For the past three-four weeks, I've been working on a variety of projects for Tess and Glenn. For Tess' project, I've been compiling well data together, recording the different time periods of various depths of the well. Eventually, once we are done compiling this data, we'll be able to use ArcGIS and compile a 3D model of the basin using all the well data.
I've been working more on Glenn's projects the past two weeks. We have been taking geographic mapping data from a geographer named Tom Diblee and been stitching them together in order to create a macro-map of a huge portion of California in order to help gather a better understanding of geographic patterns and formations from a macro-scale rather than small, specific quadrants. We compiled all the maps within ArcGIS; seeing the Branner Library computers take a long time to process the compilation of the maps was quite a surprise considering how powerful they were, but also made me realize just how useful and in-depth the compilation of these maps really were.
Finally, last week, I helped Glenn with rock-crushing samples that he's accumulated from various places. The point of rock-crushing is so we can take various types of rock and be able to determine various characteristics about it using a trace element found inside the rock called zircon. The rock-crushing itself only takes about 5-10 minutes, but it then takes about 35-40 minutes to completely clean out all the machinery used in the rock-crushing before we can continue on with crushing the next sample in order to prevent cross-contamination of results. It's amazing how meticulous the cleaning process has to be in order to ensure the accuracy of data from the samples: vacuum everything, wire-brush everything, vacuum everything again, and finally, air-hosing everything down as the final measure.
All in all, it's been a fun and engaging experience thus far!