OSL dissertation: 1 month in

It's now been just over a month since I started my dissertation, and I'm loving every bit of it! 

As mentioned in my last post, I'm researching OSL dating of marine sediments, specifically Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 658B in the equatorial Atlantic. My first task is to address the issue of erroneously old ages yielded when measuring fine silt grains (4-11μm), attributed to lateral sediment reworking of fine silt at the ocean floor without further exposure to light, and thus these grains possess a residual luminescence signal at the time of deposition. This involves separation of samples in to seven different size fractions (ranging from 0-5μm to 40-60μm) and measuring their equivalent doses (i.e. the radiation dose received since last exposure to light) to determine the finest silt that can be accurately dated, since not all marine sites may have a high supply of coarse silt. I've been working in the dark lab using Stokes settling to isolate the finest grain sizes and sieving to separate the coarse silt. I've found working in the dark pretty straightforward, actually; I've not found it difficult to adapt my eyes to the orange/red light conditions in the lab and can still work as I can in the light. I've just finished my fourth week of working on this experiment, and I have some really great, interesting data back so far! The datasets just need the addition of the coarse fractions measurements (preparation of which is underway), and then I will be able to move on to my next experiment.

Next, I will be looking at light penetration in to the marine core. The issue here is that previously no attempts have been made to shield marine cores from light during their collection and archival. As a result, the outside of the core has been exposed to light (bleached). This means that only the material in the middle of the core that is shielded is useful, potentially leaving you with very little material to work with. I will be attempting to quantify the depth in to the core required to access material that is unbleached, and thus dateable. I will attempt to sample in to the core at mm intervals to achieve this, so my hand-eye coordination will definitely be tested! 

Finally, I'll be looking to date Oxygen Isotope Stage 5 (the last interglacial, ~70-125k years ago) material in attempts to accurately extend the range of OSL dating for marine sediment. Climatic peaks and troughs during this time period are very well defined; if OSL ages can match these then its potential as a chronometer in marine sediments is increased.

I've been thoroughly enjoying undertaking this research. I can't believe a month has gone by already. I have a feeling the next two will go by in a flash, and I really, really don't want to finish just yet!! Nonetheless, my initial results are very promising and I think this work will provide some valuable insights to the application of OSL dating on marine sediments.

Glaciers and Glen Roy

This post is very long overdue! To say that the last couple of months has been hectic is the understatement of the year. From finishing the final optional module, going away to Glen Roy in Scotland for 10 days and completing and presenting dissertation proposals, this, for me, has been the busiest and most intense part of the MSc, but consequently the most rewarding so far.

Last term finished with the final optional module, which for me was 'Glaciers in the climate system'. I was very excited for this module; I'd first learnt about glaciers during my A Levels and was probably the favourite part of my A Level course, then during my final year of undergrad I did a glaciers module and did very well in it. So I really wanted to maintain my good track record of studying glaciers. And I managed to do so! Our lecturer for the module was one of the most enthusiastic people I've met, and it really showed and paid off throughout the week. As a result, I was really focused throughout, especially during GIS practical sessions, which were taught brilliantly. In the end, thanks to the excellent teaching, I produced a piece of coursework that came back with a great grade!

The last two weeks of the easter break saw us go on the famous Glen Roy field trip in Scotland for ten days, with a focus on studying the most recent ice advance during the Lateglacial - the Loch Lomond Readvance. For the first six days, our lecturers took us on 'tour days' of the landscape, studying the landforms and sediments that provide the evidence for this time period. We were very lucky with the weather! The first three days were gloomy, but the rest of the trip was lovely sunshine and blue skies. Following this, we designed projects that we would undertake in small groups to constitute the main part of the coursework - a fieldwork project report. My group carried out sedimentology investigations and geomorphological mapping in Glen Roy, more specifically the Glen Turret valley. We did two days of field work followed by data presentation and analysis after the field trip, which we then each wrote up individually for our coursework. The second part of the coursework was to create a conference poster based on a topic that had been discussed as part of the trip, but separate to the projects we worked on for our reports. The focus of this was to identify an issue/gap in the research regarding the Loch Lomond Stadial in Scotland, and construct a research plan for addressing this problem. This was challenging, since it was probably only the second time (after Palaeoclimatology in first semester) we really had to put our thinking caps on and come up, individually, with a brand new project. That said, everyone's finished posters looked very impressive and seemed that every one of us had put a lot of work in to thinking up our ideas. Overall, the Glen Roy field trip was an incredible opportunity to widen our knowledge and to put theory in to practice in the field. Aside from the academic part of it, the trip was also great for us all getting to know one another better and bonding as a group, and we are certainly much closer because of it.

