Notes from the Field

Undergraduate Majors Selected for Field Camp Scholarships and Research Award

Written by Lauren Neitzke Adamo

Undergraduate Majors, Casey Collins, Emma Hinds, Chase Danyi, Ryan McCracken, and Journey Berry were all awarded scholarships from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the Steven K. Fox Fund to attend geology field camp during the 2022/2023 academic year.  These students will be attending a wide range of field camps at unique geologic sites across the country.  They will all participate in 4-8 weeks experiences giving them hands-on experience in how to navigate and map the field.  Congratulations to all the 2022 recipients. 

Congratulations to Jonathan Miller, the 2022 recipient of the William & Grace Sparks Field Camp Award.  This $1,500 scholarship is given to a major in Earth and Planetary Sciences to help offset the cost of attending an external field camp.  Jonathan will be using the funds to attend field camp in Scotland this June and July through the University of St. Andrews. 

Michael Pinnella was named the awardee of the 2022 Larry & Norma Gordon Scholarship for Undergraduate Field Study in Geological Sciences. This award includes a $1,500 scholarship to help offset the cost of attending a summer field camp.  Michael will be traveling to Wyoming from mid-May until early July with Iowa State to Carl F. Vondra Geology Field Station.  Located in the Big Horn Mountains and Basin, this permanent field station will provide an intensive geologic mapping experience for Micheal.  Best of luck and have a great time!

Lakshman Prabhakar, a junior major in Earth and Planetary Sciences, was awarded the George O. Scott Scholarship for Undergraduate Field Study in Geological Sciences.  This is the highest award the department grants to majors to help attend an external field camp.  Lakshman was selected for this award based on his high overall academic achievement, excellent course work within the major, and faculty recommendations.  This award comes with a $1,500 scholarship, which Lakshman will be using to attend field camp during the winter of 2022/2023.  Congratulations Lakshman and keep up the good work!

Jason Kawalec, a junior in the Planetary Sciences Major Track, has been selected as the winner of the 2022 Vinton Gwinn Award for Excellence in Research.  This award is given to an undergraduate major in their 3rd or 4th year of their studies who has participated and excelled in independent research.  In addition to the academic excellence he has exhibited in all of his course work, Jason has worked on 3 different independent study projects over the last 2 years.  He has previously conducted research on creating 3D models of geologic outcrops and samples under the supervision of Dr. Lauren Neitzke Adamo, and on analyzing albedo trends in Martian surface features in satellite data with Dr. Luju Ohja.  Jason will be traveling to Costa Rica this summer to conduct drone surveys on several dormant volcanoes to create high-resolution 3D lava flow and potential risk maps.  Great job Jason and good luck in Costa Rica!

Seniors, Diana D’Albero and Jessie Friedman, were both awarded the George H. Cook Awards for Department Service.  This award is given to advanced students who have gone above and beyond in their service to the department.  Diana and Jessie were both instrumental in keeping the undergraduate geology club going over the last year or so, an especially impressive feat during the times of Covid.  They are commended for their dedication to always promoting geology at Rutgers and for helping out whenever needed.  The department will miss them next year after they graduate, but we wish them all the best in their next adventure.

Why Do Wind Farms Care About Sticky South Jersey Mud?

Written by Ken Miller

Driving through fertile farmlands of South Jersey adjacent to the nutrient poor soils of the Pine Barrens reminds geologists of the importance of the underlying geology.  Glauconite is a green potassium iron phyllosilicate mineral familiar to most New Jersey geologists because it provides fertile farmlands in the “marls” of the coastal plain.  The Cretaceous-Paleogene outcrop (i.e., the geologic boundary marking the end of the Mesozoic and the large extinction event that killed the dinosaurs) paralleling the NJ Turnpike is rich in glauconite, whereas the beachy sands of the Kirkwood-Cohansey Formations found in the Pine Barrens are rich in quartz.  Since the time of Lyell, geologists recognized that these New Jersey glauconite layers were deposited during intervals of sea-level rise in continental shelf environments.  These glauconite deposits are not only found onshore in New Jersey, but are also buried offshore beneath the modern continental shelf.

