My name is Sean Ross, and I’m a student at Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood. This research project has been an amazing experience and I’m still floored that I was selected!
I’ve spent the past few weeks looking at the lovely Boulder Creek Granodiorite in Boulder Canyon, Colorado. My project was inspired by the observation that debris flows in the torrential September 2013 rains exposed broad tracts of bedrock that had been buried by soil representing a long period of accumulation, an average of about 400 years in the two that I’ve been studying! This newly exposed bedrock offers a unique opportunity to compare its physical and chemical states with adjacent rock in outcrops that has been weathering at the surface, as well as outcrops farther up Boulder Canyon. Our hope is to get a handle on whether the rock is being digested into soil more quickly above or below the surface. We also hope to find a noticeable trend in weathering rates among the Boulder Canyon outcrops, which would support the prevailing theory of knickpoint propagation upstream as the means of canyon formation.
This has been an awesome summer! I’ve logged many hours in the field learning new techniques, I’ve spent time in various labs learning how to use equipment that I wouldn’t expect to have access to until graduate school, and I’ve helped out with a few projects beyond the scope of my own including a Terrestrial LIDAR survey. In short, I’ve been afforded an opportunity to see what it’s like to really be a scientist, and also to pick up some street cred, great stories, and resume-boosting experience along the way!
I am so grateful, not only for this tremendous opportunity provided by RECCS, but also for my fantastic teachers at Red Rocks. I would not have been ready for this without all of them, but especially Ellie Camann in the Geology department, Gayle Crane in the Chemistry department, and Adam Forland in the Math department.
Sean at the headscarp of a debris flow.
Very nice to recognize your teachers at RRCC. You should tell them about the blog, Sean. You certainly have learned a lot of different skills this summer, which is just great! I still can’t fathom that weathering occurs so deep under the surface