So, now that the Scotland coursework has been handed it, it's time to focus on the final part of the MSc - dissertations! Last week we gave presentations to members of the CQR (Centre for Quaternary Research, RHUL) proposing our project ideas. This was an incredibly scary thing to do, especially for those of us, including myself, not confident with public speaking. Despite this, it was yet another invaluable part of the course that I'm really glad we did. We were able to gain insightful and constructive feedback, and not only that, but it was the first time I, at least, experienced giving a presentation to that many people, and is a great confidence builder when you receive positive and constructive feedback, as all of us did. 

So now it's a case of getting started! I'm very excited to start lab work; since doing my undergrad dissertation it's one of my favourite parts of doing new work. My project is addressing optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of marine sediments. A lot of my work is experimental, so whatever the results I get they will make for a very interesting study. 

Luminescence Dating and Microfossils

The end of this term is fast approaching. I can't quite believe there are only two weeks left already. I've completed two more modules since my last post so figured I'd tell you about about them! I have to say, they were possibly my favourite modules so far (although tephra was also a brilliant module).

The first was Luminescence Dating. This course wasn't originally running at the beginning of the year, which I was highly disappointed about because it was a module I really want to do. I'd heard about the concept of luminescence dating at undergraduate but never really learnt about it. So when the member of staff for another module was no longer able to teach their module, our course leader gave us the option to vote for which module we'd rather have run: luminescence dating or human evolution. I'm so glad the majority of people voted luminescence because I found the module really stimulating. We were taught by an external lecturer and I found her a really good teacher. She was also clearly enthusiastic about the topic which made it even easier to enjoy the module. We started by learning about the concepts and physics behind luminescence dating, which, whilst heavy at times, wasn't too difficult to get my head around. It certainly helped that if we were stuck then our lecturer was more than willing to take a step back and to explain it in a different way. We also learnt about the laboratories for luminescence dating; it was exciting going in to the dark room for the first time through a tardis-like contraption! Later in the week we measured and calculated our own luminescence age through a lot of mathematical equations. I struggled with this at first, but there was plenty of help at hand and once I'd got my head around it, I felt a huge sense of achievement when I reached the final age and felt really elated. Finally, we were tasked with writing up all the processes we went through to obtain the age and to interpret the value based on its reliability for the first part of the assignment. The second part involved a review essay on one of three topics. This coursework was handed in the Friday just gone, and means I am now over halfway through the coursework for this term!

The next module I took was Microfossils. Having used testate amoebae for my undergraduate dissertation, and really enjoying it, I was really excited for this module because I knew they would be covered. We also covered diatoms and foraminifera, which were also fascinating microfossils to study, and very pretty under the microscope! In the middle of the week, we learnt how to pick forams from sediment under a low power microscope, which I actually found to be a strangely therapeutic activity. I certainly wouldn't mind if I were to spend lab time doing it. Having said that, I still enjoyed testates the most, and had a really fun last day on the course when we got to study them. I found it much easier than I anticipated to get back in to the swing of the identifications again. I took some really nice photographs of them under the microscope, which involved an iPhone and a very steady hand!

Our coursework for this module involves a dataset of assemblage data on all three microfossils, which we are required to draw up in to an assemblage diagram and to interpret the past environment from. This will be the next deadline in two weeks time at the end of term. 

My next module is Glaciers in the Climate System. Glaciers have been something I've always been interested in right from when I first learnt about them during my A Levels, and I enjoyed and did well in a glaciers undergraduate module I did, so am hoping for good things. The lecturer is extremely passionate about glaciers so I am sure she and the module will not disappoint.

