From above and below

We would go back to our pet mine Benallt, but as this mine offers deep cold water, dead sheep, agricultural waste, death from above, and more of that not everybody was keen. Many voices tried to steer this Thursday's trip away from that place. And some place we had had a glancing look at some time before became our venue of choice. We knew it was accessible, but you never know if it stays that way. We wanted to get in while we could! And we ded to try to get in from both the top and the bottom.

We tried to rig the top. That was a bit of a mess; I had an idea about a deviation, but the men thought it wasn't necessary. I let them have their way and we ended up with a rubbing rope. I should be more pushy! I tell myself that time after time but it's hard to stand up for your ideas if you're not raised that way. I'll keep trying. Anyway. The rope rubbed, the stope was hanging death, we decided to get out of there and try the bottom entrance.

So we did. I figured down there we wouldn't need the 100m rope I was lugging around. The men agreed. We also had a nicely short and ligth one; that should do! I didn't want to leave the long rope outside, thoug, for fear of (very unlikely) theft, so I brought it in, and left it at the nearest dry spot.

We soon came to some ladderway that was too wonky to go down. But there was nothing to rig from; without a drill we couldn't do anything there. We moved on, and came to a collapsed bit. There was a handline, but that started only halfway down the collapse! Luckily there was a metal pin in the wall. Good for tying the short rope to, and make it to the handline!

 

Pingu and Blober next to the ladderway in front of me

Where was the short rope? The men had dumped it even closer to the entrance than I had done with the long one. Sigh. I went to get the long one, muttering at the laziness of my companions. I tied it to the pin and off I was. It went! And went! And there were some nice ore chutes. And then there was a collapse. The end?

No, not the end; one could wiggle past. And het a glimpse of an immaculate stope! That was lovely. I decided to go back and get the men. This was worth seeing. I got back, tied the rope to a beam on my end of the collapse. It was safe now! But they didn't want to come. Really? Really. They figured my rope construction was only safe if someone would make sure the rope wouldn't slip off the pin. So someone would have to stay behind! Not good. Maybe come back with a drill, and do it properly. Hmm. Okay.

Well, pub then! We decided to go back some other day. In the pub we had a look at the map. Who knows what we'll find there! Next week!

Iceland paper accepted!

In late summer 2009 I went to Iceland, for fieldwork. Processing the materials and the data took a while. Figuring out what it meant did too. It was 2013 by the time the manuscript was sent off. We tried Earth and Planetary Science Letters first; rather glamorous, but hey, if you don't try... It got rejected.

 

Picture from the 2009 fieldwork

We sent it to Climate Dynamics. They rejected it too. Then we sent it to Quaternary Science Reviews. They sent it to the (in my eyes) overly critical reviewer that had had it before. This person hadn't lost any of his under-appreciative nature! And we had reached 2014 by that time. Another heavy round of revision followed. And just after the cruise I sent it in again. I was afraid it would go back to the reviewers. And the one mentioned above would surely still find fault in it! The thought alone made me tired.

But then the editor had a long hard look at the manuscript, and at what we had done to it, and how we had justified all that. And he figured it actually was quite good. And if the editor thinks that, that's it!

I had JUST had a look on the Elsevier website to see if really nothing had happened with my manuscript. No, nothing had. And then: ploink! An email from the editorial office. It was accepted! I was so glad. This manuscript had just taken so much energy. Now it's out of our hands! Now we only have to publish some late articles about that project, on which I am not the first author, so that's less work. And then there are the iGlass manuscripts we still have to write. The work is far from over! But the big hurdle is now taken. It's not online yet; it still has to be processed and type-set and whatnot. But soon: another Saher et al. paper sees the light of day!

One day of research

I had gone back to the lab to sieve some samples to see if there was anything in there I could use for radiocarbon dating, and later I'd been back to weigh what I had. And then the teaching exploded. But these samples were not sampled to gather dust in a corner. They had to get off to Scotland. And I basically lay low and just did teaching-related stuff until someone would kick me in the arse and force me to do something with them. And then that day came!

