This week, we travelled to Wyoming and Montana to take samples at nine sites along the Powder River. We drove 1992 Suburban down and stayed in three different towns while we were there: Kaycee Wyoming, Buffalo Wyoming, and Broadus Montana. All of these places were very rural and it was hard to avoid any meat or fried food on the menus at the local restaurants, however they were very beautiful areas. At each site, we collected suspended sediments samples by running many water samples through some sieves in order to collect sediment both above and blow 53 microns. We also collected river bed material and bed load samples from the river. We took various water samples in order to test for trace metals, total dissolved nitrogen, dissolved organic carbon, alkalinity, and anions. At each site, the slope and discharge of the river was also calculated and a pH and conductivity reading was done. In addition to my mentors Jen and John, we also had some other people come along. Deb came with us who has since retired but used to specialize in the changes in the environment after a fire. John Sullivan also came along from Wisconsin to help take river velocity measurements in the canoe with John Moody. He also took many pictures of the trip. Harrison came from the USGS in Denver to collect samples for use in dating the sediment by using Optically-Stimulated Luminescence which tests the times that quartz was exposed to light in the past. It was a really amazing experience being able to spend time in the field with my mentors and meeting a few new ones. I have pictures but am having some tech issues at the moment…I can post them in a new post once I figure it out!
July 7, 2019 | hailee | Leave a comment