Tephrochronology and Micromorphology

I can't believe how busy this term is! It's certainly the busiest I've ever been at university before. But I'm having such a good time learning all sorts of new things with much more to come. This term is the term of optional courses, and so far I've finished two: Tephrochronology and Micromorphology.

Tephrochronology has to be one of the modules I was most excited for, even before starting the course. And it has only served to fuel my interest in it. I undertook tephra analysis for my undergraduate dissertation, but at a very basic level. During this module I refined those skills and learnt so much more, and I have to say I want to do and learn more! It's definitely a strong contender for my dissertation. We had three weeks after the end of the module to complete the coursework, which was submitted last Friday. I had a really good time doing it, actually, and seeing how much I had improved from the work I did at undergraduate was really satisfying; even without getting any mark back yet I can tell I improved. So now we have four weeks to wait until we find out our marks. Until then, more modules are underway.

Last week was Micromorphology. I had never even heard of micromorphology before this module was offered, but it sounded really interesting with lots of potential for practical work, which I love. I enjoyed learning about something completely new, and thoroughly enjoyed the practical work, even if it was frustrating trying to get my eye in at times! But it was a really rewarding week. Visiting Queen Mary University was one of the highlights of the week, being able to visit a specialist centre for micromorphology and seeing the facilities available. Now we have three weeks to complete the coursework, which involves a review essay and a description of a thin-section from an environment of our choice. I'm excited to get started in to the first real independent lab work of the masters. 

The other thing that has happened has been the submission of my first PhD application. It was definitely a challenge writing an application for this level of study, but I was happy with what I submitted considering its my first, regardless of the outcome, although it would obviously be amazing to get an interview. Currently I am still awaiting news - fingers crossed! 

There has been a distinct lack of posts on this blogs to what I planned when I started it, and although I knew I'd be busy, I didn't quite expect I wouldn't get around to doing this very often. So apologies, but I hope you enjoy reading about what I do post! 

Next post to come after the next few modules have been taken.

2015!

Happy new year everyone! Apologies for the lack of posts towards the end of last year, coursework and Christmas took over a little.

We all successfully managed to submit our second piece of coursework before breaking up for the holidays, and we also received our marks for the first piece of coursework we handed in. Considering that it was the first piece of coursework I've written at masters level I was really happy with the mark I got. The feedback was incredibly useful (a huge plus about this course/department if you were ever planning to come to Royal Holloway to do geography). Frustratingly for me it all seemed to have been little things I needed to do to break over the grade boundary. Whilst frustrating though, at least I can take it all on board and try to apply it to the next piece of work to, hopefully, improve my grade. 

For us on the MSc course 2015 is the year of optional modules, the Scotland field trip and finally the dissertation. I cannot wait to start the optional courses! I'll get to further what I know about topics I have already studied, but also learn some completely new things that sound super interesting to me! The topics I have chosen are:

Tephrochronology

Micromorphology

Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating

Microfossils

Glaciers in the climate system

I am a big fan of how this term is set up. Out of 10 weeks we are required to chose 5 modules. Each module runs for one week. Following this week, we are given three weeks to complete the coursework associated with that module. So, whilst we will be busy doing coursework during our weeks off, this also gives us a little break from being in lectures all day every day. Luckily for me, the modules I wanted to do were spaced apart very nicely across the term in order to give me good amounts of time between each module to work on coursework. 

During Easter, we are all off on the Scotland field trip. I've heard great things about this trip and it will be really exciting to do some quaternary field work! On the down side, I'm sure it's gong to be very cold all the way up in the Scottish highlands. The things we do for science!

During the summer term we work on our dissertations. I don't yet know the details of the dissertation process, other than dates for certain deadlines such as the proposal, the submissiom and the oral presentations of results. I've not even thought about what I might want to do for my dissertation; in my mind, that's the idea of this term - to start to specialise in a few areas before specialising furthering for our dissertations depending on what we enjoy. 

So that's a brief description of what's going to be happening this year for MSc Quaternary Science students. Will try to post updates as the term progresses!

Semester One Update

The last month has been totally non-stop and it's gone so quickly! It feels like we only had our first week of teaching a couple of weeks ago when in fact there are only three weeks left until we break for Christmas. It's scary how fast the time is going; I got told it would fly by when I applied for the course but little did I know just how true that would turn out to be. 