I had only cleaned the samples by hand, so I had to clean them in an ultrasonic bath, dry them, and put them into vials. And then send them off. It's more work than you'd think! Together with Guy I made little bags for  the samples in which they could be dangled in the ultrasonic bath (which actually was rather ultrasonic - not like the F16-like noise machines of Amsterdam and Plymouth); I had six of them in there at max. And with 25 samples that means 50 bathings so many sessions! And of course there is a lot of cleaning and labelling involved. And faffing with tiny baby shells that don't want to come out of the bag. So it took all day. But it's done! They are sent off! And the next batch is ready to go. In two weeks or so there is a project meeting so I'll have to prepare a bit for that, but otherwise I think I can now return to my teaching obligations. I have two piles of marking waiting for me! And two lectures to prepare. I won't have to be bored.

Our brilliant set-up of the ultrasonic bath; homemade mesh bags, fold-back clips, paperclips, stirring rods... all comes in handy! 

Samples drying in the oven

New doctors, established professors

The teaching I'm taking over is mainly James's. But after 5 years of sea level research I have also become a sort of a go-to person for guest lectures on the topic. And that's fortunate, because in the past years such lectures had been given by a lady doing her PhD on the topic, but she was about to defend her thesis, and had already started to work at a university-associated company. And then the day came the lady in question would defend. And who would you call in as an external examiner? Roland, of course. James was one of her supervisors, and he is an old friend of Roland's. He decided to invite all sorts of people involved in the PhD over for dinner. And even I counted, as a sea level person. So that day provided a nice opportunity for having a reconciliatory beer with Roland. Good!

The viva started at 1PM. The plan was to go and have a pint afterwards! I checked that Jaco, my office neighbour and the internal examiner, was in on the plot. And a viva can easily last four hours, so that would nicely be beer o'clock. I thought I didn't have anything specific that afternoon, but I was wrong; I had to give the students some feedback on the Friday seminar, and that normally takes place from 12 to 1, but this day it had been moved to 4PM. Oh well!

Then I found Jaco in his office at 3 already. That had to mean they were done! He said Sophie, the brand new doctor, had done really well and had fended off all the questions in just 1.5 hours. Impressive! But that meant too beer o'clock had been pulled forward a bit. But a woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do. I took Roland to the pub. Jaco only wanted to come after the seminar.

It was good to catch up a bit and leave past strife behind. But then duty called; I had to get to the seminar. It was about marine conservation at Chagos. The chap was clearly quite into this topic! A seminar is supposed to be an hour, including questions, but this chap needed more than 1.5. A bit much, especially for a Friday afternoon.

 Convenient picture of a scientist recording something like coral biodiversity in Chagos, found on Wikipedia

When it finally ended Jaco and I went to the pub, where Roland joined us. And after one pint we went to James's, for dinner. It was a nice blend of people! Sophie the new doctor, her husband, James (her supervisor), Roland (the external), Anna (who did James's teaching last year, but now lives in Canada), Katrien (also an old acquaintance of Roland), Fabienne (a former Bangor postdoc who now works in Liverpool; I had met her the week before), Ingrid (the neighbour) and me. And of course the food was amazing! And preceded by nibbles, and followed by dessert, cheese, coffee, chocolate and wine. Blimey! James doesn't do things by halves. But when Roland decided he had to leave (he had another day in the field the next day) most others let them be inspired by that, including me. I was exhausted after a busy week, with the previous day being the apotheosis. And this day had been long enough too! And may the young doctor have a long and satisfying career!

Bwlch y Plwm

When we dropped off the students at the university main building the field trip ended. It was not quite time to go underground, though; we had to get ourselves and the equipment back to Menai Bridge, and then get the minibus back to the main building where the rental company would pick it up again. So we drove back to Menai, dumped the kit somewhere out of the way, and hugged Suzie and Jess goodbye. They had been minibus driver and backup glaciologist, respectively. They had been spiffing!

Now we could switch to caving mode. We dumped our own stuff all in David's car, and both drove back to Bangor. There we dropped off the keys of the hire vehicle and left. Job done! I was glad David volunteered to drive. I was knackered! And dehydrated; I drank a litre of water while he drove and felt better. I had been scampering all over the place all day, and not found much time to drink.

