The Keck Colorado 12 project will work with a large interdisciplinary study (Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory: Weathered profile development in a rocky environment and its influence on watershed hydrology and biogeochemistry-NSF 0724960) directed by Suzanne Anderson, Institute for Arctic and Alpine Studies (INSTAAR), University of Colorado.
The 2012 Lough Carra, Ireland project will investigate Holocene climate, aquatic productivity, and pollution records by collecting and analyzing lacustrine carbonate sediments. In addition, we will verify the fidelity of the marl delta 13C record by conducting a series of pore water incubation experiments. The summer program will consist of fieldwork in Ireland and laboratory analyses at Amherst College and Wesleyan University.
A study of enigmatic rocks and ancient soils associated with the huge eruptions of the Miocene.
We will calibrate high-resolution carbon isotopes and growth rates in freshwater mussel shells as proxies of ultra-high-resolution (paleo)environmental conditions and then to apply these proxies to shells spanning the K-T boundary collected in Montana during this project. The K-T is associated with an asteroid impact leading to the mass extinction, which ended the rein of the dinosaurs. Previous work suggests pre-impact environmental perturbations leading up to the K-T boundary, but seasonal variations in the carbon cycle have notbeen investigated. High-resolution seasonal variations in carbon cycling can provide more subtle information than the time-integrated approaches used in the past.
Petrology and geochemistry of subduction-related metamorphic rocks.
