Status and Highlights of the Geochemistry Program

• Several important research findings:• Developed techniques that allows in-situ analysis of 67 elements in less than 5 minutes. In Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectroscopy• Discovery of in-vivo mercury isotope fractionation in fish1. In Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems.• Palladium partition experiments that indicate that there is no need to call on a late veneer of meteorites (after core formation) to explain the high abundances of platinum group elements in the silicate Earth2. In Nature Geoscience• Record of expansion of C4 plants in Central Inner Mongolia shows a shift in the monsoon pattern in Eastern Asia during the Cenozoic3. In Earth and Planetary Science Letters•Determined rates of methane production in boreal and subarctic peatlands and the consequences for methane flux to the atmosphere4. In Global Biogeochemical Cycles

• Since Jan 1, 2008 awarded $1.45M NSF (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Divisions), $750k NASA, $1M NOAA ,and $150k from EPRI5. Collaborations with Georgia Tech, University of Miami and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Our main outside users6 were awarded $2.2M7 since Jan 1, 2008.

Vision for the Geochemistry Program

as of summer 2010, mid-point in current award period

• Maintain our research profile which includes high-temperature geochemistry and cosmochemistry, aquatic chemistry, and low-T geochemistry and global warming

• Take advantage of research funding related to the oil spill in he Gulf of Mexico

• Expansion into biogeochemistry and the interaction of metals with organic matter in the environment1.

• Replace inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer2.

• Continue to look at possibilities for natural overlap interests with other parts of the NHMFL. Potential areas are:• Mössbauer spectroscopy• Micro analytical facility for in-situ analyses of elemental abundances and isotopic

compositions3.

References for Slide 1

Reference list (NHMFL affiliated authors in bold):

Humayun, M, Davis, D A and Hirschmann, M M (2010) Major element analysis of natural silicates by laser ablation ICP-MS, J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 25, 998–1005.

Das, R, Salters, V J M, Odom, A L (2009) A case for in vivo mass-indeoendent fractionation of mercury isotopes in fish, Geochem, Geophys, Geosys, 10, Q11012

Righter, K, Humayun, M, Danielson, L (2008) Partitioning of palladium at high pressures and temperatures during core formation, Nature Geosciences, 1, 321-323.

Zhang, C, Wang, Y, Deng, T, Wang, X, Biasatti, D, Xu, Y, Li, Q (2009) C4 expansion in the central Inner Mongolia during the latest Miocene and early Pliocene, Earth Plan. Sci. Lett. 287, 311-319.

Chanton, J P, Glaser, P H, Chasar, L S, Burdige, D J, Hines, M E, Siegel, D I, Tremblay, L B and Cooper, W T (2008) Radiocarbon evidence for the importance of surface vegetation on fermentation and methanogenesis in contrasting types of boreal peatlands, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 22, GB402.