Not only are glauconite deposits important in soil and sea-level studies, but they have also become an important obstacle in engineering.  Engineers installing offshore wind farms within these deep continental shelf geologic layers are finding that the unusual properties of this mineral pose unique geotechnical challenges. Specifically, glauconite grains tend to easily shatter into gummy, thick, sticky muds when disturbed by drilling or installing foundations due to its crushability.  To address these challenges, a team of Rutgers scientists led by Rutgers Professor Ken Miller together with University of Massachusetts Professors Zack Westgate (University of Massachusetts Amherst) and Ryan Beemer (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth), as well as Haley & Aldrich Geotechnical Consulting, were contracted by a Joint Industry Partnership led by the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute through support from with two major offshore energy developers to locate sites to study the geotechnical properties of glauconite. 

After an extensive hunt, the Search Farm in Upper Freehold Township was identified as an ideal location for tests.  The site, owned by William (Bill) Search, is adjacent to the “Contact Creek” and Crosswicks Creek outcrops first recognized by Dick Olsson in 1960, as containing the contact between the Cretaceous (K) and Paleogene (Pg) and a major mass extinction, the K/Pg boundary.  Drilling on the Search Farm in 2009 to study the K/Pg boundary showed that this site has a ~50 ft thick layer of glauconite sands comprising the Paleocene Hornerstown Formation overlying the Maastrichtian Navesink “greensands”. Both deposited on the middle continental shelf during a rise in sea level that inundated this area, and a world-class K/Pg boundary. Mr. Search agreed to lend his farm to the cause of science again in 2022.  

From February to April, engineering studies were conducted on the greensands to evaluate their geotechnical properties.  Work is still ongoing, but the knowledge obtained from these studies will inform future efforts to establish offshore wind farms. When asked about the significance of this project, Dr. Westgate stated “This project represents the first major joint industry field scale research effort in the US related to pile foundations for offshore wind.  The amount of instrumentation deployed and data being collected for various aspects of pile foundation installation and performance will provide a solid basis for assessing the impact of glauconitic sands on East Coast developments.”

372 kg of Moon Rock and "Soil"

Written by Alissa Madera, Graduate Student in the Rutgers Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

In 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts collected and sealed “soil” samples from the lunar surface that remained unopened until March 2022. Rutgers’ own Dr. Juliane Gross, currently Deputy Apollo Sample Curator for NASA Johnson’s Space Center, experienced firsthand the opening of these samples after 50 years of being sealed. Why wait so long? Samples are now being opened in preparation for the return to the Moon and collection of new lunar samples in the late 2020s!

When NASA sent astronauts to the Moon, they collected and stored samples of rock and “soil” to be returned to Earth for scientific studies. These critical samples helped scientists understand the formation of the Earth-Moon system, as well as identify the Moon’s composition, age, and how the Moon evolved geologically through time. Knowing scientific instruments would make significant progress with time, NASA saved these some of these samples to be opened and studied later in more precise detail with more advanced equipment.

On March 21st, Dr Juliane Gross of Rutgers University, also currently Deputy Apollo Sample Curator for  NASA Johnson’s Space Center (JSC) Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division in Houston, Texas, and her team opened a sealed core sample from the Apollo 17 mission. The opening of the core is a part of NASA’s Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis (ANGSA) Program driven to understand how well these samples were collected and sealed 50 years ago as NASA prepares to return astronauts to the lunar surface with the Artemis program in the late 2020s.

When collected, the core sample was sealed under vacuum to prevent loss of any precious lunar gasses. A core piercer and gas extraction tool from the European Space Agency (ESA) was developed to extract these gasses prior to opening the core sample so that scientists can better understand the compositions of volatiles that may be trapped in lunar soil. These volatiles can be found as ice at the cold, lunar polar regions and serve as an important resource for astronauts.

Once the gasses were extracted, Dr. Gross and her team began the process of core extrusion. Careful measurements were taken using X-ray CT scan that provided 3D images of the core sample to be used as a “roadmap” for the curators during the extrusion of the core. This process was successfully completed by March 22, 2022 with Dr. Gross and her team being the first people since 1972 to see this sample of lunar soil. The curators will now take the next few months to carefully separate the core into samples that will be sent globally to researchers for scientific studies.

