Visitors from UK’s Center for Applied Energy Research and the Department of Energy stopped by on Friday to look at the PGDP Regional Stratigraphy Model before it will be presented to the PGDP Community Advisory Committee later this month in Paducah, KY.
The model, shown below put together and fully illuminated for the first time, communicates the relationship between the built and natural landscape above and the subsurface multi-layered aquifer, geological features, and various intensities of ground concentrations underneath. The entire model was digitally designed, coordinated and fabricated using multiple materials and tools. The geological formations were milled from high density tooling board, the multilayer aquifer is shown as water cut and anodized aluminum grids, and the landscape and sub-surface ground concentrations are comprised of laser cut layers of plexiglass. All pieces were designed to fit together seamlessly and to be demountable, transformable and interactive.
The model and accompanying information is to be used as a tool to communicate present conditions among scientists, as well as between the scientists and the community. Our hope is that this tool can help stakeholders build consensus to move forward.