Sunday - November 15, 2009 - Uncovering the Layers of the Earth
Student Argonaut Maria Marquez 
Finally, the mission continues... and new adventures are about to come. My journey started yesterday after I took two airplanes to arrive in Washington DC. The flights were awesome, because I got to sleep on both of them after getting up at 4:30 AM! Peter from JASON greeted me and took me to the National Gallery of Art. I am not only learning geology, but also art. At the National Gallery, I tried to relate some of what I was seeing to geology, and I found that some of the art sculptures were carved in marble or terra cotta. So, even in art, geology plays a role.
We had dinner at an Indian restaurant; it was delicious. After that, I went promptly to sleep, because I had to wake up at 4:30 AM again for two more flights.
When I got to Pittsburgh, I met the other Argonauts on this mission, Emily, Connor and Cindy. I am really happy to finally be with them again. When we met at boot camp, we all grew extremely close -- so it was very exciting to see them.
We got some lunch, and headed out to the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Lab (NETL). It was then that I got to meet our first host researcher -- Dr. George Guthrie. We had our first mission briefing, where we talked together about the history of Earth, energy and coal.
Reviewing data on recent global energy trends with Dr. Guthrie. | 
Emily and Connor with Dr. Guthrie at NETL in Pittsburgh. |
It was really interesting to learn about the process by which coal forms, and how scientists can predict where it can be found by better understanding Earth's geology. But what really interested me the most was the geologic sequestration of CO2. I never imagined that we could actually store and capture CO2 and inject it back into rocks within the earth. If we can figure out how to do this efficiently, we can get energy from the Earth without releasing CO2 back into the atmosphere.
Examining some properties of coal with Dr. Guthrie. | 
Our first mission briefing with Dr. Guthrie. |
After the briefing, we went to have dinner with Dr. George Guthrie and the JASON crew at a Caribbean fusion restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh. I had crispy calamari, with a banana sauce -- it was a really interesting flavor. Emily had one of the biggest hamburgers I have ever seen!
The Argos and Dr. Guthrie at dinner in Pittsburgh. | 
Be careful Emily! |
We are all extremely excited to get started on our mission tomorrow. We will be heading into a coal mine where they test a variety of procedures for working more efficiently with coal. I am pretty sure it will be very interesting. I am really tired -- so I am going to get a rest now. Keep following us, and thank you for all your support. Adios!
Para mis amigos en Mexico: !Espero verlos en una semana para contarles todo! Esta es una experiencia increible que nunca olvidare, gracias a todos los que estan viendo esto y me estan siguiendo por Facebook!
Saludos desde Pittsburgh,
Marifer