checking for limestone

[bluepapercup]

I was reflecting today on a research experience I had as an undergrad at Tufts. I was taking Professor Gardulski's Sedimentology class, and we had to design our own final project. I chose to do a pebble sample from multiple points along a stream in Elmira, near where my parents live. The idea was that the more headwaters would have the smallest

Comments

[nibot]

If some of the pebbles were limestone, how would that have changed your results?

[bluepapercup]

I would have had to have changed my categorization of lithology - so at the most basic level I was reporting erroneous facts.

More subtly, limestone weather more easily than sandstone, especially in a climate that is wet and has, in some places, slightly acidic groundwater. So I would have had to indicate in my results the distribution of clast size and shape across BOTH rock types, and make some interpretations about the distribution I saw.

PS - sorry it took me a year to reply to this. :(