A masked “Gustie” greeted us at the door to the Nobel Hall of Science

As part of a recently completed $70 million expansion and renovation of the Nobel Hall of Science at Gustavus Adolphus College, professors Julie Bartley and Laura Triplett added two new Emriver models to the Em3 they first acquired back in 2014. At the end of September, we put on our masks and installed the models in their beautiful facility. A new Em3 will be an interactive feature in a small geology museum, while an Em4 will join the current Em3 in their sedimentology lab.

Professor Laura Triplett, lab assistant Morgan, and Professor Julie Bartley with their new Emriver Em4

The shiny new Em3 in the Geology Museum

Setting up the new Em3, with Little River’s Steve Grimmer hiding on the left

We’re always excited to meet the scientists and educators who use our models. At Gustavus, they’ve created a facility in which research and outreach are both on display. In the new museum, Julie showed us a meter-long specimen that came from a local quarry, a crag and tail. We learned that this is a small version of Castle Rock in Scotland, home to Edinburgh Castle.

Crag and tail rock unearthed from a local quarry

So, of course, we placed a rock in the stream flow in the Em3 in our shop and made our own little crag and tail. This is one of the things we love about the models; we can demonstrate a phenomenon in a few minutes without having to wait for a glacier to pass. We didn’t even have to put on our coats.

Crag and tail formation in our emriver model

Crag and tail formation