The Ohio State University

Collecting water and sediment samples is a common occurrence in the life of a geologist. Collecting water and sediment samples in the middle of a raging typhoon is not.
 

But earth sciences graduate student Steve Goldsmith and his advisor Dr. Anne Carey did just that while in Taiwan during the summer of 2004. "We actually completed the first known data set of semi-continuous sampling during a typhoon," Goldsmith says. "What we did was every three hours for a 36-hour period, we went out from our shelter and collected water and sediment samples during that time no matter what the condition was (outside)."
 

Even though the typhoon had knocked out the area's electricity, they still drove to their sampling location while being careful to avoid landslides along the way. Goldsmith credits Carey's experience taking samples on boats for part of their success. "She knows how to make sailor's knots and what you do is tie yourself to a tree as you go to take the sample because you don't want to get swept away," he said. "It's pretty intense. Then it takes about 25 minutes to do everything and when you get back to (the shelter) you realize your heart is just pounding out of your chest!" (NOTE: The first pair of pictures shows tributaries to the Choshui River before and after the typhoon. The second pair shows the Choshui River before and after.)
 

 

Hailing from just outside of New York City, Goldsmith first came to Ohio as an undergraduate student at Ohio Wesleyan University. After graduation he returned to New York and worked as an environmental consultant for seven years. "Then I decided I really wanted to come back to pursue a career in academia," he said. "My ultimate goal is to become a professor. One of the dissatisfactions of consulting was you don't get the freedom to use your mind as much as you do in a career in research, so that was one of the big draws to come back to school."
 

Carey's research group looks at the termination of physical and chemical weathering rates on high-standing islands of the western Pacific such as New Zealand, Taiwan and the Philippines. "I've been able to travel to those locations, which is one great thing," Goldsmith says. "But also the research that we're doing - not only do I find it interesting, but I think it's meaningful in the big picture as well."
 

 

The Carey group focuses on the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere naturally through the silicate weathering cycle. "We've found that the weathering of the volcanic rocks on these islands has yielded some of the highest potential known CO2 consumption rates from rock weathering," Goldsmith says. "Everybody's talking about carbon dioxide consumption these days, but what about the long term picture. If you're really going to model carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with regards to global warming then you really need to know all of your outputs as well as your inputs and this is a big output and maybe one that is not clearly defined yet."
 

Below: Steve Goldsmith standing next to an example of river bedload transport in the Central Range of Taiwan.