Jenna Salvat, a ninth grade student at Coronado High School, brought home several awards from the recent Colorado Science and Engineering Fair held at the College of Natural Sciences Education and Outreach Center at Colorado State University in Fort Collins on April 9, 2016.
Her entry, “Sandstone Injectites in Fault Zone Areas: Sedimentological Characteristics Using Analog Models,” won second place in the Senior Division Earth and Space Sciences at the Colorado Science and Engineering Fair. Jenna’s work was honored by other organizations, including the Colorado Mineral Society, the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, and the Colorado Section of the American Institute of Professional Geologists. Jenna also received the Naval Science Award and the NASA Earth Science System Award. Her hard work has paid off in spades.
Jenna began her work last summer with two sponsors: Christine Siddoway, a professor of geology at Colorado College and geoscience researcher Steven Wade Veatch. Jenna’s project centered on analyzing sandstone injected into Pikes Peak Granite. Jenna looked at the simulated rate of injection of liquefied sediment into igneous rock under variable densities and how that would impact the formation of sedimentary structures.
“My project helps to understand the numerous and complex sedimentary structures at exposure sites in the Pikes Peak region that were created in response to the agitation caused by fault zone earthquakes,” Jenna said.
The science fair teaches students how to explore a topic of their own interest, using real scientific inquiry, and then learn how to present their findings. Jenna’s science fair project began on a field trip to the sandstone she is investigating through the Pebble Pups, a special program for youth in the Pikes Peak region to learn about the geosciences. Since then Jenna has put in countless of hours into the project. She would like to be a geoscientist. “I enjoy the process of science and working at the frontier of discovery,” she said.
Jenna is a member of the Pikes Peak Pebble Pups and is an Earth Science Scholar in that program. The Pebble Pup program operates under the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society. Jenna is also a member of the Colorado Scientific Society.