Loads of things have happened in the space since my last post. The first big milestone, I feel, is the submission of the first piece of coursework! That means that Sedimentology and Stratigraphy is well and truly finished (unless you count the fact we haven't received the results yet). I actually found it really interesting learn a brand new skill (at least for me) during this course - creating sediment and stratigraphy logs. We used Abobe Illustrator in order to do this; whilst at first the software looks like another language, it was actually very easy to pick up following a practical session with one of the technicians. I found myself having a lot of fun with the different methods of displaying data, and ending up with a swanky (if I do say so myself) set of sediment logs at the end made it very satisfying. Let's hope that the write up that goes with them is of a high enough calibre to earn myself a nice first mark of the course.

Another memorable event in the last month was the London Quaternary Lectures held at RHUL. We (the masters cohort) hosted a wine reception following the lectures for the speakers and guests. It was a great opportunity to meet new people within the scientific community. The most valuable conversations for me (at this point in time) were those discussing the course with previous students. It was particularly useful because we have been in the process of choosing our optional modules for semester 2. The majority of us seemed to be debating with ourselves over which modules to take. I'm not sure if I just speak for myself or not but speaking to some previous students really helped me to make my mind up on what I have now decided to study next semester.

Which leads me nicely on to the last thing I want to talk about in this post - choosing our optional modules. We were able to choose 5 out of 10 available modules to study over the course of next term. I spent a good while reading up on the syllabus' for every module I was debating whether to take. There were three modules I was dead set on taking: Tephrochronology, Luminescence Dating and Microfossils. The last two I struggled to decide on for a while. But in the end I decided on Micromorphology and Glaciers. They all sound like really good fun and I think I've chosen a nice broad range of topics whilst at the same time really feeding my interests.

So there's for my whistle-stop update of the last month. In all, I'm so glad I chose to apply for and do this course; I'm having a really good time despite the workload, and I've loved learning all kinds of new things, which I'm sure will continue throughout the year!

Two modules down

This first month has gone by in a flash; two modules down already! This course really is full steam ahead but it's been brilliant. I've learnt so much more than I thought I would have done in such a short space of time and I've felt really engaged in the subject of Quaternary Science.

It would take me an age to describe everything I've been up to over the last few weeks, so I'll just focus on a few stand-out moments.

The first of these is a lecture the majority of our cohort attended at UCL given by Bill Ruddiman, who has formulated the 'overdue glaciation hypothesis' and the 'Early Anthropocene hypothesis'. This was a real opportunity to begin to engage with the current scene of the Quaternary science community, and thus we all jumped at the chance to attend, especially considering we had been talking a lot about these hypotheses in our lectures. Bill was a brilliant speaker - clear and concise, and obviously passionate about his work. He definitely provided some food for thought and sparked a few opinions in the room, evident from the questions asked at the end of the talk, and it was intriguing and somewhat amusing to see how the community engages in debates about current topics.

Secondly, we went on two trips over the last two weeks for the second of the compulsory modules - Sedimentology and Stratigraphy. 

The first was a field day to Hunt's Bay, South Wales for sedimentology. The day was by no means the best day of the year in terms of weather (we all got very wet!) but nonetheless we all had a good day looking at the cliff sequence and conducting analyses on different aspects of the sediments at different sections along the exposure - turns out it was more than just a bit of rock, who would've thought! So now it is our job to create sediment logs of these sequences showing analyses such as lithology and clast orientation, and to correlate each section together in terms of the sedimentologies. I'm excited to see what the final product will look like!

Hunt's Bay, looking out from the cliff.

Hard at work.

During the second week of the module, we had a two-day trip to East Anglia for the stratigraphy component of the course. Across the two days we visited seven sites, from quarries to beach exposures, in order to interpret the nature of the sediments and to take notes allowing us to go away and correlate every site together based on the nature and ages of the sediments. This is slightly different to the sedimentology trip as here we are inferring what time period each section at each site correlates to and using this information for our write-up, whereas for sedimentology we purely focus on the depositional environments of the sediments and carried out more in-depth investigations in order to interpret this.

Needless to say, the last two weeks have been incredibly tiring, but they have been an invaluable experience in our journey through this course.