This novel perspective of the Moon provided by the newly opened Apollo 17 core sample will help scientists answer many questions about our closest planetary neighbor. It is an exciting time in planetary science, and we congratulate Dr. Juliane Gross and her team as they make history 50 years later!

Resources:

Plain, Charlie (2022, March 6). NASA Studies ‘New’ 50-Year-Old Lunar Sample to Prep for Return to the Moon. Retrieved March 27 from https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-studies-new-50-year-old-lunar-sample-to-prep-for-return-to-moon

Williams, Catherine Ragin (2022, March 25). Fifty Years Later, Curators Unveil One of the Last Sealed Apollo Samples. Retrieved March 27 from https://www.nasa.gov/feature/fifty-years-later-curators-unveil-one-of-last-sealed-apollo-samples

NASA Science Live: We Just Opened a 50-year-old Moon Sample. Retrieved March 27 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc89Wm75PLw

Cheers to 150 Years!

By Carol Peters, EOAS Communications Team**

*This article was first published by the Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences on March 22, 2022.

As the first and oldest museum in America dedicated to geology, the Rutgers Geology Museum plays a vital role in the education of Rutgers University and local K-12 students and New Jersey residents.

From exhibits featuring rare New Jersey minerals dating back to the early-1800s, to the legendary Ice Age Mastodon skeleton that was discovered in Mannington, New Jersey, and the recently restored giant spider crab specimen, a gift from Japan to Rutgers a century ago, the Rutgers Geology Museum has long been one of Rutgers University-New Brunswick’s greatest treasures and assets.

Founded 150 years ago by George Hammill Cook, who served the university as a professor of chemistry, geology, and agriculture (1853–1889) and vice president (1864–1889), the Rutgers Geology Museum is the first and oldest museum dedicated to geology in America. It is also one of the only geology museums still housed in its original structure.

Today, while the museum is no longer a site of active scientific research, it offers many noteworthy collections and it makes vital contributions to the university and local communities. It supports the university by providing place-based learning opportunities and internships for Rutgers students pursuing degrees across a broad range of subjects, including geology, ecology, evolution, anthropology, history, art history, creative writing, art, American studies, education, and more.

The museum educates the public about topics related to natural history by hosting thousands of K-12 students annually; by serving as a repository of reference material; by disseminating current research; and by providing insight into nineteenth-century scientific education, exploration, and collections. Museum Director Dr. Lauren Neitzke-Adamo said, “we strive to connect with the local K–12 and university communities to inspire the next generation of geoscientists to continue building upon the legacy that the many Rutgers University geologists worked so hard to build.”

To celebrate its 150^th anniversary, the museum held its 54^th annual Rutgers Geology Museum Open House in January 2022 (the museum hosted its first open house in 1968). The event offered children’s activities based upon the museum’s most popular exhibits: “Paper plate spider crabs” and “Mummy Madness” and an online version of its well-known and beloved mineral sale (a tradition since 1975). Swag featuring the museum’s anniversary logo was also for sale all year long at the museum gift shop.

The celebration also included four public lectures held virtually, “Curating a Culture of Curiosity: Strategies for Managing a Natural History Museum in the Deep South,” presented by Amy Moe-Hoffman, Instructor of Geology, Mississippi State Museum and curator of the Dunn-Seiler Museum;  “Nineteenth Century Geology and the creation of America’s First Geology Museum” presented by Dr. Lauren Neitzke-Adamo ; “Why Mary Anning Rocks,” presented by Anya Pearson, trustee of the Mary Anning Rocks Project; and  “A Scientific and Architectural History of the Geology Museum” presented by Professor Dr. Carla Yanni of the Rutgers Department of Art History, and Carol McCarty, Rutgers Department of History Researcher.

The museum’s history is explored in the paper “The Rutgers Geology Museum: America’s First Geology Museum and the Past 200 Years of Geoscience Education” published by the Geological Society of America and written by Dr. Lauren Neitzke-Adamo with coauthors A.J. Blandford, Department of History, Rutgers University, Julia Criscione, Rutgers Geology Museum, Richard K. Olsson, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, and Erika Gorder, Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.

Chronicling the museum’s earliest collections and faculty members, the authors explain that the museum’s first mineral collection – a “cabinet” of minerals — was managed by Dr. Lewis Caleb Beck, who was named Rutgers’ first professor of chemistry and natural science in 1830.

