Hobart and William Smith Colleges

In this special edition of This Week in Photos, we share photos from the island of San Salvador, where students are studying the Geology of the Bahamas alongside peers from Winthrop University. Above, students hear from Professor of Geology Nan Crystal Arens about the islands indigenous people and geologic formation.

Kelly Klimczyk 20, Professor of Geoscience Nan Crystal Arens, Audrey Hunt 20 and Sam Gadjo 23 identify collected shells to document variations in diversity and abundance on the island. The program is co-led by Arens and Professor of Geology at Winthrop University Diana Boyer.

Andrew Moriarty 23, Garrett Walters 22 and Jackson Baney 21 gather in front of 125,000-year-old sand dunes that have turned to rock. Students study modern sediments at Sandy Point to understand how these ancient dunes formed.

Lauryn Jennings, Jacob Kotcher 20, Mikayla Gullace 22 and Roland Lipscomb 22 gather data on active ripples at Monument Beach. Measuring ripples allows students to understand the process in which wind and currents create ripple structures in sandy sediment.

Andrew Moriarty 23 snaps a photo of a wild dolphin during students' first snorkel lesson.

Jacob Kotcher 20 and Lauryn Jennings search for microplastic particles in samples of sea water and beach sand using a bright blue light that makes plastic particles fluoresce neon orange and green. Students are documenting the distribution of microplastics in seawater and sediments at different locations.

Andrew Moriarty 23 extracts microplastics from sea water and beach sand. Microplastics are small pieces of plastic debris less than 5 mm in size.

Andrew Moriarty 23, Jacob Kotcher 20 and Rose Nelson 22 listen for the sound of the sea through Conch shells at Grotto Beach. Students found the shells while snorkeling as part of the courses study of living coral reefs.

Students gather at the Dixon Hill Lighthouse on San Salvador, one of the oldest lighthouses in operation in The Bahamas. Constructed in 1887 by Lloyds of London, the lighthouse was built to decrease shipping losses on the treacherous Bahamian reefs.

Professor of Geoscience Nan Crystal Arens explains the formation of coastal dunes to Roland Lipscomb 22.

Samuel Gadjo 23 observes an octopus.

Professor of Geology at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. Diana Boyer introduces students to a rock outcrop where they will reconstruct the history of the sea level fall as the Earth moved into the last glacial interval.

Janne Knieke 22 combs the beach for shells as part of a project in which students examine how diversity and composition of the shelly fauna varies around San Salvador Island. Students collect, sort and identify shells from a number of beaches and compare the number, abundance and identity of species present.

Kelly Klimczyk 20 and Sam Gadjo 23 measure the profile of the beach at Sandy Point. Students study the relationship between the shape of the beach, the size of sediment grains and wave energy.

Janne Knieke 22, Mikayla Gullace 22 and JoAnna Shaw 22 check out coastal processes at Sandy Point, the southern tip of San Salvador Island. These natural forces are erosion and deposition, movement of dunes, longshore drift and the effects of storms.