SEMINAR: MGG Student Seminar Tuesday 12-1 CIMAS Conference Room

["Amanda J. Waite" <awaite@rsmas.miami.edu>]

Third Floor CIMAS Conference Room
Tuesday, February 23
12-1pm

?How do fluids flow within fractures? An overview of the Pond Infiltration
Experiment?
By Pierpaolo Marchesini

What are the driving factors controlling the propagation of fluids within
fractures? Answering this question represents a prime requirement to
improve kinematic models and reservoir characterization for hydrogeologic
and exploration purposes. For this intent we conducted a field experiment
in summer 2009 in the Madonna della Mazza quarry reservoir analog (Italy)
to monitor, with 16 time-lapse Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) surveys, the
dynamics of an infiltrated water mass inside a carbonate rock volume of
20x20x12m below the quarry floor. The goal of this talk is to describe the
practical implementation of the flow monitoring experiment and introduce
its preliminary results demonstrating that, even if still gravity-driven,
fluid flow behavior is strongly influenced by fractures and deformation
bands.

________________________________________________________________________


?Examination of Vintage Wine Terroir and Adulteration Using Stable Isotopes?
by Angela Rosenberg

Many food and beverage products are regarded as high quality, and
therefore often high-priced, solely due to product origin.  Because of the
large potential profits from goods such as olive oils, waters, and wines,
these products are often the victim of commercial fraud, and consequently,
commonly studied with regards to adulteration and geographical origin
dishonesty.  Although there are several methods suitable for testing
geographical origin of products, there is no established fool proof
technique.  Presently, stable isotopes present the most viable method for
food authentication and determining geographical origin.  Hydrogen and
oxygen are both taken by plants from water, the atmosphere, and soil,
which all vary climatically and geographically.  Differences in these
parameters produce distinctive isotopic signatures.  Therefore, the
hydrogen (D/H) and oxygen (d18O) isotopic compositions should be
reflective of where the product was grown. Studies have shown that
hydrogen and oxygen isotopes can indicate geographic origin alone but are
better used when applied to additional stable isotopic measurements.  The
largest setback is the lack of large databases of isotopic abundances in
wine.



--------
Amanda J. Waite
Marine Geology and Geophysics
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
University of Miami


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