Archives for the Month of April 2008 on Geol 390
I love first drafts
The rough drafts of our proposals were due Monday. Steve reviewed then and gave them back today. He said that this was one of the best groups of first drafts in awhile, which was pretty cool. My paper wasn't as torn apart as I expected. I don't think it will take too much work to get it in final draft form. Having that done feels pretty good.
I love first drafts
The rough drafts of our proposals were due Monday. Steve reviewed then and gave them back today. He said that this was one of the best groups of first drafts in awhile, which was pretty cool. My paper wasn't as torn apart as I expected. I don't think it will take too much work to get it in final draft form. Having that done feels pretty good.
Research Proposals, Petro labs, and History papers
I have a ton of writing to do this week. Moving on...
So I've started writing my researh proposal and progress is slow. We got out proposal outlines back a few days ago. Steve had a few questions on it, such as...
(In Steve notation)
1. Why olivine? Relevance to Earth
Olivine makes up a large portion of the upper mantle and is commonly found as xenoliths in volcanic rocks.
2. Why are trivalents geochemically interesting? (WRT mantle & olivine)
In olivine, there's a possibility that interactions between trivalent cations and vacancies formed by their presence can increase the rate of diffusion. More information is necessary here, I'll get back to you on this one.
3. Why use spinels and not doped olivine powders [as a source of Ga and Cr]?
Ga and Cr spinels can be more easily synthesized in the lab. Other elements in spinel (Mg, Si, O) are also present in forsterite, so their presence will not alter our results.
4. Why single crystal [of forsterite]?
Diffusion in polycrystalline materials can be largely controlled by space in between crystals, as crystal contacts facilitate diffusion. In addition, it is necessary to understand single crystal diffusion in order to understand polycrystalline diffusion.
I could use more information on all of these questions, but these are the answers, to the best of my knowledge. I'll be talking to Dr. Van Orman about some of these in the near future.