Post-trip publicity: Andrew Ryan interviewed by Ryan Fitzgibbons

Last month, following a return from a cross-country adventure to the Channeled Scablands, Andrew Ryan was interviewed about the Lunar and Planetary Science Academy's fieldwork in Washington State. Watch this video to see.....

Channeled Scablands travelogue

The LPSA Channeled Scablands travelogue video is now online!
Join the interns on their expedition through Washington State as they study the columnar basalts and geomorphology of the region.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Physics in GeologyLand

I also am trained in the ways of physics instead of geology, but I have decided to pursue Geoscience in my graduate career. I am fairly certain “Geoscience” means almost whatever you want it to, and I have been toying with the idea of having it include field work despite my very theoretical base in physics. I am happy to say LPSA’s trip to the Scablands has helped to solidify that plan.

Being able to see, touch, climb on, and take measurements of the rocks and processes that we are studying adds quality to our research that you simply cannot find in textbooks and computer modeling. The main subject of our studies in the Scablands (researching basalt columns on Earth to make inferences about ones on Mars) embodies the union of space missions, data collection, and field work that makes planetary science so exciting.

A lot of physics is asking questions- how does this happen? Why does it happen? What is it made of? I learned on this trip that geology is no different. Geology is a mystery that geologists have set out to solve. In the Scablands, we saw a 15 million year old basalt layer lying on top of a 100 million year old granite layer. A passerby may think this is a very pretty contrast, but a geologist asks the question: where are the 85 million years in between those layers?

At first when I saw photos of the basalt columns we were going to measure, I was simply shocked that nature could create something that shape by itself. Now after our trip, I hope that the group’s efforts at characterizing the basalt columns of the Scablands contribute to solving the mystery of exactly how they formed. I also hope that our work can help characterize the basalt columns we see on Mars.

I feel extremely fortunate that I was able to explore the Channeled Scablands, and even more so when I think about the fact that the Scablands are one of very few places on Earth we can see the results of an ancient megaflood and the formations of basalt columns. At the end of a day of surveying our specific sites, everyone on the trip was sure to sit back, think of the larger picture, and soak in the beautiful landscape. It was a good trip indeed.

~Kristen

Southern Girl Goes West

I’ve only recently had my first taste of the wild west, and I’m addicted.  As a southern girl from Raleigh, I initially couldn’t understand how my more western-bred comrades referred to the east coast as “claustrophobic.”  I missed the trees, and the longsungof wide open spaces just seemed to give me vertigo.  But this past week in the Scablands, I saw land diversity unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, and got to explore it all!  I felt like a small child constantly deposited onto giant playgrounds and told to GO!  And we did: there were LPSAers climbing over rocks and hills and cliffs, standing at the top of waterfalls, rolling down sand dunes, tapemeasuring those basalt columns.  We’ve been back on the east coast for a couple days, but I’m already ready to return to the Scablands.   Becoming intimate with the land itself in a hands-on way has provided me with a fresh perspective on a new field of science—geology—as well as a further appreciation for the way the human body interacts and responds and adjusts itself to different types of landforms and their provided space.  Now, we just have to take a field trip to Mars and see what .4g does to my vertigo!

-Melissa

Well... we're back.

Last week was arguably one of the longer weeks of my life, although it was also one of the most fun. Despite being a physicist, I think we all got to learn a surprising amount about geology during the trip. I think I now know all I'll ever need about basalt and flood features! I don't really know what to add to this, as summarizing each day would take an excessive amount of space and time, but giving you an overview of the trip as a whole seems too trivial. Anyway, a lot of other people have done that.


So I guess I'll say what I learned. I learned that going on a trip that involves long (really long) flights/layovers is basically an instant bonding experience. I learned that basalt is sharp and not always the best rock to climb, as it might decide that it wants to hurt you. I learned that, while rolling in a giant plastic pipe in an empty quarry, you have to brace your arms and legs or you just slide around. Oh yeah, and I learned about basalt columns too. :)


Besides all of that, the trip itself was breathtaking. I took a lot of pictures-- 400 something-- but somehow they still don't manage to quite capture the magnificence of it all. Everything we passed was beautiful, even if it was a wheat field by the side of a road. Maybe it was because it was so radically different from here, in Maryland, and we're just missing the beauty at home because we're used to it. Something to ponder, at least.


In closing, I want to thank LPSA and everyone who had a part in planning this trip, for taking us to a place so grand that sometimes it really was like being on another planet. Everyone was amazing, and together all of you guys (even Rebecca!! Awesome logo) are what made this trip so great, despite setbacks and delayed flights. So thanks. It definitely will not be forgotten, at least not by me.


