Concord University REU 2023
The National Center for Earth and Environmental Nanotechnology (NanoEarth) in coordination with the Montana Nanotechnology Facility (MONT), supported Concord University for their Summer 2023 Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU). REU students worked with NanoEarth’s instrumentation and expertise as part of their participation in the “Architecture of Earthquakes in the Deep Crust: International Arctic Expedition Science for Students”. They concluded their REU by attending and presenting their research at the NNCI REU Convocation at MONT in August, 2023.
The 2023 REU program comprised of four students and two main academic sponsors, Joseph Allen, Ph.D. from Concord University and Colin Shaw, Ph.D. from Montana State University. Allen is a structural geologist at Concord, Chair of the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences and was recently awarded the statewide West Virginia Professor of the Year in April 2023. Shaw is the Director of the Undergraduate Scholars Program at Montana State University and Research Faculty in the Department of Earth Sciences. The student team included Alana Green, Paola Berrios, Caroline Kenney, and Samuel Dunbar.
Alana Green is a rising senior at James Madison University, majoring in Earth Sciences in the Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences. Her time at NanoEarth afforded her the opportunity to work with analytical instrumentation for the first time. Paola Berrios, also a rising senior at James Madison University, is majoring in Geology in the Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences. Caroline Kenney, a junior majoring in geology at the College of William and Mary, attended the REU after completing an Associate of Arts in General Studies and Humanities at Piedmont Virginia Community College. Samuel Dunbar, a rising junior at Wheaton College, is double majoring in Geology and Applied Physics.
The 2023 REU focused on samples collected in 2022 from a fault zone in Western Greenland. The program develops skills in arctic geoscience research with a focus on bedrock geologic mapping and geochemical and microstructural characterization of a rare and unusual type of rock (pseudotachylyte). Pseudotachylyte is created by frictionally flash melting and then rapidly cooling and re-solidifying in a few tens of seconds during ancient earthquakes. In some samples, small 1-30 µm mineral phases grew in the melt during the short time that it was molten.
Accurate determination of the mineral phases and chemistry allow scientists to determine parameters associated with melting, such as maximum temperature, chemical partitioning, and mineral zoning. Students analyzed and imaged 10-100 µm-scale vesicles (bubbles) that formed in some samples during the melting process, and were subsequently filled with fresh mineral phases during or after cooling.
The main laboratory research was completed at two NNCI sites, NanoEarth and MONT. This included Virginia Tech’s Nanoscale Characterization and Fabrication Laboratory (NCFL) and Montana State's Imaging and Chemical Analysis Laboratory (ICAL). They first spent time at Concord University, in Athens, WV, utilizing the microprobe laboratory and participating in a field trip to the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. Then they traveled for a week to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA to work at the NCFL.
Research completed at NanoEarth included using the scanning electron microscope (SEM), focused ion beam (FIB), and transmission electron microscope (TEM). NCFL Instrument Specialist Steve McCartney and the VT Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology Laboratory Director, Weinan Leng, Ph.D., aided students during their time at Virginia Tech. The students used Field Emission SEM to initially identify and image the distribution of small 1-30 µm mineral phases and the mineral fill within amygdules. They supplemented this work with Raman Spectroscopy and optical microscopy. The FIB SEM was used to prepare a TEM sample of the margins of the pseudotachylyte veins and the contact between the sub-micron-scale cryptocrystalline pseduotachylyte matrix and the amygdules. After on-site activities, NanoEarth’s Instrument Specialist Charis Horn, Ph.D. completed additional TEM analysis.
Lastly, students travelled to Montana State University in Bozeman, MT to complete their research and attend the NNCI REU Convocation. Students used SEM and X-Ray Diffractometer at MONT. The students used the Field Emission SEM for large-area EBSD and EDS mapping to further characterize crystalline structure and crystallographic orientation of 5-100 µm-scale minerals that rapidly grew in the few tens of seconds that the rock was molten, and minerals that filled in open cavities (vesicles) known as amygdules. Then they used iCAL's Bruker D8 Powder X-ray Diffractometer for bulk chemical characterization of the frictional melts and the adjacent host rock.
While traveling from Concord University to Montana State, the students stopped to examine outcrops of similar rocks in the Sawatch Range of central Colorado. To finish out their REU, they presented their research at the NNCI REU Convocation and participated in a scientific field trip to Yellowstone National Park. Of the experience, Joe Allen, Ph.D. states, "NanoEarth provided a student-friendly environment that was deeply rooted in the educational experience coupled with scientific discovery. "
NanoEarth is proud to continue our partnership with Concord University for their 2024 REU program. Moving forward, the REU will continue as "Arctic REU Greenland" for 2024-2026 with a broader research focus including glaciology, environmental change, and geomicrobiology.
