My dad and I left at dawn from
Kalamazoo, Michigan to drive for an hour to
Grand Rapids, where I departed on the first of many flights that day to my ultimate destination,
St. John's, Newfoundland. After a stint in
Detroit and
Newark, that went more or less seamless, I arrived in
St. John's on a tiny Jet. I had been forewarned by my supervisor for the summer,
Dr. Sam Bentley, I should pack for some cold, as well as warm, weather. Even though it's June 3, summer anywhere in the continental U.S,
St. John's was freezing. True to his word, I arrived at 1 AM into the
St. John's airport, and was greeted by a 2 degree Celsius temperature.
Sam picked me up at the airport and we rode back to his house in Inner Cove,
Newfoundland, just outside the city limits of
St. John's.
Sam’s beautiful house is about 100 meters from the vast
Atlantic Ocean, which visibly crashes on the rocks near his home.
After a drink to welcome me to
Newfoundland, Sam told me about the project I will be working on for the duration of my time in
Newfoundland.
Essentially, I was expected to devise a statistical method of analyzing a set of around 100 x-radiographs of seafloor cross sections from Sam’s field work in
Waitetuna Bay, New Zealand last spring.
I’m looking to see how much disturbance (bioturbation) and at what depths critters are altering the otherwise ordered sedimentary stratigraphy of the seafloor by their burrowing and excavation.
Ultimately, we want to quantify this relationship with a mathematical coefficient.
The work has implications for sedimentology as a whole, which always has no way of accounting for the amount of bioturbation in a seabed.
Sam is quick to mention that he does not want the work to consume me, but rather wants me also to explore the culture of
St. John’s and the whole
province of Newfoundland.
Sam’s generosity has not gone unnoticed.
He allowed me to take off work for trips around the island with friends I meet here.
On days where his schedule permits, Sam took me and other colleagues on cool outings to local field sites (which I’ll discuss later).
Last summer, I took an intense 3-week course in Marine Field Geology at
LUMCON on the
Louisiana coast taught by Sam through
LSU.
Sam had already accepted a position at
Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) in
St. John’s as a Canada Research Chair, and was planning to move to
St. John’s later that summer.
From what I’ve gleaned, MUN prides itself on its Earth Sciences Department.
As opposed to Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, which share small buildings, the Earth Sciences Department is housed in the spacious
Alexander Murray Building.
In addition, the department hosts the headquarters for the
Geological Association of Canada, the equivalent of the USGS in
Canada.
As my potential opportunities for summer internships and research positions dwindled in the
U.S. this spring, I contacted Sam to see if he had any opening for me at MUN.
Initially, it seemed that my American residency would be a thorny issue for working in
Canada (visas, etc.).
Then, I pointed out to Sam that I was a dual-citizen of
Canada and the
U.S. (
Montreal by birth!), and could therefore legally work in
Canada without any thorny paperwork and hassle.
Seizing the opportunity, but a bit apprehensive about going to a new land alone, I accepted Sam’s offer and am the better for it.
I feel very fortunate to have been offered this internship, which has allowed me to explore a land, and experience a culture I would never have had a chance to visit otherwise.
