Slough sediment pulls in Symposium Day crowd
Coring begins near the slough bridge.
The Udden Geology Club banner hangs from the bridge as student work the core into the sediment.
Slicing up the sediment.
"Digging Up Augustana's Past," a pop-up exhibit and demonstration, drew a crowd during Symposium Day Oct. 6.
Students and staff gathered along the Slough Path to see a demonstration of Augustana's Livingstone Corer. Geology students cored a meter of mud from the slough to explore environmental changes on campus through time using the science of paleoecology.
Once the core was brought to shore, onlookers could use microscopes to examine the dredged sediments and discover organic and inorganic materials (from pollen to plastic to ancient glacial loess) and evidence of the year the slough accidentally drained.
The demonstration was organized by Dr. Kelsey Arkle, Audrianna Schneider, Cheyenne Bartelt, Claudia Vallejo and Morgan Litwiler.