Research
Most of my research projects utilize stable isotopes of oxygen and carbon
as a tool for investigating the origin and history of carbonate sediments
and rocks. Smith College undergraduate geology students are actively
involved in conducting field and laboratory research under my supervision.
Many of my current projects deal with using carbon isotopes for high-resolution
stratigraphic correlation of Upper Cambrian strata in the Appalachian
region of the eastern United States. Recently, these projects have taken
my students and I to field localities in Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New
York and Vermont.
I have also been working on unraveling the depositional and diagenetic
history of carbonate rocks from Upper Paleozoic successions in southern
Indiana, the Mesozoic rift basins in Massachusetts, and Lower Tertiary
strata from Croatia. With a student I have been investigating modern
calcareous serpulid tube aggregates from Baffin Bay, Texas and Holocene
tufa-coated serpulid mounds from the Dominican Republic. This work complements
my specific interest in deciphering the influence of microbial processes
on the formation and diagenesis of carbonate deposits.
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