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University of Connecticut: Geosciences Student Blog
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This blog is run and
written by University of Connecticut Center for Integrative Geoscience students!
It showcases the UConn Study Abroad “Bahamas Field Course” that took place January 2016.
The course takes place on the San Salvador island of the Bahamas and is lead by
UConn faculty and Director of the Center for Integrative Geosciences, Dr. Lisa
Park Boush.
Students will be touring San Salvador to learn about this unique island’s diverse geology, culture, and history. The blog provides an exciting opportunity for students to share their thoughts and photographs during their stay on the island.
Students will be touring San Salvador to learn about this unique island’s diverse geology, culture, and history. The blog provides an exciting opportunity for students to share their thoughts and photographs during their stay on the island.
About San Salvador:
San Salvador Island is a small remote island on the eastern-most edge of
the Bahamas archipelago. The
island is characterized by outstanding carbonate sections and living reefs with
lagoons.
Overview:
This is a field-based
study abroad experience that focuses on the geology, karst geomorphology, and
tropical marine biology of San Salvador Island, Bahamas. The course focuses on
the relationship between Quaternary carbonate island development and climatic
(i.e. glacio-eustatic sea level) changes and biological and chemical controls
on CaCO3 precipitation and limestone formation. Fossil reefs, living reefs, eolianites,
paleosols, cave and karst features, geochronology, stratigraphy, depositional
environments, archaeogeology and hydrogeology are all stressed during the
course.
Lead Instructor:
Dr. Lisa Park Boush, Center for Integrative Geosciences, Department of Geography
Lisa Park Boush is the director for Integrative Geosciences at the University of Connecticut and has served for three years (2010-2013)
as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation and was a Professor of
Geosciences at the University of Akron (1995-2014).
Much of Park Boush’s work involves reconstructing the climate history of coastal and lacustrine regions over different time scales. She uses these histories to track environmental changes – which she says can be caused by factors like human intervention, climate change, and tectonic processes – and how these changes impact ecosystem.
For the past 10 years, Park Boush has applied these
techniques in the Bahamas, where she and her colleagues have reconstructed
high-resolution records of hurricanes, sea levels, climate, and human-driven
environmental changes. She says the Bahamas are particularly vulnerable to sea
level rise, and data from this region can help create climate models that
predict future scenarios.
