‘Team Avalanche’ builds sand slope in Science Park
Students Mabel (24), Fleur (24) and Carlijn (23) re-created a sand slope in the labratories of Science Park 904 in order to investigate the influence of gravity on sand avalanches. Folia stopped by to see what they were up to.
What are you working on?
Mabel Gray (24): ‘We’re following master’s in Earth Sciences at the UvA and are participants in the European Space Agency (ESA) Spin Your Thesis! 2018 programme for which we’re investigating the influence of gravity on sand avalanches.’
Why the interest in sand avalanches?
Mabel: ‘We want to find out whether land forms on Mars or other planets were created by water or by avalanches of sand...’
Where do you work on this?
Carlijn Snoek (23): ‘We write all our reports at the office of our study association Gaos at Science Park 904, but we also have a setup in the lab that we built ourselves. It’s a slope that simulates the flow of a sand avalanche. We built a base frame the fits in the centrifuge, and there’s a camera above so we can capture what’s happening.’
Mabel: ‘But later this month we’ll also be working at the Large Diameter Centrifigue in Noordwijk which can stimulate enhanced gravity. We were selected together with another team from Bristol to perform our experiment there.’
What do you like about where you work?
Fleur van Langen (24): ‘There are so many gadgets! And there’s a big slope where you can do rain simulations with clay and sand.’
Mabel: ‘How it’s so unlike any other. If it rains, you have to put on a rain suit.’
Carlijn: ‘I like how quiet it is. Only earth scientists know about it. You can turn on the radio and just do your thing.’
What do you dislike?
Carlijn: ‘All the sand! Many earth scientists carry out experiments with sand or clay in the lab so it feels like we’re always breathing in dust and clay.’
