Oceanografia

As part of the ETA Fulbright we have to develop a side project for when we’re not teaching English classes. When I came to Brazil I had a vague idea that I wanted to do something with oceanography. And although I love teaching and I find it fulfilling, I don’t want to teach English forever. So one of my highest priorities when I arrived was developing my side project. 

There are some weird things you have to go through moving to a new country. There's a lot of doubt and... pontificating- Am I doing this correctly? Was that rude? Where does the toilet paper go?? Hmm spandex is popular here, should I wear some?

When I arrived, I didn’t understand how things worked at the university. I didn’t speak Portuguese that well. I wanted to work with the Oceanography Department but I had no idea how to go about getting what I wanted. Fortunately, my (wonderful) host professor introduced me to professors in the Oceanography department and they let me audit some classes. I liked the classes but what I really wanted was to work in a lab. So I asked around a lot about opportunities in research labs and was actually turned down... quite a few times, which was really discouraging. It’s really hard to show up in a professor’s office and ask for a job or guidance.

My now-advisor wasn't so reluctant. He agreed to work with me almost immediately! He did his PhD in Virginia and loves New Orleans so we were fast friends. He’s running a project right now on Ilha Trindade, an island about 4 days off the coast of Espirito Santo. I was really looking forward to going on a research trip to the island but I think my grant will end before I have the opportunity.

I’m working on the sedimentation part of the project. What I love about sedimentology in oceanography is that you can look at tiny grains of sand and learn so much about the history and formation of land. You can estimate the strength of waves depending on the size of sand they deposit. You can tell if sea creatures live nearby depending on the percentage of calcium carbonate in the sand. You can tell if the land was formed by a volcano. You can make hypotheses about the topography of the ocean floor based on the variance of grain sizes. It’s a riddle where you try to glean the most information out a few seemingly-boring rocks.

I've included some photos from the sedimentology lab. 

I love this picture. You can see samples of sand from beaches all around the world in the tiny glass jars along the wall. The cylindrical stacks are for measuring grain sizes and weighing the mass of each grain diameter. 

This is heavy v. light mineral seperation. The funnels are full of sample sediments and Bromoform which has a density of 2.89 g/cm3. The density of pure water is about 1. The Bromoform separates the heavy particles from the light ones. The light ones float in the dense solution while the heavy ones sink to the bottom. After we separate the minerals, they're sent to Porto Alegre for analysis.