We met the others, or at least those that showed up; the idea of this half-term trip was that Pingu would bring his girlfriend, her son, and the son's girlfriend. But his girlfriend had a sore shoulder, the son had man flu, and he had ended up only bringing the lad's girlfriend with him. Clearly the toughest of the bunch! We drove up to where we would park and changed.

We walked up the hill; this would be a down-only trip. A few pitches we would do by pull-through. When we reached the entrance I thought I'd rig it; I don't think I've rigged a pull-through before, and it was about time. The disadvantage was that it was very wet at the top of the pitch. No surprise the others were happy to have me do the work! And I made a big pile of spaghetti of the rope, but in the end I did make a fine pitch. And went down.

It was a nice little place; at least at this level. Not many ways to go. But nice! Soon I hit the second pitch. That one went down a nice inclined wet winze with colourful decoration. I was enjoying myself! And at the bottom of that pitch there was some wandering to do; several levels leading in all sorts of directions. And a nice traverse! I like traverses (not to be confused with rifts; I may be guilty of this crime on this blog) and I liked the scamper around. I even found a way out that seemed to normally be flooded. But we didn't go out that way; we could go down further, which we did.

Below it seemed to be even bigger. Tunnels leading everywhere! Phil scampered into one, which turned out to have a nice scramble up on offer. Nice! We didn't go all the way; not everyone was keen, and it looked a bit iffy. But good to know it's there! But then it was time to go out.

 The bottom level. Pic, from an earlier trip, by Simon. 

 

Someone climbing up where we had too. Pic by Simon.

Soon we stepped into the warm air. It was so mild for almost-November! Very nice. We changed, ate some cake (if there's Pingu there's cake) and then we were off. David had yet another field trip the next day, and for reasons of tide they would leave at 7AM. No rest for the wicked! But we didn't stay around for a quick pint, as that would be a bit too much of a good thing even for infamous night crawler Dave. And it was fine with me; I had already been knackered before we even started, and it was worse now!

Field day

It's one thing to be able to tell students something interesting about ice when they're out in the field. It's another to get them there, to have all the material needed and have it in the right place, to have parking permits and parking money and barrier passes and insurance and the answers to what the deadline is for the report and what the page limit is and when the sun will set and the tide will be high and whatnot. It's a lot of things to think about, and it all being the first time doesn't help! Only just before I told the students where they had to meet and what they had to bring and wear I found out we're supposed to pick the students up from the main campus. Not from SOS! Oh dear. Just in time. And the evening before I figured I might want to print the file that says what the students have to do. Otherwise I figured I'd be inundated by questions. So I spent the days before the field day not only doing my normal work but also scampering around, organising logistics and lunch, making sure we would have all the kit, and whatnot.

The day before the trip David came with me to Bangor to get the keys to the minibuses we'd use; they'd been delivered already. I took one bus to Menai Bridge, and loaded up the compulsory hardhats, a spade, and some trowels. And then I found the time to sit down and read up a bit on the topic; I like to know more than I need, so I can provide some background or elaborations if that comes in handy. And then I went home. I was tired!

The next morning I was in the office at 7:30. I printed the last things, made sure I had lists with the names of the students, their lunch wishes, aerial photographs of where we would go, an estimated timetable, information on tides and daylight hours, and enough pens and permanent markers to note anything that needed noting. And had a last coffee. And then I got an email from Jess, who would join as staff, that she was here. And so she was!

Suzie appeared too. We loaded up. And then David appeared. We were good to go! We drove to Bangor, where we already saw some students in lots of GoreTex hanging around near the main entrance. Good! And more and more showed up! Two were reported ill, but to my surprise everybody else showed up. So 9AM sharp we left!

We drove to the beach, where we all donned a hardhat and went to the cliff. A hat wouldn't save you from a collapsing cliff, but hey ho. And then I did my spiel! We were there to check the direction of the ice that had deposited the tills exposed in the cliff face. Had it come from the south? Straight from Snowdonia? All the students thought it would. And they set to work.

 Me setting the students up for their measurements. Notice there is onlyone student yawning! Pic by David.

