Spring Break in Iceland
Terrascope, one of MIT's learning communities for first-year students, offers a course—Solving Complex Problems (12.000)—with a mission. Freshmen in 2008-09 Terrascope will explore the availability over the next century of fresh, clean water in western North America. Terrascope is co-directed by a CEE faculty member, Professor Charles Harvey, and a faculty member from the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Professor Samuel Bowring. Last year, the 2007-08 Terrascope class studied fisheries as a way of learning about Earth as a complex dynamical system. They traveled to Iceland over spring break (March 24-28) to study that country's fishing industry, geology and dependence on renewable energy. Terrascope's annual fieldtrip, although voluntary, is an integral element of the program. Past destinations include the Amazon rainforest, Alaska, the Galapagos Islands, the Pacific Coast of Chile and New Orleans during the city's recovery from Hurricane Katrina. This photo taken in Iceland shows a slope of pillow basalt, fragmented rocks that result from lava flowing under glaciers.
