They are studying much of the New Jersey and Delaware coastline re-constructing its past in the hopes of better understanding the impact the environment has had on it.
The professor and student have become what you might call experts on sand!
Temple Geology professor, Ilya Buynevich has been looking for clues to reveal how coastal wetlands evolved in prehistoric times.
He and some of his grad students excavated in an area at Sewell point in Cape May.
"We went down 23 feet, so we're 7 meters below street surface," explained Ilya Buynevich.
The sediment they unearthed reveals important information about the coastline's past.
"Some of the sand probably came through the inlet and was deposited right below the ancient beach, rather than being washed over the beach, because remember, hundreds of years ago, beaches were farther out to sea," said Buynevich.
In the lab, they simulate natural weather events.
"Naturally, what happens during strong storms or winds, the light minerals will be moved away but the heavy minerals stay behind," Buynevich said.
The mud snails Buynevich and his team extracted in Cape May are excellent indicators of sea level.
They also look for sand content and magnetic anomalies in the mud samples they collected to find new methods of identifying extreme weather events from the past, especially in areas where there are distinct differences in the layers of sand.
"I grew up going down to Cape May as a kid," said Bryan Narwich. "All we did was go to the beach. We enjoyed the waves and everything, and it was fun. As you study more about it, you learn about how it used to be versus what it is now; the progression, and evolution of it all, it's amazing to think that I can dig down into the ground and find out what happened 700 years ago."
Professor Buynevich has worked on coastlines around the world from the Baltic Sea to Kuwait and Brazil.
His samples are ready for radio-carbon testing, the method by which you determine the age of organisms above or below the sand; information that is crucial to figuring out the coastline's vulnerability to storms in the future.
