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Soil Samples Substantiate Tsunami Size For Immediate Release: 
Senior Wes Nutter works with Assistant Professor of Geology Andy Moore in the field during a summer research project in Japan. RICHMOND, Ind. — For two Earlham College seniors, geology wields the power to make them want to spend part of their summer stooped in a damp, chilly peat marsh in Japan and then use the skills and information they acquired there to improve the environment. "It was wet, never above 50 degrees and we were in standing water," says Katie Delbecq, who spent three weeks in May studying past tsunamis in Japan with fellow senior Wesley Nutter, Assistant Professor of Geology Andy Moore and five Japanese geologists, "but it was very exciting to me." The group of researchers studied sediment cores and sand deposits and used the physics of how wind and water move to learn about these ancient events, known as paleotsunamis, in an isolated area on the island of Hokkaido in northern Japan. "Looking at the grain size of sand, we can learn about tsunamis," Delbecq says. "We see different characteristics and we are able to gain insights. There are limitations to what you can learn by looking at the sedimentary record, but when you train yourself to look for these things through new lenses, you can learn how things were a million years ago or even a billion years ago." The two students are hoping to complete the analysis of data they collected and submit their findings in December for publication in a professional journal. They presented posters at the Geologic Society of America's Annual Meeting in Houston in October. 
Katie Delbecq displays her poster about her summer research opportunity in Japan during Earlham's Undergraduate Research Conference. Nutter says they discovered evidence of much larger tsunamis in the area than what has been recorded. Tsunami records exist for the past 200 years for the area, but their research indicated tsunami activity dating back 3,000 years. "The size of what has been recorded is less than that of what we found in the sedimentary record," Nutter explains. A 2003 tsunami generated by an 8.2 magnitude earthquake inundated a harbor along the coastline but didn't reach their study area, which was protected by a 150-foot high dune. "The 2003 tsunami didn't get near the peat marsh where we were looking, so for those earlier tsunamis, there must have been an enormous wall of water," Nutter says. After he graduates from Earlham, Nutter plans to study soil conservation or sustainable agriculture in graduate school. "Geology has within it the possibility or the means of channeling the ideas of sustainability into our society and engraving it into our paradigm as a norm," he says. "With sustainable agriculture, my hope is to be able to educate myself in some formal way to gain a better understanding of what it means to provide sustainability for a large population." Nutter already has lots of sustainability experience. For part of the past five summers he lived in an ecovillage in Mexico. He also lived in ecovillages in Scotland and India and is a founding member of Next Gen Global Ecovillage Network. At Earlham, Nutter has been a three-year resident of Miller Farm, a rural college-based intentional community with a focus on sustainable agriculture. Delbecq came to Earlham thinking she would study biology, but soon changed her mind. "After my first geology class I realized that geology would give me a great set of tools to become an environmental scientist, and I also just really like rocks," she says. In fact, she still has her childhood rock collection, a large box filled with Tupperware containers full of rocks wrapped in tissue paper. "I loved rocks because they were sparkly," she says. "I would hope that my interest in geology is more sophisticated today, but gemstones still get me." "I think of geology as a puzzle. There's so much information in the rocks and sediment and if we learn how to interpret this, we can solve the puzzle." "We found that the tsunami layers present in our marsh core samples were very extensive compared to modern recorded tsunami and storm events," Delbecq says. "This leads us to believe that these past events, these paleotsunamis, were much larger than anything we've ever seen in recorded history. We think there is a much greater risk than records would lead us to believe. By figuring out this puzzle, we can work toward being better prepared." The Earlham research was sponsored by the Burges Fund. — EC — Contact:
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Earlham
College · 801 National Road West · Richmond,
Indiana 47374-4095 |