Geology Students Cave Research at WVACS

Kelli Baxstrom and Andrew Hall are first year graduate students at Ohio University studying geology.  Baxstrom's research consits of collecting and examining the chemical properties of stalagmites that are over 12,000 years old, to date them back to wildfires in the area, and to see how the formations of the caves were affected by the fires.   Hall's research consists of measuring the length and depth of scallops, formations in the cave walls, to determine how fast the water that formed the cave moved through.  Inside of Rapps Cave at the West Virginia Association for Cave Studies on the March 3, 2018 in Frankford, West Virginia, the students collect data for their research. Many graduate geology students are under the supervision of Geology Department Chair Dr. Greg Springer and come to the WVACS fieldhouse to collect samples for research.  [Photographed by Alexandria Skowronski]