Rock Team

The Rock sub-team conducting fieldwork in Monkey Run (Varna) using the SuperSting resistivity meter and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) under Dr. Keranen’s guidance.

Rock Team

The rock team is responsible for measuring and monitoring the quality and stability of soil and earth minerals in our region. Microorganism biodiversity, erosion resistance, agricultural/vegetative productivity, and conservation of the water table highly depend on soil composition. The Rock Sub Team is currently responsible for developing a method to correlate ground truth measurements surrounding the Empire State Mine to satellite imagery derived from Google Earth Engine. In Google Earth Engine, the team aims to utilize open-sourced imagery from Landsat, Sentinel, and other satellite imagery to measure and map the vegetative index surrounding the Empire State Mine. Read more below!

Current Project

With Professor Derry’s lab, we determined the
elemental composition of mine tailing samples using inductively coupled plasma mass
spectrometry over a time series from 2009 to 2019. We also used satellite imagery to develop
maps to analyze other environmental factors, including precipitation and air quality. Our goal is
to track the local environmental impacts of changes in mine ownership. Rock Team, in partnership with local sensor developers and
community organizations, is installing a low-cost network of 17 soil moisture sensors and five
air quality sensors around Cayuga Lake. Five soil moisture sensors at the Game Farm field site
are currently collecting data to ground-truth the NISAR satellite’s soil moisture algorithms. The
remaining sensors will be installed in the next two months in preparation for a team-wide lake
effect and productivity study.

Breaking Ground

Rock team currently utilizes a range of state-of-the-art instruments to explore Ithaca’s subsurface. With GPR and resistivity sensors, Rock team works to find the avenues by which contaminants permeate the soil and enter the watershed.

  • Rock subteam member, Dora, hammering in one of 28 electrodes to set up equipment for collecting soil resistivity data in the Monkey Run area.

  • Rock subteam member, Rohan, connecting the electrodes to the main cable to complete the 28 electrode array.

  • The rock subteam conducting tests with the NPK sensor with different fruits to observe fluctuations in NPK levels.

  • The rock subteam collecting data with the NPK sensor on the Arts Quad. By testing instrumentation, the team aims to increase data collection accuracy.