A new Indiana Geological and Water Survey website, designed with public outreach and education in mind, will go live Tuesday, Nov. 7. The URL will be the same as the previous site: igws.indiana.edu.

An IGWS staff committee has been meeting for more than a year to talk through content and navigation for the new site. Kevin Fuller, a 2022 graduate of IU’s Luddy School of Informatics and Computing, was hired as the IGWS web developer in July 2022, and his primary project has been to migrate content from an older web framework to a more modern platform.

Fuller hopes that visitors to the redesigned site will find it faster, more attractive, and easier to navigate. “I think there’s going to be a decent number of people who are going to be frustrated with the changes because change is like that, but hopefully people can get used to it pretty quick because it’s a necessary change.”

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The IGWS Learning Lab is a new member of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC), an international group of museums that champion engagement with science and technology among all people. Starting Nov. 1, the Survey’s hands-on learning center is listed on the ASTC Passport Program, which offers reciprocal admission to hundreds of science centers and museums across the world. Members of any ASTC organization also can visit the Learning Lab and receive 20% off all store items. Look up participating science centers and museums at https://www.astc.org/membership/find-an-astc-member/passport/.

At right: Learning Lab visitors inspect specimens in the rock, mineral, and fossil cabinets during Geology Spooktacular on Saturday, Oct. 28. The second annual event offered a spooky scavenger hunt, megafauna bean bag toss, prehistoric pumpkin carving, and fossil face painting. Read more about this and other events in the "outreach efforts" section below.

Editor’s note: The E-Geo News has been walking readers through the various steps required to turn physical data such as core samples into a functional geological map. This is the sixth installment in this series; core collection was covered in September 2022, core describing in November 2022, lab analysis in December 2022, outcrop scouting in February 2023, and historic data mining in May 2023.

In the process of collecting, analyzing, and finally disseminating geologic data, earth scientists must also act as data scientists. At the IGWS, two non-geologists, GIS Developer Ben Romlein and GIS Analyst Dana Bissey, weave in and out of projects at varying times, delivering tools to mapping teams to help collect data more efficiently and then organizing and storing that data for later use.

“Ideally, we want to have all the data in the state from every project, to be up to date,” Romlein said. But because of obstacles like staff turnover, differing project requirements, and timing constraints, it’s an ongoing challenge to make that data available both to other researchers in the Survey and to the public.

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IGWS Digital Image Archivist Kristen Wilkins has been spending a lot of time photographing rocks and minerals from their best sides. Here's why, in her own words:

At right: Azurite with malachite, specimen in the IGWS Education Collection

"This fall, we have been working on adding photographs of the more than 2,000 specimens in the Education Collection to IGWS Digital Collections. This project is supported by the 2023 National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program, which funds projects to digitize legacy data and collections.

"Education specimens are housed in the Learning Lab, where visitors can touch them and examine them under a microscope. Researchers and hobbyists use collections like ours to compare a rock, mineral, or fossil they have found, to help identify it.

"Since not everyone can visit the Learning Lab, we are recreating the collection visually online. Now, visitors from anywhere in the world can use these specimens to learn about geological objects. The pictures are high resolution, so you can zoom in to see details and crystal structures.

"We use these images when we create online exhibits, like 'Curiosity Cabinets: Revitalizing the Cabinet of Curiosity for the 21st century with the IGWS Learning Lab.' Because this is an education collection, visitors also may use the images when creating lessons, projects, or artwork.

"Currently, about 500 specimens uploaded, and many have pictures taken from multiple angles. Keep checking in the coming months to see new specimens as they are added."

• About 15 people from the USGS and IDNR visited a new IGWS water monitoring well drill site at Cookson Preserve in Greene County and an existing well north of Worthington on the Greene/Owen County line Nov. 1. The visitors were able to tour the drill rig and look at various bits used in this drilling process, and see cores containing fossils and bioturbation, coarse sandstone units with fractures, and units of limestone, shale, and coal with pyrite. The USGS also showed its flow meter to the group and explained its possible uses for measuring groundwater flow for IGWS wells in the future.

• Research Scientists Valerie Beckham-Feller and Ashley Douds attended the Midwest Regional Carbon Initiative (MRCI) annual meeting in Morgantown, W. Va., Oct. 2-5. Beckham-Feller moderated a panel and Douds presented an overview of the work the Survey will be doing for a project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Attendees represented state surveys, industry, and the DOE.

• Douds presented at the Indiana Oil and Gas Association (INOGA) annual meeting in New Harmony on Oct. 12. The presentation included an update on CO2 sequestration-related activities in the state, work the Survey will be doing for the DOE grant, and outreach regarding the types of data available in a subscription to the Survey’s Petroleum Data Management System (PDMS).

• Research Scientists Douds, McKailey Sabaj, José Luis Antinao, and Henry Loope, and Director Todd Thompson attended the annual Geological Society of America (GSA) conference in Pittsburgh, Pa., Oct. 15-19. Douds presented a poster outlining the work the Survey will be doing for the DOE grant. Sabaj presented a poster on barite isotope signatures, and Antinao and Loope gave talks on the chronology of the central and northern Indiana Quaternary deposits. During the GSA meeting, Thompson participated in the Mid-Year Meeting of the Association of American State Geologists (AASG) and presented on the AASG honorary members and foundation. Editor Sara Clifford and Education and Outreach Coordinator Polly Sturgeon were announced as new Indiana AASG associate members.

• Douds and Research Scientist Maria Mastalerz attended the USGS’s EarthMRI workshop in Reston, Va., Oct. 24-26. The annual meeting is an opportunity to learn about the research other state surveys are doing regarding critical minerals and the future direction of the program.

• Thompson is acknowledged in Lori Rader-Day's latest mystery novel, The Death of Us, for his help in describing a dimension stone quarry.

• Research Scientist Tracy Branam was a coauthor of two papers about springs that were published at the end of September in the journal Water. Former IGWS staff members Sarah Burgess and Lee Florea were the other coauthors of both papers, “Divergent Geochemical Pathways of Carbonate Aquifer Evolution in a Classic Karst Domain: (1) Polygenetic cave development identified using longitudinal groundwater geochemistry,” and “Divergent Geochemical Pathways of Carbonate Aquifer Evolution in a Classic Karst Domain: (2) Groundwater source delineation using regional water chemistry data.”

• Sturgeon gave a presentation about the development of the IGWS Learning Lab to University Collections at McCalla on Oct. 10.

• The Learning Lab got spooky for the Geology Spooktacular on Saturday, Oct. 28. Sturgeon, along with Learning Lab staff Caroline Klare and Lucas Porter, offered a spooky scavenger hunt, megafauna bean bag toss, prehistoric pumpkin carving, and fossil face painting to about 50 first-time visitors. Sturgeon said she hopes “to offer regular, family-friendly programming like this each season. There will be a Dino Day in the spring, Limestone Fest in the summer, and Spooktacular in the fall,” in addition to special events and regular open hours. See the full schedule at this link.

• More than a dozen field trips to the Learning Lab have been scheduled for the 2023-2024 school year so far. Schools, homeschool co-ops, and other educational groups of more than 10 people can schedule a free field trip that includes a hands-on activity. Virtual webinars are also available. Sign up for a visit at this link.

The Indiana Geological and Water Survey, a longstanding institute of Indiana University, conducts research; surveys the state; collects and preserves geologic specimens and data; and disseminates information to contribute to the mitigation of geologic hazards and the wise stewardship of the energy, mineral, and water resources of Indiana.

• To join the monthly E-Geo News mailing list, please click here.

• To ask a question of IGWS staff or suggest an E-Geo News topic, email scliffo@iu.edu.