Rock Dentistry Part Deux

Shortly after my arrival, I posted a blog about the field program that I am part of here, called Rock Dentistry (read it here if you are interested). That field program continues and we just got back from a low tide set where we scraped rocks with big metal toothbrush-looking brushes, picked off intertidal plaque-like critters with metal picks, and drilled holes. All of these activities make me feel like a doozer from Fraggle Rock, working away on giants' teeth.

This past trip took the rock dentistry to a whole new level. One of the experiments that I am running this summer will examine how barnacles end up in patterns like this.

They hang out in cracks, but this pattern isn't the case all the time and everywhere, so I am looking at why their affinity to cracks changes in space and/or time. To do that, I have to measure tiny microscopic cracks and irregularities in the rock surface. An easy way to do that is to use dental alginate and make a cast of the surface, then use the alginate which is easy to cut and manipulate, to measure crack properties.

For those of you who don't know (I didn't know before starting this work) what dental alginate is, here's a description. It is the goopy, mint-smelling stuff that dentist's use to make replicas of your teeth. You know, the stuff that they put in the oversized tray, shove in your mouth then hold it there for a while, making you feel like you are going through waterboarding torture at Gitmo. That stuff. The advantages of the alginate for use in the intertidal are that it sets fast, you can use it on wet surfaces (it actually worked best on the wet rocks), and it is easy to mix and apply (good tips for those of you budding intertidal ecologists who might try it yourself).



That part of the dentistry work is now over. Too bad, because it was fun and something a little different. I will be back in the field again in August to finish the crack tests and to carry out another series of observations - and yes, more doozer teeth cleaning.