STEAMing ahead

Two wonderful sessions with the Rowan STEAM Academy!

 The first session was on the Ocean Time Machine, where we explored the principles of stratigraphy and how we can use them to infer time. We applied this to ocean sediments, and talked about how the cores that we raise from the ocean floor are like a time machine, with (ideally) sediments from just a little while ago at the top, and sediments that go back in time as you go further down. We even made little sediment columns!

The second session was about proxies, and how we can tell what climate was like in the past. We talked about tree rings, corals, ice cores, and - yes - forams! We made some cores using clay and straws, then we looked at some replica cores (Thanks, IODP!) and finally looked at forams under the microscope. (Note that the forams were prepared by a TROPIC Lab summer researcher!)

The end goal was to answer the question, "How do you take the temperature of the ocean in the past?"

(Pictures will be linked once they are available)