1/14/05

Well I made it back to Rhode Island without incident. This next week Jake (my cousin) is coming to visit. Dylan and I are going to pick him up from Connecticut tomorrow and then drive on to Boston, hit a party that night and then explore the city on Sunday. I'm sure I'll post pictures after this trip.

On another note, classes start again on Tuesday (Jan 18th). This semester I am taking Subduction Zones and Foundations of Earth Systems Dynamics as my two main classes. Then I am also signed-up for 2 units of thesis research and of course Student Seminar . On top of all that I decided to take Spanish 101 for fun. We'll see how that goes, I may drop it. This semester I am returning to the rock and core lab for my research assistantship, which promises to provide many core splitting opportunities. And, lastly, I agreed to be one of the student representatives on the Student Admissions and Review Committee (SARC). I will get to help choose who is admitted into this fine institution. . . . yeah this will be a busy semester. Hope that this isn't the last post until summer! 'Til next time.

2/2/05

I Survived

Blizzard '05. See, here's a picture of Dylan and I on our way to work after the big storm. The snow has since melted a bit, but you get the idea. Everything really looks different buried underneath a mountain of snow. To get a better idea of what Rhode Island looks like buried under snow visit the pictures page.

Other news: Classes are a little busy so far, but nothing that I can't handle. Enjoy the long awaited science post! (I used a portion of it for my Lab Report introduction last week.)

2/15/05

I am writing this post from my brand-new apple laptop in the comfort of my own living room! I got an iBook G4 with a 40 GB hard drive, a 1 GHz processor, and 256 ram. It has a combo drive so I can watch DVD's and burn CD's on my laptop. Well enough bragging about my wonderful new computer.

This past Saturday, I volunteered for the NOSB competition, called the Quahog Bowl here at URI. I was the rules judge, so basically I have all the power. Well, actually, what being rules judge boils down to is telling people in the audience to be quiet. This year, I only had to tell one person to quiet down... and that was in the first match. So yeah, I just stood there the rest of the day, trying to look official. Next year I'm going to put in for a promotion.

The quality of the geology questions definitely improved from last year; someone finally acknowledged that there is more to marine geology that beach sediment dynamics. However, the biology questions were unreal! Most of the terminology they used, I had never heard before in any of my oceanography classes. I guess you would have to be a marine taxonomist to answer most of those questions.

Click on the NOSB logo and you can test your ocean knowledge with their mini-quiz! You can take it several times as the questions keep changing.

2/18/05

Last Sunday, Dylan and I used the free Mystic Aquarium passes that I received from volunteering at NOSB on Saturday. The Aquarium was very nice. Much less crowded than when we went last year during tourist season. I posted new aquarium pictures on the pictures page.

This weekend we are going to New York City. In fact, we are leaving this afternoon! Can't wait. I'll update again when we get back.

4/1/05

Well it has been a long time since my last post. Sorry, I've been busy working on my proposal for my thesis research and it took a little longer since I completely changed my project within the last few months. My new project is great! Researchers at the University of Shamton in West Massachusetts have discovered an emerging submarine volcano just off the coast of Rhode Island (42ºN, 68ºW). This volcano is very unusual in that it does not occur at a plate boundary. (See the Science Thoughts below for a brief description of subduction zones and other plate boundaries) Intraplate activity is generally attributed to a hot plume of magma originating deep in the Mantle, near the Core-Mantle boundary (the D" layer, if you want to be technical). These plumes create surface volcanoes known as hotspots. A few commonly known hotspots include, Hawaii, Iceland, Canary Islands, and New Zealand. A preliminary report on the findings, recently published in the Bulletin of Science (B.S.), indicate that this volcano is very unique (deCeiter et al., 2005). Different types of volcanoes, found at different tectonic settings, have unique chemical characteristics. For example, hotspot volcanoes are chemically different from mid-ocean ridge volcanoes or subduction zone volcanoes. B.S reports that initial chemical analysis of rocks recovered from the volcano indicates that the source of this magma is very different from the source of other known hotspot magmas. The magma composition is more like that of a continental volcano, composed mainly of andesites. This means that the volcano has the potential to be very explosive. B.S. findings indicate that this could be the beginnings of a new supervolcano (like Toba or Yellowstone). Additionally, this volcano seems to be growing at an amazing rate. Presently, it is ~3 m below sea level, that's about 3000 m above the average depth of that region. Rock samples show that all of this material has been deposited within the last month giving an edifice growth rate of 3000 meters/month. This volcano will break the surface in less than 1 day! That means, within the next month we will have a supervolcano off the eastern seaboard. A volcano such as this has the potential to very hazardous, not only to the surrounding community, but to the entire globe. Local hazards would include tsunamis, earthquakes, and tephra fallout, and global hazards would include massive climate shifts which would bring about mass starvation. This is an amazing research opportunity and it looks like I'm going to be involved from the beginning. Not only that, I will also have the opportunity to work with world renowned volcanologists, Dr. Cano and Dr. Plume. My thesis research will focus on understanding this unique geologic event. We must act fast since the volcano is growing so fast. We already have the Endeavor booked for a 14 day cruise starting tomorrow. Research will involve the opportunity to use submersibles and ROVs, and may even involve scuba diving missions! I may get to scuba into the vent and see how far down into the earth it extends! This will be the first study of its kind. I can't wait! Well, just wanted to let you know what I have been up to recently.

April Fools -- there is no volcano off the coast of New England.

7.15.05

Great new look, same great page! All of the graphics were designed by me in Illustrator for this brand-new page.

Check out the new toolbar: Photos leads to the ever-popular picture page, Science leads to my archive of Science Thoughts (I know all of you reference these frequently), Archive leads to an archive of My Thoughts, Album leads (for now) to an archive of pictures and Me and Links lead to the same boring pages that they led to before (with the new up-dated look, of course).

I know that I haven't posted for awhile, so to sum-up my life for the past few months, I've posted several new pictures in the Photos section. I made it through studying, inter-mural floor hockey, beach clean-up, dinosaurs, rainy BBQs and the air show.

11.9.05

Hi all, I went to New York this past weekend and I've posted pictures. Thats all.

11.23.05

I hate this COLD, dry weather. My eyes are itchy, my skin is dry and tingly, my hair feels like straw, and I can't breath. And did I mention, it's COLD!

Mom, you are not allowed to complain about hot weather in the middle of November!

12.8.05

Hmmm... it sounds like Mom's been wandering around my office building. I'm the one whos always telling baffled visitors, "End of the hall... yeah, I know they're not in order... yep strange."