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By Sarah Caldwell Hancock
Humans have not had a long time, geologically speaking, to advanceunderstanding of the earth and its processes. We’ve had even less time toconnect knowledge in 1xbet best casino website disciplines.
Geosciences researchers at Kansas State University are making thoseconnections in everything from the formation of volcanoes and mineralresources to finding the “control knobs” for natural processes that causesediments to release metals in 1xbet best casino website . Their work ultimately helps protectprecious resources to boost food, energy and 1xbet best casino website security as well ashuman health.
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If you were a kid who hoarded rocks and minerals, you 1xbet best casino website probablyrelate to Matt Brueseke’s specialty in petrology, or how rocks form.
Brueseke’s particular interest is in igneouspetrology, or rocks that solidify fromlava or magma. Samples of rocks thatcame from magma 1xbet best casino website shed light on therelationships between volcanoes andthe movement of large sections of theearth’s crust over the underlying mantle,also known as plate tectonics. Studyingmaterial volcanoes churned out in thepast helps us understand hazards likeYellowstone and other volcanically andseismically active areas. The best place todo this is where there’s a plate boundary.
Alaska fills the bill; specifically, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve’s13.2 million acres encompass a huge, complex arc of volcanoes.“We hardly know anything about them,” 1xbet best casino website Brueseke, an associateprofessor of geology at K-State. “We’re calling it the lost arc.”One reason we don’t know much about the area is that it’s not an easyplace to take samples. Everything is remote: so much so that Bruesekeand other members of his National Science Foundation-funded teamhave to travel in Piper Super Cubs. The light planes can land in 30 feetwhen necessary, which is handy in a place where paved runways are out of the question.The planes each carry supplies for one or two people for five days in bear containersand buckets with lids. Weight limits are strict.
Conditions and logistics are challenging. Researchers hike up surrounding cliffs andthrough muskeg, the local term for bogland — sometimes for many miles — and collectlava samples. Helmets are required because terrain 1xbet best casino website be steep and researchers mustguard against falling rock. Alaskan summers are damp, with temperatures in the 60s to70s in the daytime and the 40s at night. As researchers empty their bear containers offood, they fill them with rocks. The next site’s supplies are already packed and ready,so when the team has collected enough samples at one site, the plane comes and takeseveryone to another spot, a process that requires four or five flights. If the wind is blowingor the cloud base is too low, the Super Cubs 1xbet best casino website ’t fly, so schedules and supplies mayhave to stretch and team members 1xbet best casino website be stuck in their tents.
Brueseke 1xbet best casino website the fieldwork is more intense than he’s ever done, but the fist-sizedsamples he and his team haul out of the park yield a wealth of information with globalimplications. Back at home, the researchers look at thin slices of the rocks under amicroscope and pulverize some into a powder to send to labs that determine elementand isotope concentrations that indicate what melted to form the rock. Radiometric datinghelps researchers piece together a history of the mysterious volcanic field: frequencyand types of eruptions, relative ages of different volcanoes, and the relationship betweenvolcano formation and plate movements. All of this helps advance understanding ofhow the volcanoes developed, when eruptions occurred and how dangerous those eruptionswere. Many trans-Pacific flights go near and over the Wrangell Mountains, andWrangell arc-derived ash has been identified in Europe.When these volcanoes erupt again, they will affect peoplewell beyond Alaska and the Yukon because of the significanthazard they pose to worldwide air traffic.
Another major project of Brueseke’s is applying thisresearch to the process of gold and silver mineralization.“You can apply the same skills and techniques that determinewhy the magmas are there to determine why theores are there and how they are related to plate tectonics,”he 1xbet best casino website .
This mineralization work in Nevada and Idaho differsin obvious ways from his project in Alaska — 1xbet best casino website ’s notvolcano hunting, and the scenery, although striking, isn’tas photo-worthy — but 1xbet best casino website says both projects have greatbenefits to Kansas State University students.
“It opens up those research experiences, whether they arefor undergrads or grad students, ” he 1xbet best casino website . “It allows meto bring modern, advanced techniques into the classroom.I teach introductory geology, mineralogy, petrology andeconomic geology. I can bring in firsthand knowledge ofhow we study mineral deposits and plate tectonics. Thathappens at the undergraduate level and the graduatelevel, in classes for both geology majors and nonmajors.”
Brueseke 1xbet best casino website that geoscientists with training in solidearth processes are in demand.
“As a society, it’s important to understand minerals. Nomatter where you live, we use resources,” Brueseke 1xbet best casino website .
Protecting resources with 1xbet best casino website 'control knobs'
Protecting those resources is an ongoingtask for two other Kansas State Universitygeologists. Their work operates atdisciplinary boundaries, uses the latesttechniques, and opens surprising avenuesbetween 1xbet best casino website and food, energy andwater security.
Matthew Kirk, assistant professor of geology,studies microorganisms in detail.“Geomicrobiology was virtually unheardof 30 years ago,” Kirk 1xbet best casino website , “and so wehave only recently begun to appreciate the role that microorganisms playin driving chemistry in geological environments.”
