Exploring Post-Glacial Landscapes

Hi! I’m Elly Rectenwald. I’m a junior and am double majoring in Geology and Anthropology with a minor in Data Science. This summer I interned at the University of Minnesota Duluth in the Earth and Environmental Sciences department working as a field/research assistant. I worked primarily with two graduate students and two undergraduate students. We were under the supervision of one of the professors who is the advisor to each graduate student. 

My internship consisted of field work, data collection, and data analysis. I worked closely with each graduate student for about five weeks so that I was able to learn about both of their projects and the skills and techniques they used in the field. The first project I was working on was part of a larger project that is studying the post-glacial landscape evolution of the Lake Superior drainage basin. In particular, this project was largely focused on understanding how very rivers cause landscape evolution in a postglacial setting by studying the specific placement of waterfalls in multiple different rivers located in Duluth. I was able to learn about structural geology, geologic mapping, regional geology, and glacial landscape evolution throughout my time helping out on this project. 

The second project that I interned on was an evaluation of recent stream restorations projects that had been conducted around the greater city of Duluth. This particular project focused on the erosional elements of stream restoration, as well as many different surveying methods and techniques. We were able to see first hand the damage that a failed restoration project can cause, as well as what a successful project looks like. I really enjoyed getting to travel around to regional rivers and start to notice differences in streams and projects. 

After I finished up my field work and data analysis with each grad student, I was able to find a project that I found particularly interesting and do my own research with the help of the professor who was overseeing all of our work. I chose my research project stemming from the first project I worked on about glacial landscape evolution. My goal was to analyze a terrace outcrop and the current stream in order to figure out where/when two rivers in close proximity were flowing in relation to each other. I was able to correlate multiple deposits with “paleo” and modern rivers. 

Being able to work at the University of Minnesota Duluth this summer was an awesome opportunity to get experience that is related to both my geology major and data science minor. I was able to learn so many different techniques and methods as well as further my general knowledge regarding geology!