Collège Bourget- Rigaud, QC
Back (standing): Robert Blyth (CLS), Cody Billig, Steven Price-Williams, Nicholas Shelton, Julien Slykhuis-Landry, Nicolas Pandelitis, Michael Tarantino, Samuel Brière, Éric Vernas (Collège Bourget), Sebastian Kwaziborski Front (sitting): Emily Hodgson, Johanne Patry (Collège Bourget), Tracy Walker (CLS) holding Igor Manic (group mascot), Joelle Delarosbil.
This student team analyzed samples collected from the Manicouagan basin, a large crater created millions of years ago when a meteor measuring five kilometres in diameter struck this area in northern Quebec. They collected surface samples and obtained core samples from Manicouagan Minerals Inc. to investigate how the impact of the meteor may have modified some elements and the soil composition of the area. They used X-ray absorption spectroscopy on the SGM beamline to study their samples, looking particularly at silicon as silicates have been found in samples from other crater sites. Synchrotron data revealed chemical changes in the soil composition of the area, and preliminary analysis indicated that the meteorite may have been a very rare type. These students conducted follow up research in collaboration with the Université du Québec à Montréal, and are now analysing their data. We look forward to learning their results!
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Four of the students and their teachers collected surface samples from the edge of the Manicouagan basin in November 2008 for their research project |
On the mezzanine with Dr. Robert Blyth- learning about the facility and the machine they will be running their experiment in |
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Figuring out how the grasshopper monochromator works |
“The synchrotron is real! We touched it with our own hands”- outside wall of the storage ring |
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Looking at the sample inside the chamber of the SGM beamline |
Top right: core sample, bottom right: ground core sample, left: ground sample mounted on disks, ready for the beamline |
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Watching the x-ray absorption data as the sample is scanned |
Students looking on from the mezzanine, eagerly awaiting the sample data |
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Johanne Patry, their teacher, looks on from the mezzanine |
Local camera crews filming the students working on the beamline |
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Working hard to make sense of it all! |
Last modified: 2012-01-19 17:01:36