In 1853, Cook replaced Beck, and in 1854, he was named the State Geologist by the New Jersey Geological Survey. He retained this title until his death in 1889.

Acquired around 1899, this massive Spider Crab was on display at the museum until 1985. It was then restored and brought back on display in 2015. Left: Former Curator William Valiant poses with the crab in the early 1900s. Right: The crab on display in 2019 (Photo: Matt Drews)

“As the State Geologist of New Jersey,” Adamo et al wrote, “Cook’s research efforts encouraged the economic development of the clays, soils, iron, zinc, and water supplies throughout the state, and by the end of his career at Rutgers College, Cook had collected and organized more than 4000 mineral and fossil specimens and acquired several other important artifacts, such as a mastodon skeleton from Mannington, New Jersey and several large slabs of Triassic sandstone from Morris County, New Jersey; these sandstone slabs contained footprints from seven different species of ancient reptiles including dinosaur.”

When the first Department of Geology at Rutgers was founded in 1931, the museum became a central focus of geology scholarship in the United States, as well as a major contributor of expertise in the local community. Over the years the museum continued to acquire additional collections, including the significant Rowe collection of florescent minerals which was donated in 1940.

Since the museum expanded its public outreach by hosting its popular annual open houses, it has showcased major scientific discoveries. These include Moon rocks collected in 1969 during the Apollo 11 lunar landing which were exhibited in 1971, and the first public presentation of the rediscovery of the Titanic which was presented by Dr. Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in 1986.

In the 1990s, the Friends of the Geology Museum was established to create a stronger connection between the museum and its patrons, and in 2015, the museum formed an advisory committee consisting of museum and university staff, undergraduate and graduate students, faculty members, and active museum members. The committee’s aim is to continue to increase the Geology Museum’s educational impact on Rutgers and its surrounding communities.

“Much more time and effort would need to be invested to transform the museum into one of the leading outreach and educational centers in New Jersey; however, the Rutgers Geology Museum remains a treasure within the Rutgers University and New Jersey communities,” Adamo said.

To learn more about the history of the Rutgers Geology Museum, see the paper “The Rutgers Geology Museum: America’s First Geology Museum and the Past 200 Years of Geoscience Education.”

Discover more about the museum, including membership information and upcoming events, on the website.

A New Minor, Major Tracks, and Master's Program

Written by Lauren Neitzke Adamo

When the department changed its name from Geological Sciences to Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) in 2013, it officially acknowledged an ongoing change within the department. With the addition of new faculty and researchers, especially in the field of planetary sciences, the research focus of the department had expanded far beyond the traditional geologic topics. Simultaneously, the interests and needs of the student population began to change, calling for a much-needed update to the undergraduate and graduate curriculum. The result was the creation of a new Undergraduate Minor in Astrobiology and a Master’s program in Environmental Geosciences, as well as three new tracks within the undergraduate major.

The Environmental Geosciences Master’s of Science program, launched in 2015, was designed to prepare students seeking employment in the environmental industry, Non-Governmental Organizations, and state/federal governments. These employers have expressed a preference for hiring graduates with a solid training in geological sciences but with additional training in applying geologic knowledge to solving environmental problems. The core curriculum of this M.S. program includes shallow geophysics, environmental geochemistry, hydrogeology, and data skills such as environmental modeling and Geographic Information System mapping. Students are required to complete an internship project and present a capstone paper under the advisement of three faculty members. The program allows students to enter the workforce quickly, as all coursework can be completed in 1.5 years. Alternatively, students can complete the program in about three years while also working full-time.

In 2018, the NASA Astrobiology Institute awarded EPS Professors Paul Falkowski and Nathan Yee a research and education grant to study the origin of proteins and the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere. As a part of this NASA project, Prof. Yee created a new undergraduate course that would focus on Astrobiology, the field of study devoted to the investigation of the origin and evolution of life on Earth and the exploration of possible life outside of Earth. The School of Arts and Sciences officially approved Astrobiology as an undergraduate major in 2020, and in the Fall of 2020, students began to enroll in this program and engage in coursework aimed at understanding the origins of life in the universe. The Astrobiology curriculum is exciting and provides a cross-disciplinary education in Earth and Planetary Sciences, Astronomy, and Biology. At commencement this year, Qifeng He (History Major, Class of 2022) will be the first Rutgers student to graduate with a minor in Astrobiology!

