7/20/14: FOR ALL OF YOU, MUD-LOVERS…

Mud IS fun. Come to the Elkhorn Slough!

Granted, the seals, sea otters, all their pups, etc. are really cute. Still, mud is fun.

If you are not convinced, ask the Earth Sciences MPC students. They just spent a full day at the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Reserve where they studied the changes in sedimentation in the area of the last years and how that translates into energy levels. They probed the area (at Kirby Park) with different types of corers. These direct methodologies allowed them to study sediments from 400-500 years in the past, when the Slough was a different environment. Along the tidal channel, with the aid of Ron Eby (ESNERR) and the help of Geoff Shipton (Triton Imaging Inc.) they studied the underwater sediments with a seismic source (on loan from CSUMB) that can see under the channel floor sediments 2000-4000 years old.

This area has been a playground for the Earth Sciences Department at MPC (thank you Fred and Tom for your ongoing support!) for a couple of years now and we hope this collaboration continues in years to come. It has also been a place for research introduction to a summer intern in the Science Internship Program at UCSC. This SIP intern has surveyed a portion of the Slough with the same equipment the MPC students practice with, completing a study that started in 2011. Her work will tentatively be presented at the 2014 AGU Fall Meeting.

The Slough is an area everybody should experience at least once. Even if you are not interested in rocks or sediments. It is in our own backyard yet most people I teach had never been before our trip. The staff is very knowledgeable and helpful and always have education as their main goal. Great place for everybody. Go, hike its trails, go bird watching, rent a kayak, explore, and let me know what you think.