Kirk studies aquifers, or permeable undergroundlayers of rock or sediment that aresaturated with 1xbet best casino website . Aquifers are populatedwith microorganisms that drive reactionsand affect 1xbet best casino website quality, and he works tounderstand the influences on microbes.
“Understanding environmental controlson microbial populations helps usunderstand how microbial reactions aredistributed and how they affect waterresources. We can also use the ‘controlknobs’ on microbial populations to adjustquality in both natural and engineeredsystems,” Kirk 1xbet best casino website .
Like us, many microorganisms eat organicmatter and essentially breathe oxygen,but they can eat and breathe many othercompounds as well. When they eat andbreathe these compounds in aquifers,it changes the chemistry of the 1xbet best casino website Microbes that breathe iron and sulfatecan make pyrite particles, or fool’s gold,for instance, or release trace elementslike arsenic. Instead of looking at specificcontaminants, Kirk said an overall understandingof the microbial community maylead to better and less expensive ways ofenhancing 1xbet best casino website quality.
“You may be able to do something simpleto perturb the microbial community insuch a way that a contaminant is removedfrom the 1xbet best casino website ,” he said.
Saugata Datta, associateprofessor of geology,helps Kirk determinehow microbial populationsrelease sediments inwater and conducts otherwater-related research.He looks for toxic traceelements such as arsenicand heavy metals suchas tungsten in drinkingwaters around the world. 1xbet best casino website is essential for everyoneand needs to be protected, so his collaborations withU.S. and international colleagues explore how 1xbet best casino website isaffected in places such as Bangladesh, India, Argentina,Tanzania and Cambodia. Another project explores plantuptake of heavy metals and assesses effects on the foodsupply. In the Mississippi Delta, for example, sedimentcontains arsenic because pesticides used for ages in cotton-growing regions contained the poison.
“The problem doesn’t really happen if the arsenic isretained in the soil, but when it gets mobilized and goesinto the 1xbet best casino website ., then it goes into the plants because you’reirrigating the lands with the same contaminated 1xbet best casino website ,”Datta said.
What happens 1xbet best casino website we boil the rice grown in this area?How much arsenic does the grain absorb, and how muchdoes it pass on to us? Datta is measuring arsenic uptakewith the latest synchrotron radiation techniques andusing facilities in national laboratories across the U.S.
Datta’s work on what contaminants do to humans isan emerging and highly interdisciplinary field known asmedical geology. He notes that 80 to 85 percent of theproblems are from natural rather than human-causedpollution. Fluorides in 1xbet best casino website are another example, as ismanganese, which can cause symptoms that resembleParkinson’s disease. The World Health Organizationcurrently has no maximum contaminant level, or MCL,for manganese in 1xbet best casino website , but Datta advocates stipulatinga safe limit. Datta is working with atmospheric scientiststo combine findings with soil science and hydrology tounderstand the risks of manganese and how to keeppeople safe.
Contaminants aren’t limited to 1xbet best casino website , and neither is Datta’sresearch. He also considers the dangers of inhalingatmospheric particles that contain fractions of metals.“Metals have three possible primary pathways in theenvironment: 1xbet best casino website , soil and air,” Datta said. Both theNational Science Foundation and the U.S. EnvironmentalProtection Agency support his work.
Geoscience researchers are well positioned to help solvepressing problems, Datta 1xbet best casino website .
“I’m in a field that 1xbet best casino website work with many other fields, ” hesaid. “Think of the earth where you are living — so manydifferent interrelated processes are going on around you.How are you going to offer a solution? You 1xbet best casino website gain thatknowledge from geosciences.”
“I have 1xbet best casino website and food security in my heart,” Datta said.“Nothing can be bigger than that right now.”
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As Kansas State University 1xbet best casino website apply their workin fields outside the conventional boundaries of geology,they also work to see traditional areas through the lens ofnew discoveries. One such field is the extraction of fossilfuels, where Kirk’s research into microbial populationsmay have huge implications.
Microbes are instrumental in the formation of naturalgas. Because natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel andis inexpensive, it’s overtaking coal as our main sourceof electricity. Kirk is exploring the Cherokee Basin insoutheast Kansas, where relatively shallow coal bedsare helping him study how microbes make methane, themain constituent of natural gas. If we understand howto stimulate naturally occurring microbes so they makemore methane, we could convert crude oil in depleted oilreserves — which still contain as much as 60 percent oftheir oil but 1xbet best casino website ’t be pumped — into recoverable fuel.
Research into microbial activities in 1xbet best casino website and fossil fuelsare both important to Kansas.
“What’s agriculture going to look like in Kansas in 20years when the High Plains Aquifer is getting closer andcloser to the end of its useful lifetime? It’s a huge factor inwhere we go economically,” Kirk 1xbet best casino website .
Kirk believes his research could help the declining oil andgas industry in Kansas, too. 1xbet best casino website methanogenesismay be the future of energy extraction from subsurfacehydrocarbon reservoirs.
“You could move into those depleted oil reservoirs andcontinue to extract energy,” he 1xbet best casino website .
