Samples and Labwork

I'm back! Been quite a busy two weeks so I've not had much of a chance to blog. I have been processing the samples that I collected from Charmouth and Lyme Regis.

The first thing I did was to hammer my samples so that I could send a small amount of each one to Exeter University to be ground down to a fine powder for a palynological study (study of the dust particles, such as pollen).

For the four muddy samples, I took a small amount of each one for a microfossil study. The first thing I did was to break them up into small pieces, before putting them in a 40 degrees centigrade oven overnight to dry out.

The oven

Sample 4 - broken down and cooked!

I then made up a 10% solution of calgon (yes the thing you use in your washing machine!) in distilled water. I added this to all four samples overnight so that they would break down into the fine particles.

Samples in calgon solution

I sieved the samples over the sink, and washed them through with water. This was to remove any particles that were under 63 micrometres in size.

Sample 4 - after sieving

I then filtered the samples through filter paper to remove any residual water, before putting them back in the 40 degree centigrade oven over night to ensure that they were completely dry.

All four samples being filtered

When the samples were dry, I began to sieve them. I put three of the samples through a 150 micrometre and a 63 micrometre sieve to separate the different sized particles, which I then put into separate bags. One of the samples wasn't completely broken down, so I put it back in the calgon solution, re-sieved and re-filtered it. Hopefully next week the sample will be further broken down.

Over 150 micrometres

Between 150 and 63 micrometres

Under 63 micrometres

I now need to study the microfossils included in the particles, which I will hopefully be doing next week. On Friday I went to Bristol museum to collect some more samples, but I will talk about that later, as this has been a long post! I'm going to end on a picture of my desk, cause it's quite cool having my own desk!

My desk - it's usually tidier!