URI
oceanography student uses corn syrup to study Earth’s evolution
Corn syrup gets a bad rap from
nutritionists for adding on the pounds, but University of Rhode Island
researchers are using the gooey stuff to help solve Earth’s evolution.
Loes van Dam, a student in the
Graduate School of Oceanography, is studying how molten rock flows beneath
ocean ridges to get a better idea of how Earth evolved geologically.
Molten rock is hard to come by these
days so van Dam is relying on corn syrup—lots of it—to simulate these flows.
Scientist and syrup are collaborating thanks to the newly-built Ridge Zone Replicator, or RZR, on URI’s Bay Campus.
Scientist and syrup are collaborating thanks to the newly-built Ridge Zone Replicator, or RZR, on URI’s Bay Campus.
“Corn syrup behaves similarly to
molten rock,” says van Dam.
“Its flow in laboratory minutes resembles molten rock’s flow over millions of years in the real world.”
“Its flow in laboratory minutes resembles molten rock’s flow over millions of years in the real world.”
The apparatus was built last summer by the 23-year-old van Dam and Christopher Kincaid, an oceanographer at GSO renowned for his research on Earth’s fluid circulation, from the coastal ocean to the planet’s interior.
The apparatus in Kincaid’s “Viscous
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory” holds three full barrels of syrup, or
about 165 gallons.
It might be hard to top 2,000 pounds
of the glucose, but consider the tectonic plates. Loes built a plate simulator
using six polyurethane belts, each driven by a motor capable of pulling a car.
With the flick of a switch, the apparatus hums to life, moving the corn syrup based on the characteristics of a particular mid-ocean ridge van Dam and Kincaid want to model.
With the flick of a switch, the apparatus hums to life, moving the corn syrup based on the characteristics of a particular mid-ocean ridge van Dam and Kincaid want to model.
“We find interesting features in the
flow patterns, depending on the speed and directions of the plate motion, and
the different ridge geometries,” she says. “The flows from linear ridge
sections look much more simple than the flows from more jagged ridge sections.”
Kincaid says that, to his knowledge,
Loes is the first researcher to simulate how the syrup responds to the complete
range of plate motions observed at mid-ocean ridges. Up until now, computer
simulations have struggled with representing the wandering of the ridges.
The team uses high-resolution
cameras to photograph the flow, which can then be processed to generate 3-D
data. Their results help geochemists and geophysicists study the breakup of
tectonic plates, as well the formation of new crust on the seafloor.
Mid-ocean ridges are long lines of
volcanoes on the seafloor where Earth’s tectonic plates are spreading apart and
new seafloor is being made. There are about 50,000 miles of such ridges on the
ocean bottom. Van Dam studies the way that molten rock under these ridges flows
in response to the tectonic plates shifting above.
“Our research on these flows tells
us something about volcanic activity at mid-ocean ridges and the way the
seafloor looks in these places. In the process, we’re learning about how the
Earth evolves.”
So far, the team has found from its
simulations that the source region of the magma is different from what
scientists have always assumed.
“The complex nature of plate motion
makes it difficult to model, but our results are promising,” says van Dam. “We
hope we’ll be able to solve some big questions about where magma forms and how
it ends up as new seafloor.”
Born in The Netherlands, van Dam
moved to California with her family as a girl, and quickly developed a
fascination with rocks, picking them up wherever she went. She even mailed a
rock to Phil Christensen, a geoscientist at Arizona State University, who asked
children throughout the world to send him rocks to undergo a similar analysis
of rocks retrieved by the Mars Rover.
“I remember choosing a rock from my
neighborhood and how excited I was to see the analysis online—even if I didn’t
fully understand the results,” she says.
She first learned about plate
tectonics in 3rd grade. Later, the family moved back to The
Netherlands, where van Dam went to the American International School.
In high school, she participated in
the Geosciences Exploration Summer Camp at Texas A&M University, inspiring
her to attend college there. She graduated in 2015 with a degree in geophysics.
A colleague at Texas A&M told
her about Professor Kincaid.
“I jumped at the opportunity to
study with him,” she says. “My research has taken me all over the country and world.
I’m grateful to be researching something I find so fascinating.”