Arctic REU Greenland Partnership

The National Center for Earth and Environmental Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NanoEarth) supported West Virginia’s Concord University during their Summer 2024 Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU). REU students worked with NanoEarth’s instrumentation and expertise as part of their participation in the “Arctic REU Greenland - Earth and Environmental Processes from the Inland Ice to the Ocean along the Aasivissuit-Nipisat World Heritage Corridor”.

The REU program was led by Concord University’s Chair of the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences and structural geologist, Joseph Allen, Ph.D. The REU was comprised of three students: Hunter Midkiff, a Concord University Junior double majoring in Environmental Geosciences and Chemistry; Libby Ashby, a Michigan State University Junior double majoring in Geological Sciences and Chemistry; and Marcus Kurth, a Georgia Tech junior majoring in Solid Earth and Planetary Sciences (SEP).

The REU group spent one day with NanoEarth to familiarize themselves with the instrumentation. Five instrument specialists and one graduate advisor spent the day discussing research techniques and graduate school information. Students learned about the X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscope (XPS), Microprobe Field Emission Electron Probe Microanalyzer, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Focused Ion Beam (FIB), and the Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM).

Next, the REU students spent time in western Greenland collecting Precambrian bedrock samples. The sampling targeted a metabasalt, metacarbonates, eclogite, and pseudotachylytes along faults that fractured the bedrock. They then headed to Concord University in Athens, West Virginia to prepare the samples in the rock-preparation laboratory. Next, they headed to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia to analyze their samples. 

Students spent a week in on-campus dorms at Virginia Tech (VT). VT Assistant Dean and Director of Graduate Admissions and Academic Progress, Janice Austin, served as the research evaluator for Concord’s NSF REU program. While on campus, students spent time at the Nanoscale Characterization and Fabrication Laboratory (NCFL), home of NanoEarth, to analyze samples. Instrument specialists who aided included NCFL Instrument Specialist, Steve McCartney, NanoEarth Instrument Specialist, Charis Horn, Ph.D., and NCFL FIB and SEM Laboratory Manager, Jarret Wright, Ph.D.

The FE-SEM imaged microstructures and identified small mineral phases using EDS spectroscopy. The FIB-SEM prepared TEM samples from the geologic thin sections. Horn used the TEM to examine the very fine nanoscale matrix of the pseudotachylyte. One of the most exciting mineralogic discoveries for the team was the presence of 20-50 nm-scale ripplocations in layer silicate minerals. These are effectively wrinkles in the silicate layers similar to a wrinkled rug on a floor. They were discovered in the materials science research community in 2014 and were subsequently reported in geologic materials for the first time in 2019. These can be seen in the “V” shaped patterns from the TEM image (uploaded to the photos “Ripplocations”).

In addition to research, NanoEarth Research Associate, Bipin Lade, Ph.D., presented and discussed real world applications of nanoscience and nanotechnology. VT Senior GAAP Advisor and Navigate Coordinator, Jenn Million, CPACC, presented about graduate admission, life on campus, and graduate degree programs. NCFL & MCL Director, and NanoEarth & NNCI Associate Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Matt Hull, Ph.D., presented to all NNCI REU students on zoom and Concord REU students in person, “Nanotechnology and Global Sustainability Challenges: Intersections between Research and Entrepreneurship”. 

In December 2024, Georgia Tech student Marcus Kurth and Michigan State University student Libby Ashby presented their work on the geochemistry of the metabasalt and metacarbonates at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual conference in Washington, D.C. Congratulations to both students who have since been accepted to graduate school: Libby Ashby will attend graduate school at Virginia Tech in Geosciences and Marcus Kurth will attend gradute school at North Carolina State University in Earth Sciences. 

Concord student Hunter Midkiff held a year-long undergraduate research project. He continued to work on the TEM data and presented his TEM work on the ripplocations at the Southeastern Section of the Geological Society of America in Harrisonburg, VA, in March 2025. He will continue this work during the Summer 2025 REU and his fall semester, before graduating in December 2025. Horn and Wright will assist Midkiff and Allen during the Summer 2025 REU. 

In the future, Concord students will continue the research as undergraduate projects and through a new $1M, NSF-funded S-STEM grant that provides scholarships to low-income students with majors in Environmental Geosciences, Chemistry, and Computer Science. These students will utilize scientists and instruments at NanoEarth and the NCFL annually to learn about careers and research opportunities in nanoscience.

Publication references for the student conference presentations:

• Midkiff, H., and Allen, J.L., 2025, "Nanoscale observations of cryptocrystalline matrix in an amygdule-bearing pseudotachylyte": Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 57. 
• Kurth, M., Ashby, L., Allen, J.L., Shaw, C.A., and Arctic REU Greenland Summer 2024 Science Team, 2024, "Petrologic characterization of mafic metaigneous rocks at the margin of a pseudotachylite-bearing fault zone, Ikertôq shear zone, Greenland": Abstract, 2024 Fall Meeting, American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C.
• Ashby, L., Kurth, M., Allen, J.L., Shaw, C.A., and Arctic REU Greenland Summer 2024 Science Team, 2024, "Geochemical and petrological understanding of pseudotachylite-bearing calc-alkaline and eclogite rocks from the Ikertôq shear zone, An NSF REU study": Abstract, 2024 Fall Meeting, American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C.