July 8, 2008 Soil Extraction Excitement

Polar Date July 8, 2008

Soil Extraction Day Has Arrived! Yes, this day will be etched in my Toolik experience memory. It was the final step for the soil that had been taken from the burn site on Saturday, July 5.

This is the staging area for the soil extractions. The soil has been in solution since the coring homogenization on Sunday, July 6th. Note that all the labware is plastic. Although some is rinsed out, much is discarded. Any water with soap or chemicals cannot go down the drain, it is saved into a cistern that is pumped out and taken to Fairbanks by tanker truck. That makes the cost of cleaning the labware very expensive. Autoclaving is an option, but the energy required to autoclave is also expensive since the electricity for the entire camp is provided by diesel generators.

The extraction apparatus looked like a 10-legged linear octopus, with tubes coming from a central wooden rack. The rack had holes drilled across the top to accommodate the sample jars. There was a rubber plug, with an o-ring assembly to hold the filters.

The soil extractor was built for its expressed purpose. The rack itself is made of wood and the tubing is off the shelf plastic tubing. The device works by vacuum pressure, the pump is hidden in this picture, but the switch for the pump is visible on the wall to the rear of the picture.

The soil and solution would be subjected to a vacuum pressure provided by an electric vacuum pump. As the pump drew the solution through the filter, all the soil particulates and salts were left behind, leaving a clear, pure liquid in the bottom of the vial. This liquid would be tested to see how much carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus was contained in the soil samples, that number then could be extrapolated for the entire core.

Donie Bret-Harte explained the process to Elise and Matt. The vacuum pump was turned on and it was almost a go. A few of the individual stations weren't working, so patiently the three extraction experts tweaked the system until everything was flowing along smoothly.

The process went quickly with all samples extracted by 2:00.

An extraction video will be posted soon!

Today was also the day Donie was hopping on a Toolik truck and heading into Fairbanks. She will be gone until next Tuesday, and so everyone will be working on projects and staying in touch with her via e-mail and phone.

Signing off from Toolik Lake, and remember, "There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew". ~Marshall McLuhan, 1964

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