-Hayley

While you were gone...

I didn't get to go because I got sick at the airport and had to go back. But while I recuperated, I created the LPSA logo for this year (above). Enjoy! (I'll just...suffer quietly in a corner.)
~Rebecca

Good Times

Well we're back from the Scablands now, and it was awesome. We took measurements of basalt columns and striae at three different sites in Washington, and stopped at dozens more places to learn about the geology/morphology that shaped the land. Besides this, we climbed rocks, waded in lakes, feasted beside great coulees, and dangled at edges of precipices. We drove past amazing rolling hillsides and leapt down sand dunes. The views were astounding. The activities exhilarating. The memories everlasting.

I could not have imagined a better trip to learn from while at the same time having fun. Our trip was one for the books.

-Harrison

Last full day on the road!

Marie McBride
Unfortunately today is the last full day on this adventure. So far the experience has been amazing. I feel like this trip has turned me into a geologist, a rock climber, and a photographer. The sites we have seen have been awe inspiring. I could have just sat at these places all day.

Right now we are driving over beautiful rolling hills to our next adventure.  :)

Haiku 3: The World Changes

Unjust clast divide
Parted by the matrix of
Grainy oppression

Day 1 Wrap Up

Greetings and good morning!
This is Andy, your LPSA staff assistant. Yesterday was our first full day in the field and I am not exaggerating when I tell you that we are having an incredible time.
 We took measurements at some of our first columnar basalt outcrops, felt the strange soapy/slick water at Soap Lake, examined the erratic (foreign; transported from elsewhere by glacier) rocks at the terminal moraine from the last Ice Age, and studied the astounding scablands landscape features at Dry Falls and Frenchman's Springs.

The complex cooling history of the Columbia basalts and the intensity of the Missoula Flood are very apparent. These landscape features are BIG!
I would love to write more but it is time for us to depart on our next expedition. See you in Moscow, Idaho tonight.

The adventure of a lifetime-Scablands

With every place there is feeling,

that part of you that is touched by what you see touch and feel,

Today science truly became real,

From rock sliding, to Goddard day singing, we all had a great time.

The ambition that it takes to climb rocks and explore,

Made this experience what it was and so much more,

The people, the words, the loess, the birds,

Today nature explained knowledge and I learned tons!

Adventuring with my LPSA crew was so much fun!!!

Joshua "The Joker" Mann

Haikwo Two

Bleary-eyed start with
One rock, two rock, tree rock, chalk
Up columnar basalt

Jake

Daily Haiku #1

The first in what will be a highly acclaimed rock-related poetry series by Jake.

Disorderly. Cracks

flow through what once flowed to the

distant mountain peaks

We made it!

Scablands Engage

Hey, I'm David Kutai Weiss, an LPSA intern from the College of Charleston and one of the (aspiring) field geologists in the program.  We’re leaving early Sunday for Washington, and I'm extremely excited to travel to the Channeled Scablands this week for a number of reasons…

Reason Number One:

Basalt columns…

On Earth…

Basalt Columns in Porto Santo Island (Wikipedia)

And on Mars…

Basalt columns on the inside of an impact crater on Mars.  These columns were found using data from the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter.

The basalt columns' stunning hexagonal shape has puzzled scientists for hundreds of years, and although we have a better understanding of their formation today, the columns remain fascinating to study for scientists (like myself).



In areas, the Scablands exhibit pristine basalt columns, which is my primary interest on the trip because it directly relates to my NASA research project.  With much help from my fellow interns, I will be acquiring measurements of the physical properties of these columns (height, width, etc) and relating them to basalt columns recently discovered on Mars with the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.  By taking measurement and aerial photos (Thanks to Neil and Josh), I will be able to use these columns to plot the relationship between stria (A physical byproduct of the basalt cooling process) heights and column width.  I can then compare this relationship with the measurements I am currently taking from the HiRISE camera to infer stria heights on Mars.  By knowing these physical properties of the basalt columns on Mars, we can derive knowledge of the thermal evolution of these columns— how long they took to cool, to what extent water played a role in their cooling, and the general physical environment they were emplaced in!

That is a summation of my research project this summer, so as you can imagine, traveling to the scablands is an integral part of my research.  Additionally, as an outdoorsman and (aspiring) field geologist, (Reason Number Two) I’m just happy to get outdoors!  It is a great excuse to bang rocks with a rock hammer, use my hand-lens an unhealthy amount, and climb lots of rocks.  This is going to be a great learning experience with great company, as our mentors and interns are all top-notch!

