End of the Fall Semester

I've reached the end of the Fall semester. It was a very busy time towards the end of the semester. I had problem sets due for two classes and a paper and an accompanying presentation due for another, and all of these projects were due within a few days of each other. I managed to get it all done and on time too. Then I had finals to prepare for. It's all over now and I'm back in Ireland for Christmas. I think the finals went ok.

I'm looking forward to the next term. I haven't finalised my class list yet. I have selected 21 credits, which I think works out at about 6 classes, but seeing as I only need to do 15 credits next term I can be flexible. So I plan to attend the first few weeks of as many of the 21 credits as possible and then chose the 15 credits that work the best for me and my degree.

The presentation that I mentioned above was for my architecture of sedimentary deposits class. It was my first time doing a presentation on my own. I spent a lot of time preparing for it and I read many scientific papers on my topic, which was cold-water coral carbonate mounds in the northeast Atlantic ocean. The presentations were staggered over 3 classes as there were 14 students in total. I was the last on the last day of class, so I was a bit anxious by the time my turn arrived. I was worried nobody would be interested by that stage but I think from comments made afterwards that they did find it interesting and I think they understood my presentation. The nerves got the better of me in places and I could feel my voice shaking, but I still tried my best to speak slowly and clearly and to use eye contact every now and then. I will more than likely have more presentations to do next term so it was good practice and hopefully I will improve the next time. I would however suggest, that perhaps it would have been beneficial to have done a solo presentation before whilst in UCC. It is a great experience to do all that preparation work by yourself and to then display it and explain it to your class and to show just how much effort you put into your work.

I'm really looking forward to next term and I can't wait for the weather to pick up so we can get back out in the field again. We will no doubt have lots of short field trips for our classes and we have a spring break field trip and I've heard we might be going to New Mexico for that, so there's another state I can cross off my states to visit list! I'll keep you updated on all the happenings next term and I aim to do a better job of posting to my blog than I did in the Fall term!

Fall semester so far

It dawned on me during the week that there is only about 5 or 6 weeks left of this term. It has been a really busy term between field trips, class assignments, class tests etc. I had to do a the geochemistry class this term and to be honest I find it rather difficult. Luckily enough next years IFG students from Cork won't be doing it as it is not being offered next year at all. It is only offered every other year and next year I think the class that replaces it is called Global waters or Waters of the World (something like that anyway). The geochem class is intense and it deals with some aspects of chemistry that were new to me, for example, dealing with activities instead of concentrations for acid/base and solubility chemistry. Also it is much more aquatic chemistry than melt chemistry and only now (with 5 weeks left) are we actually moving into the area of melt/magma chemistry. Having said all that, the class tests aren't too bad and Nancy does mark very fairly and she also gives plenty of time on the problem sets, usually about 3 weeks. That gives you plenty of time to put all your heads together to figure stuff out. If any of next year's IFG students are reading this, my advice to you if your not great at chemistry (like me), is find out in advance, what is involved in the class and what will be covered if you think you might like to take global waters/ waters of the world next year. The best way to do this is to email Nancy Hinnman, the lecturer who runs the course. You'll find her details on the UM geology department web page.

We recently had a field trip for our Architecture of Sedimentary deposits class. We drove about on hour out of Missoula and made numerous stops on our way back. It was a great opportunity to put our knowledge into practice. We were able to identify the architectural elements we had discussed in class in the sedimentary rocks we saw on the trip, and from this we were able to discuss the palaeoenvironments associated.

Montana so far

So I've been in Missoula, Montana now since late August. College began with a bang. First week in and they had us on a five day field trip to Billings in Eastern Montana. It was based on sedimentary deposits and I learned a lot about the interior seaway which covered large parts of the continent, something I never knew up until this fieldtrip. It was a good opportunity to meet some other students and some professers also.

There's a big difference between an Irish fieldtrip in the rain at moderate temperatures of about 15 celcius and a late summer fieldtrip in eastern Montana under constant sunlight, not a drop of rain in sight at temperatures of over 30 celcius. It was great but occasionally it felt like a military endurance test.

For the Fall term, I'm taking four other classes. They are: Geochemistry, Architecture of Sedimentary deposits, Strucural geology and Hydrogeology. My favourites so far are structural geology and Arc. of sed. deposits. I'm not very mathematical so geochem and hydrogeology were never going to be my favourites but I'm giving them a fair try none the less.

I've been on a few other field trips so far also. For structural geology we went to the sun river valley near Augusta in north central Montana. That trip gave us a good understanding of the various formations in this part of the western USA and how they have been deformed over geological time into their current settings.

It was interesting to camp out overnight on a fieldtrip, as back in Ireland we don't really get the opportunity to camp, probably because we take our longer fieldtrips in spring, which is when Ireland statistically receives it maximum rainfalls. So camping in March or April in Ireland would be a soggy and miserable affair. It was the opposite in Montana. We all had a great time and it was great to be out there in the great outdoors, bears and all! A small bear did drop by and leave a footprint not too far from our tent, something else that would never happen in Ireland.