so during pumping
tests.
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Every year a new monitoring well is installed. We are up to close to 20 monitoring wells and 2 pumping wells
now.
Professor Calvin Alexander (UMN, front-left) is joining having fun mixing the concrete.
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One of 4 pumping rate measurement techniques during a multi-day pumping test. Also visible
is the vertical Bernulli tube. In addition, a pressure transducer records the pressure and thus
the water level in the Bernulli tube every second providing time series data of pumping rates that
can be correlated with drawdown data automatically recorded by pressure transducers at the 11
monitoring wells. Lastly the filling rate of the tub (with temporarily plugged outflow) provides
another estimate of pumping rate.
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Scott Alexander (Hydrogeology Research Scientist at UMN) with the split-spoon sampler. Sediments
collected in the sampler during annual drilling of a new monitoring well are analyzed for grain size
and sorting, mineral content, and layering. This information is later used during pumping tests and
computer modeling exercises as constraints on material properties and aquifer heterogeneity/anisotropy.
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Scott (right) and a student opening the split-spoon sampler.
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Some (not all) students at the origin of the Mississippi river (about 1.5 hours from our field site).
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Paul Banion and some dwarfs from the front and ...
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... from the back.
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A sand dune along the way from Minneapolis to Deep Portage.
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Scott, a well, and a data logger.
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Students preparing for a slug test.
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Calvin Alexander with a depth-integrating stream flow measurement devise.
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