Meet the Expedition Leaders: Jason Barnes

Dr. Jason W. Barnes is a planetary scientist and Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Idaho.  He will be providing a local perspective on the area, having both lived in the channeled scablands for the past 3 years and led a prior field trip to the area in 2003 (see pictures from that trip at: http://barnesos.net/homepage/lpl/fieldtrips/CRB/ ).  After having grown up in St. Louis, Missouri, Jason received his B.S. in Astronomy from Caltech in 1998, and his Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences from The University of Arizona in 2004.  He and Brian Jackson are therefore old grad school buddies.  Jason studies two disparate fields of planetary science: extrasolar planets, and the geology of Saturn's moon Titan.  His extrasolar planet work involves working with NASA's Kepler mission to characterize giant planets in other solar systems.  For Titan he works with the Cassini spacecraft, specifically the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) instrument, looking at Titan's surface from orbit around Saturn.  Jason is presently working to design a possible future mission to Titan: an unpiloted airplane, making involvement with the RSESTeP airplane particularly appropriate.  Read more at: http://barnesos.net/pro .

Remote Sensing Earth Science Teacher Program (RSESTeP)

During our upcoming trip to Washington, LPSA participants will be working with RSESTeP in order to learn a little about remote sensing. As explained by NASA's website, "RSESTeP is a three-tiered (Satellite, R/C Plane and Ground-truthing) Remote Sensing Earth Science Teacher Program that trains 4th – 12th grade classroom science teachers how to use cutting edge NASA resources and technologies to implement Earth Science Missions with students and communities." While in the past the program has worked with science teachers across the country, this summer it will be partnering with LPSA to investigate basalt columns in the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington state.

We will first record various ground measurements of the columnar basalt at different locations in order to verify previously collected data. Next, in partnership with pilots from the Academy of Model Aeronautics, students will use instruments aboard the R/C planes to collect aerial photographs of the same sites. All of this information will be combined to gain a greater understanding of what geologic processes take place during the formation of basalt columns.

Ultimately, we wish to relate the structure and history of the Scabland basalts to similar formations that have been recently identified on Mars by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). The discovery of columnar basalts on Mars is a very exciting because they suggest the presence of liquid water.

Meet the Expedition Leaders: Patrick Burkhart

Dr Patrick Burkhart joined the faculty of Slippery Rock University in 1998, teaching Hydrology, Hydrogeology, Environmental Geology, and Glacial Geology.  His professional interests lie in water resources, landscape evolution, and environmental change.  He is a strong supporter of collaborative undergraduate research, as both an advocate for systemic enhancement and as an accomplished practitioner.  His student collaborators have sought adventure-based discovery in the Badlands of South Dakota, glaciers in Alaska, watersheds of Costa Rica, and many aspects of Pennsylvania geology. He has also worked as a consulting hydrogeologist, examining water budget analyses, contaminant transport, and aquifer remediation of petroleum hydrocarbons.  His research has taken him from arctic to tropical settings in pursuit of understanding the evolution of geologic thought and the history of science, particularly enjoying travel in the footsteps of Charles Darwin.


Read about some of his research here: http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/19/12/article/i1052-5173-19-12-4.htm

Meet the Expedition Leaders: Brian Jackson

Brian Jackson is a NASA postdoctoral fellow at Goddard Space Flight Center. He received his B.S. in Physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta GA and his Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona in Tucson. His graduate research focused on tidal effects on extra-solar planets. During his graduate work, Brian showed that many of the first rocky extra-solar planets found may be volcanically active, as a result of tidal heating. As a post-doctoral fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Brian has expanded his research to consider atmospheric evaporation from extra-solar planets very close to their host stars and to search for the transits of these planets. He has authored and co-authored numerous scientific papers and conference proceedings and crisscrossed the country to give invited talks at Caltech, MIT, Harvard, among others. He has contributed several short articles to "Astronomy" magazine and given numerous public talks. Brian lives with his wife Maki in Silver Spring MD.

Greetings!

Welcome to the official blog for the LPSA expedition to the Channelled Scablands of eastern Washington. Here you will find useful links, information about the trip leaders and participants, testimonials direct from the field, and tales of our findings. Please take a moment to check out the links on the right hand side of this page. At this moment, we have included: A comprehensive overview of the Scablands written by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a link to the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) home page where you can view photographs of the martian surface and the columnar basalts for which the Scablands will serve as an analog, and a link to the biographies of the participating LPSA interns.

We hope you enjoy!