Ria Sarkar

Outreach Officer

Ria at the Watchung reservation, where columnar basalts can be found in the parking lot. These rocks can be aged to 250 million years old, and were formed from volcanoes in NJ.

Ria came to Rutgers as a computer science major, and was introduced to the field of geology through her work study assignment at the Rutgers Geology Museum. After discovering her love for geology, dinosaurs, and paleontology through her job, she enrolled in her first geology class and soon declared as a Geology major. She graduated in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in Geology and a minor in Marine Sciences. Ria is currently in the final stages of pursuing her Master’s degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers University. Her research focuses on paleoclimatology and paleoceanography under the advisement of fellow PUFINS cruise member, Dr. Lauren Neitzke Adamo.

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Ria at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference presenting her research evaluating North Atlantic deep water formation wearing a dress personalized by her mother.

Ria’s role in PUFINS is as an Outreach Coordinator alongside Dr. Adamo. Together they will be leading the PUFINS outreach and education program with the four K-12 teachers who were selected as the On-Board Educators. Ria is looking forward to talking to the public about the science of deep-sea coring and providing updates about the progress of the PUFINS cruise through the use of tools such as blogs, videos, pictures, live-streaming, and more. Ria also hopes that young students will see how exciting this project is and that it it is possible to become involved in research yourself. She is extremely excited to get the chance to be part of the coring process as she has been studying sediment cores for several years and has not had the chance until now to be part of the collection process.

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Ria’s research analyzes changes in ocean circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean over the last 20,000 years by examining the geochemical and faunal trends in foraminifera. These microfossils are preserved in the sediment within deep-sea sediment cores and contain a plethora of information about past ocean chemistry, temperatures, etc. Ria is hoping to be able to examine the cores collected on this expedition to provide further insight into the deep-water circulation changes in the Atlantic Ocean.

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Ria at the AGU conference presenting her research evaluating North Atlantic deep water formation (2018).

While Ria’s past sea experience has been limited to whale watching in Boston, Hawaii, and California, she has had the opportunity to participate in several other field expeditions. She has assisted in drone field work of major rock outcrops around New Jersey and a marsh. Ria’s favorite geology field moment took place during field camp, a 40-day geologic mapping experience she completed aspart of our undergraduate major course work hiking across Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana and camping under the stars. She was able to explore and map the breathtaking geologic formations, in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks and got to experience all kinds of geology while immersing herself into the environment! This June, she will also be able to add a research cruise to her list of incredible field experiences!