Surficial Processes and Sedimentology

Over the past five years, the Hydrogeology and Surficial Processes program at Bucknell has undergone rapid expansion with the addition of new faculty and equipment. Coupled with our long-established program in sedimentology, we have a wide variety of tools to use in teaching and research.

One of the best facilities for our sedimentology program is the outdoor laboratory called central Pennsylvania. Many research projects have come out of the marvelous outcrops of sedimentary strata just a short drive from Bucknell's campus.

 
 
 

 

        

 

Please browse through the items below to see the equipment and facilities our program has to offer:

Groundwater Monitoring Well Facilities:

Our Geology owns or has ready access to a large amount of equipment used for the drilling, installation and maintanence of groundwater monitoring wells. Over 40 of these wells have been installed at our Montandon Wetlands facility, and the monitoring and upkeep of these wells has been an invaluable experience for our students.

Our monitoring well equipment includes:

Soiltest Rotary Drilling Rig - this drilling rig is owned by the Civil Engineering Department. It rides nicely behind our 4WD Suburban which enables us to establish monitoring wells in some very remote places!

Grundfos Redi-Flo 2 submersible pump with 100' AMS manual Port-a-Reel;

Fultz SP-300 portable sampling pump, with 100' hose (below);


Christine Kirick sampling a
well for her thesis project in
Nippenose Valley

(20) Hobo pressure transducers;

(2) In-Situ pressure transducers with 50' cable;

(2) In Situ Well Sentinel LTM-3000;

Hermit model SE1000C Data Logger;

(4) Slope Water Level Indicator;

(2) Solinst model 301 Water Level Recorder (long-term measurement);

plus: a supply of monitoring well bailers, PVC well pipe, screens, points, caps, filter sand and bentonite;


Laura Hagan cleaning out a plug of clay from the drill pipe on the Soiltest drilling rig.

 


Ted Ressler developing a well in the Montandon Wetlands.

Surface Water Studies:

Many student and faculty research projects have involved the study of the rivers, streams, lake and ponds around our region. Bodies of water such as the Susquehanna River, Penns Creek, Middle Creek, Antes Creek, Shamokin Creek and its tributaries, and many acid mine drainage ponds have all been the focus of teaching and research projects.

The equipment used on these projects include:

(4) Stevens type "F" water level recorder;

USGS suspended sediment sampler;

McBirney-Marsh "Flo-Mate" current velocity meter;

Swoffer model 2100 current velocity meter;

(2) Teledyne-Gurley "Pygmy" current velocity meter;

Sub Surface Grab Sampler II (water);

Lowrance x-16 Recording Depth Sounder (fathometer);

A good selection of hip boots, chest waders, lifejackets, etc.


A geomorphology lab exercise, characterizing
stream channel area and discharge in Buffalo
Creek.


Ben Hayes inspects our Stevens water level recorder installed at Ravensburg State Park.


Soils:

The geology of the soils and surficial deposits in central Pennsylvania varies widely. Aside from the soils in our forested and agricultural areas, we have glacial and periglacial deposits, stream and river deposits and your occasional landslide/debris flows.

Some of our equipment for studying these surficial deposits include:

Shovels and many other manual labor-type tools!

AMS Soil Core Sampler Kit with slide hammer;

A wide variety of Augers, Including an Eigelkamp Gouge Auger with a beating head slide hammer and AMS sand and mud augers with quick-connect systems;

Munsell Soil color charts;

"Jet-Fill" Tensiometers and Irrometers;

(4) Soil Monolith Frames for preserving soil profiles;


Noah Daniels and his assistant characterize the soils from a terrace fan pit in Virginia

Vibracore Equipment:

The Geology Department owns a 14' Aluminum Vibracoring Rig that was sesigned and built by former Lab Director John Link in the Engineering machine shop. Dr. Craig Kochel has used this rig in a wide variety of research projects on the barrier islands of Virginia, the Montandon Wetlands, lake-bottom deposits behind the former Middle Creek Dam, and sinkholes in Nippenose Valley.

The Vibracore rig consists of a 14' aluminum tripod, a high-intensity vibrating head attached to a 5 H.P. Briggs and Stratton motor, 3" thin-walled aluminum pipe and aluminum block clamp. All-in-all, its a nice afternoon out!


John Link and a student
vibracore in the Montandon
Wetlands


Vibracoring on the Virginia Barrier Islands

Weather / Climate:

Gathering climate information goes hand-in-hand with many of the research projects performed by our students and faculty. To help us gather this information we have:

Rainwise WS-2000 wireless solar-powered weather station with a computer interface;

(2) Rainwise recording rain gauge;

(6) Rainwise electronic rain gauge, wired and wireless models.


Students and Faculty work in a freak snowstorm in the Blue ridge of Virginia. The object in the foreground isn't a burial plot, its the Betsy Seisgun.

Laboratory Facilities:

In the Carnegie Building, we have facilities to complement data or samples gathered in the field. Some of these facilities are described in other sections of this web site:

Sample preparation equipment to cut slabs, prepare thin sections for petrographic analysis, and thick sections for fluid inclusion study;

Aqueous Geochemistry Lab and Environmental Science Lab for water analysis;

X-ray Diffraction Lab for clay and other mineral analysis;

Core Storage Facility for vibracore split-cores;

Surficial Processes Lab with equipment including:

2 Sieve Shakers: Tyler Ro-Tap and
Brinkman vibratory;

Soiltest heavy-duty Aggregate Screen Shaker;

Soiltest Sample Splitter;

L&R Ultrasonics - Ultrasonic Sieve Cleaner;


The Core Storage Facility in the Carnegie
Building.


The Surficial Processes Lab in Carnegie. Racks to the left store monitoring well and aluminum vibracore pipe. To the rear are the Core Storage Facility and Aerial Photo Lab.