{"id":70,"date":"2018-02-23T16:08:48","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T16:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/geosciencesresearchgroupblog\/?p=70"},"modified":"2018-02-23T16:32:04","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T16:32:04","slug":"undergraduate-field-trip-to-force-crag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/geosciencesresearchgroupblog\/2018\/02\/23\/undergraduate-field-trip-to-force-crag\/","title":{"rendered":"Undergraduate Field Trip to Force Crag"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

At the start of\u00a0 February, undergraduate Earth\u00a0Sciences and Environmental Sciences students threw on their woolly hats and\u00a0high vis vests\u00a0and travelled to the\u00a0Lake District to assess the treatment of metal contaminated water, drained from the area surrounding the disused mine at Force Crag.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\"\"

Students on route to the Force Crag field site<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Disused mine at Force Crag, Lake District<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The mine site has an active bioremediation scheme for metal contamination. Water drained from the mine site, which is\u00a0high in zinc enters two artificial vertical flow ponds, containing sulphur reducing bacteria which immobilize zinc from the water through bacterial sulphate reduction.\u00a0Students were asked to test the pH, Eh, conductivity and alkalinity of water entering the bioremediation scheme and water leaving the bioremediation scheme.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\"\"

Students testing the alkalinity of water entering the bioremediation scheme<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Students armed with water testing kits downstream of the two artificial vertical flow ponds<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Students also got the opportunity to\u00a0test the zinc content of water entering and leaving the bioremediation scheme using zinc testing field kits. The zinc content of water\u00a0was inferred based on the colour produced by mixing a 20ml water sample with two chemical reagents.\u00a0 When mixed with the two\u00a0 reagents, water which\u00a0has a high concentration of\u00a0zinc produces a purple-blue solution. Whereas, water which has a low concentration of zinc produces a red-orange solution.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\"\"

Water samples analysed in the field using zinc testing kits. On the left is a sample collected from water entering the bioremediation scheme which has a high zinc content and on the right is a sample collected from water leaving the bioremediation scheme which has a low zinc content<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Once back at Newcastle University, students will use the data collected\u00a0during this field trip in a computer practical class, where the statistical software package Minitab will be used along with ANOVA to analyse the data.<\/p>\n

This field trip is just once example of the\u00a0range of field trips undertaken by undergraduate Earth Sciences and Environmental Sciences students\u00a0studying at Newcastle University.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned to the Geosciences Group blog for updates on future fieldwork\u00a0conducted by Newcastle University Geosciences undergraduate and postgraduate students.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  At the start of\u00a0 February, undergraduate Earth\u00a0Sciences and Environmental Sciences students threw on their woolly hats and\u00a0high vis vests\u00a0and travelled to the\u00a0Lake District to assess the treatment of metal contaminated water, drained from the area surrounding the disused mine … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7248,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fieldwork"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/geosciencesresearchgroupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/geosciencesresearchgroupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/geosciencesresearchgroupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/geosciencesresearchgroupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/geosciencesresearchgroupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/geosciencesresearchgroupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/geosciencesresearchgroupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions\/81"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/geosciencesresearchgroupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/geosciencesresearchgroupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/geosciencesresearchgroupblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}