I had to pretty much show every student group again how you measure alignment and dip of a clast with a compass, but that was expected. And some students were measuring in a slump, and some seemed to only be picking clasts that showed what they wanted the answer to be, but well, one can't expect them to be flawless from the start.

 Measuring away (although these seem to be working on a slump; I did warn them!) Pic by David.

When I figured we should wrap up I gathered them all. Not all had done the required number of measurements, but we had another site to go to , and the sun would set at 16:49. We had to keep going! So I had them tell me what their results were. And they had managed to get results that support their hypothesis! I must say, I still believe the established theory that the ice had actually been diverted by the larger ice stream coming from Scotland, and was heading west, into the Celtic Sea. I'll see how they write this up! But I think they got the message that trying to make your data fit your hypothesis is not a very good idea. So I did another spiel in which I also pointed out the laminated sediments between the tills, and completed the story of the local ice, the proglacial lake, and then the ice coming from far NE overriding all of that. Rather evocative. I think! I hope they think so too...

Next stop was lunch. We drove to Llanberis, to Pete's Eats. We enjoyed a hearty lunch while the rain slammed down on the street. Snug! But not so promising for the second half of the trip. But when we got to Pen-y-Pass it was dry again. Splendid! We walked up to Llyn Llydaw. I did a spiel again. Here we were gathered to test the hypothesis that the glacial striations were made by a topography-constrained glacier. And this time they went with the data! And of course there was more to it than the hypothesis. This location has two sets of striations: one ~20.000 years old from the cold heart of the last ice age, and then another set, which has almost obliterated the former, which stems from ~12.000 years ago; the last hiccup of the last ice age. And they found them! The former striations pointed straight at a mountain ridge. The ice sheet then had been so thick it had just flowed over. Spectacular! But indeed, the later striations were caused by a more modest valley glacier. And upon that discovery we were done. We could go back down. Way before the sun set! I thought it had been a good day. And it wasn't even over yet! The rest of the day, though, I wouldn't be carrying much responsibility. Nice!

 On the way to the next field site. Pic by David.

 I seem to need wild gestures and facial expressions to get my message across. Pic by David.

 The students spread out, measuring striations, or already being done. Pic by David.

Teaching midpoint

It's only been a month, but it feels like a lifetime! From the first lecture to being rather blasé. This week, I delivered the last "regular" lectures in my glaciology module, and we did the field trip (I'll blog about that separately). And the deadline for the first assignment associated with this module has passed. So now the emphasis has shifted from preparing lectures to marking. Let's see to what extent the students got what I've been telling them!

I was nervous for the first lecture. But not so much for the second. And not at all for the last few. And the lectures themselves changed too: in the beginning I basically took the lectures as they were, and just made the slides better: a title, an up-to-date picture (no scanned overheads, no grainy pictures with people in 80s outfits scampering past geologically interesting outcrops), a reference. But then I started to change the structure of the slides, as I figured they didn't always flow nicely. And then I started to take things out I didn't find relevant, and put interesting new stuff in its place. And before I knew it I was pretty much making my presentations from scratch. A lot of work, but very satisfying! But now I only have to make the recap presentation. As it is a recap, it is quite a question of copy and paste. But there are two lectures in a different module coming up. These sure will be made from scratch! But I'd best get that done before the next deadline hits me. I'll get an essay, an IPCC study and a field trip report from all my 38 glaciology students; that's already 114 pieces of work to mark! And then there is the report from the Laugharne fieldwork. That's some 26. I won't have to worry about getting bored anywhere soon! 

After christmas I'll only have three more lectures to give. I already made them, but quite a while ago; I think I'll revisit them and make them a bit more mine. It is a lot nicer to lecture from your own stuff! And then the teaching comes to an abrupt end. I might get one or a few MSc students, and will help out with another field trip, and do something in some module on general introductory science. Not sure what, but surely not something within my field of expertise. Too bad it ends! I liked it. And it seems it wasn't only me; there had been some teaching-related meeting with staff and student representatives, and several of my colleagues told me the student reps had said the students loved my lectures. That was great to hear! I might have found a good place for myself in life. It's just too bad that in order to get a lecturer's job, just being a good lecturer isn't enough...