A few weeks ago, I headed out to Seattle, WA to attend the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA). The GSA Annual Meeting is held each fall and is one of the largest national conferences for geologists. I attended another one of these meetings back in 2015; however, at that time I wasn’t as fully submerged in geological study (I was transitioning into geology from engineering). Therefore, this year’s event was much more meaningful. For one thing, this was my first time presenting my research to a national audience.

I did this in the form of a scientific poster. It is standard procedure at these meeting for geologists to gather in the conference center’s exhibit hall after the day’s formal technical oral presentations. Here, meeting attendees enjoy adult beverages and chat with other researchers about work that interests them. During my session, I met many geoscientists, from undergraduates with very little exposure to my particular field of study to some of the sub-discipline’s leading experts. Many engaged me in spirited discussion and some even posed questions for consideration that I hadn’t thought of myself. I learned quite a bit and was excited to share my project with the community at large.

Explaining my poster to conference attendees (photo courtesy of Edward Lo

In addition to presenting my own work, I was able to see what other researchers in my field are up to of late. Conferences are particularly useful for getting a more immediate idea of where scientists are heading with their projects since presentations don’t undergo quite as rigorous (and lengthy) review processes. I particularly enjoyed sessions dedicated to “Challenges in Tectonics”, which resulted from community input to a document meant to direct research funding. It was exciting to see how our discipline is evolving.

Meetings like this are also a great venue for building networks, visiting with colleagues from other institutions and even finding future collaborators. One of the more interesting networking events I attended was the On To the Future (OTF) Alumni Reception. OTF is program meant to increase diversity in the geosciences by providing funding for students to attend their first GSA Annual Meeting. During the reception, a very inspiring speech was given by the 2017 Bromley Award for Minorities winner, Aradhna Tripati. Dr. Tripati emphasized the importance of perseverance and encouraged audience members to speak more openly about challenges faced due to cultural and social inequalities that still exist within our institutions.

I was also fortunate to visit with several friends and colleagues with which I’ve developed relationships over the past few years. I was especially excited to have lunch with professors and a fellow student from the Border to Beltway program. This program was designed to introduce students traditionally underrepresented in the geosciences to the discipline and it was during this program I feel I really emerged as a geologist.

Border to Beltway affiliates (photo from B2B Facebook page)

Overall, I had a really great time and I look forward to attending future events. If there is a meeting like this one for a topic that you find interesting I encourage you to attend!

Partaking in some post-conference sight-seeing (Space Needle)

Last year, at the start of my graduate education, I was given the assignment of describing my research (or what I thought it would be at that somewhat premature point) using only the thousand most commonly used words in the English language.

This assignment was inspired by a web comic that attempted to recreate a blueprint of the Saturn V rocket using this simplified language. Following the publication of that comic, the Up-Goer Five text editor was created and subsequently, the Ten Hundred Words of Science Challenge was born. The challenge led scientists from virtually all disciplines to create jargon-free descriptions of their projects.

While perusing some of these descriptions, I found one that really resonated with me. I’ve copied that entry below. It is by Matthew Hoyles on computer simulation:

“Some people learn by trying things out. Some people learn by thinking very hard. I make a world inside a computer the way people think the world works, and then try things out, to see if we are thinking right.”

In the first sentence, we are told that “some people learn by trying things out”. The people to which he is referring are experimentalists – or scientists who derive information by conducting physical experiments. This is the type of science you’ve probably tried your hand at during high school or undergraduate laboratory courses.

The second sentence tells us that “some people learn by thinking very hard”. These people are the theorists or those that develop abstract ideas about the universe. Albert Einstein is best known for his work constructing theories.

The two types are united when experimentalists design and conduct tests for the ideas proposed by theorists. There are, of course, people that do both as well as people that do science that is somewhere in between the two broad categories.

In the last sentence, the author states that he makes “a world inside a computer the way people think the world works”. In other words, he uses a computer to develop a model, or simplification of reality that can readily be constructed on that machine, based on what has already been observed and interpreted through other means. The model is used to “then try things out”. This is analogous to physical experimentation. The results of these simulations can either support or contradict a particular theory.

In my opinion, the power of computer simulation comes from this unique ability to simply “try things out”.  Often, experimentalists are limited in their ability to observe physical phenomena and theorists in their ability to predict the outcome of scenarios that might involve many interacting factors. So by performing experiments via computer simulation greater opportunities are afforded.

For example, in my own work, I think about things that happen deep in the ground over millions of years. No human being has been around long enough to observe what happened 50 million years ago and we don’t have the ability to travel 100 km into the Earth to directly see what’s going on. Additionally, to accurately describe how a mountain forms, one must consider an entire complex system.  For example, mountains grow when rocks get pushed together and thrust upward but that growth is limited by things like erosion at the surface. Also, the way the rock responds to these forces changes over time and isn’t the same everywhere in the Earth.

But by using computer simulations, I have the ability to construct models that account for those complexities based on what can be observed and then extrapolate (in both time and space) as well as vary how my unknowns are defined. I can then determine what works best and what makes the most sense. If all goes well, I hope that one day I might be able to “see if we are thinking right”.

Welcome to my blog, Orogeny Odyssey.

Trekker on the Annapurna Circuit, Nepal

Regarding the name: it’s likely that you’ve heard of an odyssey, and perhaps read the very famous epic poem by Homer with which it shares a name. An odyssey is basically an adventurous journey. However, it’s less likely that you’ve heard of an orogeny. An orogeny is simply a geologic process that results in the formation of mountains. Combining these two ideas gives an essence of my passions and what I hope to share with you through this blog.

As a geology student, I use different techniques to study the dynamics of interacting tectonic plates, or broken up pieces of the outermost layer of the Earth. I’m especially interested in what happens when continents collide and form mountains, like the Himalaya in Asia. To gain a better understanding of the interactions, I’ve begun to travel to mountain ranges to collect samples and make observations. I then combine my field studies with numerical methods (computer simulations) and laboratory techniques.

I chose to study this subject because I find it absolutely fascinating. The complexity of interactions and the broad range of methods involved in understanding orogenesis as well as other geologic phenomena is simply awe-inspiring for me. By sharing my experiences as well as providing some basic geologic context, I hope to inspire some awe within you as well.