Hello, my name is Madison Shubert and I am interning at Fort Lewis College in Durango . Where I am interning under Professor Carolyn Christle Tewksbury for Interplanetary Geology. On Friday July 8th 2022, I met up with my mentor at 9:00am in front of Sister Family Hall. We started out the day by getting to know each other and she gave me a quick tour of Fort Lewis campus. After that we returned to her office in the Geo-sciences building, where we went over what my schedule would look like for the next three weeks. This included what I will be studying and when I would meet up with her. Everyday at 9:30am and 2:30pm I would meet up with my mentor and talk about what information I learned about and if I needed any clarification or questions. For the second half of the day I researched and took notes on Earth’s tectonic plates and how they move. This includes Collision/subduction zones, the Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Lithosphere, Asthenosphere, Mesosphere, outer core, and the inner core. And for the last couple hours of my first day, I spent it learning the basics of “Europa” , one of Jupiter’s moons.
Over the weekend I went to the annual Durango rocks and minerals show. And then went home for the two days. During those relaxing days I went to the movie theater with my family and saw Thor Love and Thunder.
On Monday July 11th, I listened to a podcast “Peter Molnar on Why the Tibetan Plateau is So High” to better understand Isostasy and what part it plays when forming mountains. I also started entering metadata into a spreadsheet about different areas on Europa. And worked on a worksheet that taught me how to scale distance on a map which I will later use on maps of Europa.
On Tuesday July 12th, I spent half of the day learning the equation for Isostasy. Which gives you an accurate measurement of two columns of a mountain range. And we used this equation to find the isostatic equilibrium and an estimate of how thick the Earth’s crust is right there under the mountains. And for the second half of the day I read some articles on different kinds of faults. These being normal fault, reverse fault, and strike – slip fault. And I watched a video on the likelihood that life could exist on Europa.
On Wednesday July 13th, I learned how to calculate elongation (or shortening). Which is a process that occurs to faults, the rocks will get shorter and more compressed or longer and stretched. So that I could later enter it into a spreadsheet so that I do not have to calculate everything by hand. Also, l studied the basics of how to read a scientific paper.
On Thursday July 14th, I spent most of my day reading four different scientific papers. They mostly talked about different possible strike-sip zones on Europa. One also talked about the probability of life due to tectonic activity on life. This could occur due to the recycling of different compounds and minerals into the liquid water mantel of Europa from the top ice shell. Which is then used by possible organisms for metabolic cycle/ making energy to survive.
On Friday July 15th, I went home for the weekend due to the fact that my mentor had a possible exposer to Covid-19 from her husband. And just wanted to play it safe.
On Saturday July 16th, I went to my parents restaurant Stonefish and helped prepare two trays of sushi for the Pinhead Science of Cocktails fundraiser. I then traveled to Telluride to help out in any way I could at the fundraiser.
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