Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

• Stable isotopes in sedimentary environments (past and present) and their application to sedimentary ore deposits
• The fate of metals in the environment, and in the development of tropical soils
• Low temperature hydrothermal rock-water interactions at oceanic spreading ridges
• The influences and interactions with microbial activity and microbial byproducts with these rock-water interactions

Students learn by doing and by dialogue. Students in my laboratory and classes are exposed to a wide variety of geologic materials and problems, and are encouraged to engage in dialogue to discuss and write about their findings in order to develop critical thinking skills along with a deeper understanding of the geologic concepts, materials, and systems.

• Analysis of copiapite samples from Devonian black shale outcrops.
• Sulfur Isotopic Budget of the Yaxcopoil-1 Core, Chicxulub Impact Crater and modeling of the sulfur isotopic fractionation at the K/T boundary
• Depositional environments, sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Santa Rosa Group, E–M Permian, Belize
• Effective determination of the critical components for Pb–Zn mineralization: Insights from the Santa Rosa Group, Belize, Central America
• Carbon-Sulfur relationships in the Manus Basin, Sites 1188 and 1189, ODP Leg 193, Papua New Guinea

Emily S. Gercke, M.S 2011
Thesis: Windward and leeward sedimentation patterns on Catalina Island, Dominican Republic

H.R.M. Sohel M. Anwar, M.S. 2004
Thesis: A rare earth and trace element approach to understanding the origin of the Santa Rosa Group sediments, Maya Mountains, Belize

• Holocene climate and coastal process in the Dominican Republic (a field and laboratory project)
• Dendrochronology and stable isotopes, soils, and groundwater in the Indiana University Demonstration Watershed, Tobacco Root Mountains, Montana (field and laboratory projects)
• Griffy Lake Water Chemistry (a field collection, and laboratory analysis project in the IU preserve, and the Bloomington city park)
• Water samples from seeps in local Devonian black shales (a field and laboratory project)

• Sigma Gamma Epsilon (SGE), National Council President
• Geological Society of America (GSA), Campus Representative
• Sigma Gamma Epsilon (SGE) Rho Chapter, Faculty Advisor