Sediment Jar Assignment

Sediment Jar Assignment

Materials Needed:

· one glass jar, pickle jar works well, wash the jar and keep the lid!

· variety of dirt, sand, small gravel, clay, whatever you can find in your yard or nearby, enough to fill 1/2 of your jar and no more. Nothing larger than 1/4 inch diameter, so no large rocks. You can use material from different locations like I did, or you can use material from just one location if it has a range of grain sizes. DO NOT use potting soil or organic material like mulch, leaves or grass, these are not sediments.

· spoon

· water

· clock

· camera

Procedure:

Mix all of your dirt, sand, clay, and gravel together and put it in the jar, filling it up no more than ½ full. Be sure that you break up any clumps of materials so they will settle correctly. No lumps! Add enough water to almost fill the jar, leave about an inch of air at the top. Put the lid on and shake the jar very thoroughly. Sit the jar in a spot that you can leave the jar undisturbed for a few days. Students have had spouses, children and pets move or break their jar so put it in a protected spot. Take photos of the jar at the following intervals.

· Right after you shake it up

· 15 minutes later

· 1 hour later

· 3 hours later

· 24 hours later

· 3 days later

Report Requirements:

Use the same organization as my example below. Post at least 5 pictures of your jar. The first photo should be of your dirt before you put it in the jar. I’d like to see one of the early shots, 5 or 15 minutes, an intermediate shot (either 3 or 24 hours) and the last photo after 3 days. Be sure that the photos are clear and show the materials in the jar in detail and in focus with good lighting. Label the photos with the time or describe them so I know which photo was taken at what time.

Describe what kinds of materials you put in the jar, color, size ranges… and where you collected them. Include a detailed description of each photo and what you see, any layers developing? Again, colors you see, layers you can describe, how clear is the water…. Describe how long it took the water to become clear and for all of the sediment to settle to the bottom of the jar. What settled to the bottom first, what size particles are these relative to the rest of the material? What stayed suspended in the water the longest, what size particles are these, relative to the rest of the material.

This simple jar is an example of how sediments in nature settle out from water and get deposited.

Be sure to answer the following question as a conclusion to your work. Given what you observed in the jar, what would you expect to see in a stream bed if you were able to dig several feet into the sediments in terms of grain size. Discuss based on what happened in your jar.

Post your photos and your answers to the questions above on the Discussion Board. Respond to two of your classmates as usual.

Resource:

You can watch the following video where a similar experiment is described. Vertical Sorting Demonstration (https://youtu.be/k65hPHfiK1w)

Example Report

Follow this outline with 3 sections to your lab report.

Susan Harris

Sediment Jar Lab

Section 1. Introduction

Here are my samples of sand, dirt and gravel before mixing. You can see the different colors and the range of sizes of the grains. The sand is a lighter brown and the dirt is darker. I got the gravel from my driveway, the sand from an old sandbox, and the dirt from my garden. I may have gotten a bit too much gravel for my sample. The coarsest grains are about ¼ inch in diameter and the finest grains look to be about the size of salt crystals. I think there are also some smaller clay sized grains in my garden dirt.

Figure 1

Section 2. Photos

Figure 2. Sand, dirt and gravel after mixing. I had to break up some of the dirt clumps with the back of the spoon.

Figure 3. Sand, dirt and gravel in the jar before adding water and shaking.

Figure 4. Mixture after 5 minutes. Only the heavier gravel and a bit of sand have settled to the bottom. Most of the finer grains are still suspended in the water so it’s very dark. There are some bits of organic material floating on the top of the water.

Figure 5. Mixture after 24 hours. You can see a layer of finer grains, probably sand sized that has settled on top of the coarser grains. There’s a pretty clear line between these 2 layers. The water is still cloudy indicating that it contains some suspended material, probably clay sized particles since these take the most time to settle out.

Figure 6. Mixture in jar after 3 days. The water in the jar is much clearer but still contains some suspended clay material. You can see the sorting from the layer of finer grains at the top, to the coarser sand sized grains and then some of the larger gravel pieces are visible at the bottom of the jar.

Section 3. Conclusions

Be sure you answer the last question about what you might expect to see in a real stream bed for your conclusion. Should be a short paragraph summarizing your results then answering the stream bed question.

“Given what you observed in the jar, what would you expect to see in a stream bed if you were able to dig several feet into the sediments in terms of grain size. Discuss based on what happened in your jar.”

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