In the Fall of 2019, three new undergraduate major tracks were added to the geoscience curriculum. The well-established geological sciences course of study, centered around the traditional sedimentology, stratigraphy, structural geology, mineralogy, and petrology courses remains. The new planetary and environmental science major tracks include many of the foundational geology courses, but also include supplemental content in the areas of chemistry, astrophysics, and environmental science. A fourth general geological sciences track awards undergraduates with a Bachelor of Arts degree and is designed for students wishing to enter non-science fields after graduation, such as education, journalism, and law.

 These curriculum updates have been successful thus far, with increasing numbers of students choosing to enroll in these programs each year. The EPS department is proud to present these new options because it allows our instructors to teach traditional and emerging geologic methods, while also better preparing our students for a variety of career options.

Dr. Paul Falkowski and his Rutgers colleagues have discovered two protein folds important for understanding the evolution of cellular metabolism. Evidence suggests that the processes responsible for facilitating the biological redox reactions shared by members of the "tree of life" may have first appeared billions of years ago during the Archean Eon. Falkowski's team provide clues to not only the ways these ancients cells may have operated, but also the origins of life itself. click here for paper

Writing in Nature's News and Views, Assistant Professor Dr. Katherine Bermingham—an authority on cosmo- and geo-chemistry—comments on how the isotopic composition of very ancient rocks from Greenland help understand the building blocks of Earth. Particularly interesting is the origin of volatile compounds like water and organics, which could have arrived by carbonaceous chondrite (meteorite) collisions during the final stages of our planet's growth billions of years ago. click here for paper

Distinguished Professor George R. McGhee's books about his research on macro-evolutionary processes, including a new title from The Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology on convergent evolution:

"Convergent Evolution on Earth, Lessons for the Search for Extraterrestrial Life"
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press)

"Carboniferous Giants and Mass Extinctions, The Late Paleozoic Ice Age World"
(Columbia University Press)

"When the Invasion of the Land Failed, The Legacy of the Devonian Extinctions"
(Columbia University Press)

Professor Jim Wright and four graduate students sailed on a research cruise aboard the RV Thomas Thompson, leaving from Montevideo, Uruguay on September 11th and returning on October 31st. Aaron Watters (Ph.D.), Mark Yu (Ph.D.), Tim Shamus (M.S.), and alumnus Alex Adams (MS, 2019) joined researchers and students from Texas A&M and the College of Charleston to explore the southern Argentine margin. On this 51-day cruise, the research team collected high-resolution seismic lines, multibeam bathymetry data, and a suite of cores from the southern Argentine margin. Over 4000 km (2135 nM) of high-resolution seismic data allowed the team to see the margin’s geologic architecture. One of the aims of the investigation was to image locations where sediments and deep ocean currents interact, forming large sediment drifts. Sediments are swept to the deepest parts of the continental margin (>4000 m) through a series of canyons where strong bottom water currents have sculpted the sediments producing sedimentary deposits over 2 km thick over the past 14 million years. A second sediment drift is developing in water depths between 2200 and 2800 m and appears to be a younger drift deposit. The research team also collected sixty-two cores from water depths spanning 750 to 4500 m, recovering >380 m of sediments. Eighteen jumbo piston cores (up to 14 m) recovered sediments that encompass the most recent glacial to interglacial cycles. Older sediments exposed on the margin were also recovered using a gravity core within a 20 ft steel core barrel known as Big Bertha. Shore-based biostratigraphic analysis will be conducted on these sediments. The research team will work on the data and cores collected over the next 4 to 5 years and will support a variety of graduate and undergraduate research projects.

Nathan Yee, a Rutgers University–New Brunswick professor of geomicrobiology and geochemistry and a co-investigator at Rutgers ENIGMA, a NASA-funded research team focused on discovering how proteins evolved to become the catalysts of life on Earth. Yee co-created and teaches Rutgers’ first course on astrobiology, an interdisciplinary field that seeks to understand whether life arose elsewhere and whether we can detect it. read more here