getting water samples

I am doing a project this semester with one of my former teachers. I am collecting water samples from a bog near the coast, and then I will be separating the Strontium out of the water. Then I will get to use a mass spectrometer to separate the different isotopes of Strontium from each other so I can figure out how much of each isotope there is. The Strontium signature in the water will give us an idea of what rocks the water has been interacting with, because the ratio of the isotopes tells the age of those rocks. Young rocks would mean it's just been interacting with seawater, which is what we would expect, but old rocks would mean that somehow the water in this area has been mixing with water coming from older rocks (like the ones farther west, where I live).

So we made a couple of trips out to the area to get my water samples. I was hoping to get two more from some lakes, but it got dark. I'm not sure if we'll bother to drive out again.

It was an interesting adventure and we had a good time. Beforehand I had to plan out where we would stop. I had to use Google Maps to find places where rivers, lakes, and creeks would be accessible. Ryan and the kids came along, which was fun. Ryan was a big help with finding all the places. It involved a lot of gravel/sand forest roads because most of the area is part of the Croatan National Forest. I'm guessing almost all of the people who use the roads are there to go hunting or fishing.

Here are a bunch of pictures:

Some interesting conglomerate rocks by the lakes near the White Oak River:



White Oak River at Haywood Landing:

There were some forest fires in this area a little over a year ago, and we could see the damage in several places. Here is a video of a burned area on the way to Great Lake:
http://youtu.be/HpWAwP1eki8





These are from our second trip:

Brice Creek:

Some of the places we stopped at were kind of gross (littered with trash and beer cans), and some had beautiful views. Brice Creek was one of the beautiful ones. It was part of a big and well-maintained city park (think big soccer field, three playgrounds, picnic areas, and lovely creek at the very end). The White Oak River at Haywood Landing was a nice one too.

 Neuse River at Flanner's Beach:

There were thousands of dead fish washed up on the beach here. I'm sure you can imagine the awful smell.

That strip of stuff parallel to the water in the picture below is all dead fish.

After the Neuse River we were going to find Catfish Lake. There was a sign that showed the road we were supposed to take and said we would reach the lake in 6 miles. But the map was not that great, and there was no sign to indicate that we were supposed to turn right onto this little road, so we drove right past our turn and ended up driving so far that we reached a paved road again, so we went back. I did get a sample from a creek along the way, though (it's my filthiest sample, even filthier than my Neuse River sample that has fish skin and bones in it). Then Ryan figured out where we were and we decided to try the unlabeled road, and that went along Catfish Lake, so I was able to get Catfish Lake too. There was a lovely sunset where we stopped:

Both times we stopped at Chick Fil A for dinner. Kevin wasn't especially interested in it the first time (until we traded his CD in for an ice cream cone--he did enjoy that), so I was a little surprised that on the way home he was asking to go there again. The second time he actually ate his entire dinner. Apparently he really enjoyed himself, because when we told him we were going to go look for more rivers he was pretty excited and kept talking about it.

I drove the whole time for our second trip. I didn't know I was capable of driving all day. That meant that Ryan got to be in charge of passing snacks to the kids.

It was a fun trip. Ryan and I got to talk a lot and it was fun to see other places in NC. The contrast in buildings was quite interesting. You could see rusty shacks, mansions by private lakes, well-maintained businesses, and not-so-well-maintained businesses all within close proximity to each other.