Achievement

In October 2011, 22 UW IGERT Astrobiology Program trainees, associates, and faculty took part in a research field trip to study the marine biology and geology of the San Juan Islands north of Seattle. An important goal was to foster interdisciplinarity by having non-experts (e.g., astronomers and theorists) be exposed to how field research is carried out in these important areas of astrobiology. We were housed at the UW Friday Harbor Lab and used their teaching and research facilities. Groups dredged the bottom of Puget Sound for marine invertebrates, and then dissected the critters to illustrate the various phyla that arose in a remarkably short time during the so-called Cambrian Explosion 542 million years ago. We also visited a Cretaceous outcrop on Sucia Island and sampled fossils, learning about the techniques and research questions of paleontology.