To make it to class, most students find themselves begrudgingly crawling out of bed, throwing on something comfy, and trying to land in a seat before the professor takes roll. But if you’re Melanie Osuna, your mornings look much more productive than that.

Melanie goes to school early, just to make it to the lab. Before classes, she’s in the lab. Even between classes, she’s in the lab. Any time she can spare from homework, she’s in the lab. So what could possibly be so alluring about the lab? 

Melanie works in the RED lab (Records of Environmental and Disturbance, not the color) with Dr. Andrea Brunelle reconstructing paleoclimates. 

Melanie’s research presents the findings of a sediment core taken in 2022 from the Great Salt Lake Desert of Utah.

This particular sediment core was taken on a ~12000-year -old human trackway (with fossilized footprints!) on the distal Old River Bed Delta (ORBD) in the Bonneville Basin, far to the West of the U. 

The way Melanie’s team examines the core is incredibly sophisticated. Analysis includes Loss on Ignition (LOI), Magnetic Susceptibility (MS), and Charcoal Analysis.  Melanie explains, “LOI indicates the productivity of an ecosystem, MS informs of the erosional and volcanic history of the site, and Charcoal Analysis is used to reconstruct the fire history of an area.”  Through these analyses, Melanie’s team have reconstructed the paleoclimate and potential resources for the human populations present on the ORBD. 

Melanie’s research focuses particularly on the Oolitic sands found near the distal portion of the sediment core.

 

 

 

The Oolitic sand is no joke. Melanie recounts, “When putting it in the oven to do Loss on Ignition testing, it blew up. Not something that happens often.”

Melanie’s team is still hypothesizing why this happened, but it only occurred in the samples with the Oolitic sand…

The Oolitic sands are interesting for reasons besides their mysteriously explosive quality: they may indicate the presence of a shallow lake, perhaps pre-dating the already-ancient Lake Bonneville!

 

More research is still being done on this section, but the potential implications are incredibly exciting. This isn’t just about really old lakes; it’s about the people who lived there. The people who walked these ancient roads, who aren’t so different from you or me.

Melanie finds this prospect thrilling, as well as potentially important for what we can expect from the climate in the future: “I love learning about past climates and how exactly it affected people and the way they lived. I like knowing about the past because through it, we can try and infer things about our future.”

Perhaps you’ve begun to realize how exciting lab work can be. From unexpected explosions to tantalizing discoveries about ancient Utah, things in the RED lab never get boring. No wonder Melanie spends so much time there! “I can’t wait to see what all the data we’re collecting means,” she excitedly expresses.

 

 

 

 

Melanie credits her mom for getting her where she is today. Melanie’s mom has been an unwavering support to her, especially throughout her academic journey. Even when things become unbelievably tough, Melanie can rely on her mom. “She’s never given up, not even when my dad passed away and she had to do it all on her own. I hope to be as strong and persevering as her one day.” 

 

And persevering she is. Melanie intends on going to Grad School as soon as she can to pursue further research.

 

Written by Alex Kellgreen, Creative Content Assistant