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MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
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MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
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Associate Professor Initial Appointment: August 1997 Specialties : Sedimentology and Stratigraphy PhD : University of Kansas
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Research Interests
My research spans the fields of sedimentary geology and geochemistry. I am interested in deciphering past conditions on the Earth's surface, including depositional environments, paleoclimate, and water chemistry. I am also interested in diagenesis, the alteration of sediments and sedimentary rocks through time. I use field and petrographic study of sedimentary rocks, complemented by fluid inclusion analyses, major and trace element analyses, and stable isotope analyses. Of course, I also am interested in the physical, chemical, and even biological processes of modern sediments because they can be used for comparison with ancient sediments. My research interests include: acid water deposition and diagenesis
Paleozoic climates
paleosols
evaporite deposition and diagenesis
carbonate diagenesis
new fluid inclusion techniques
Details about my research interests and publications can be found on my personal web page below.
Recent Research with Undergraduate Students
Jonathan Knapp, current geology senior thesis project, “Stratigraphy, sedimentology, and paleontology of newly discovered Pennsylvanian strata in Michigan”; - recipient of $2400 CMU Undergraduate Summer Scholarship, GSA Travel Grant, and $300 GSA Student Research Grant
- Best Student Poster Award at 2006 AAAS Meeting
Elliot Jagniecki, current geology senior thesis project, “Biological and chemical characterization of fluid inclusions in acid lake halite from Western Australia” - recipient of $450 CMU Undergraduate Research Grant, $2400 CMU Undergraduate Summer Scholarship, and GSA Travel Grant
- Best Student Poster Award at 2005 GSA Meeting
Renee Foster, geology senior thesis project (completed 2007), “Evaporation and water-rock interaction influence on geochemistry of acid saline waters through experimentation with host rocks from Western Australia"; graduate student in geology at University of Colorado at Boulder
Jessie Walker, geology senior thesis project (completed 2005), “Testing acid waters as physical sedimentology agents: Implications for Mars”; commissioned into Army Chemical Corps
Deidre A. LaClair, geology senior thesis project (completed 2003) “Physical sedimentology of acidic waters: Possible models for Martian and terrestrial
systems”; completed MS in geology at Arizona State University; pursuing Ph.D. in geology at Binghamton University
Katherine Hartig, geology senior thesis project (completed 2001) “Facies-controlled dolomitization in the Silurian Byron Formation, Michigan Basin”; completed MS in geology at University of Oklahoma; employed by Pioneer Oil and Gas <>Tina (Phillips) Edwards, geology senior thesis project (completed 2000) “Possible acid-loving bacteria in Permian halite”; employed by U.S. Oil and Gas
Hello to all CMU Geology alums and friends! Can you believe I am now in my tenth year at CMU? *** 2006-2007 News ***
I continue to teach introductory geology, earth history, and strat./sed. The highlight of the spring semesters for me is still the sed./strat. field trip to upstate New York. In recent years, we’ve gone caving, visited a landslide deposit, witnessed rock falls, and examined Paleozoic sandstones, shales, and carbonates. This summer, I co-convened a workshop entitled “Teaching Sedimentary Geology in the 21st Century”, held in Salt Lake City.
My main research interests continue to involve acid saline lake systems. In the past few years, I’ve visited acid salt lakes in Australia three times and revisited field areas in Kansas and Oklahoma. These environments are analogs for martian strata, as well as interesting in their own right as a poorly-understood type of extreme environment. This project has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Petroleum Research Fund, and CMU. This work has recently appeared in the journals Geology, Icarus, Astrobiology, and Journal of Sedimentary Research, and is now in review with several other journals. Post-doctoral research associate Brenda Beitler Bowen has been an excellent research partner in this work. In addition, several undergraduates have served as field assistants and conducted related research, including Elliot Jagniecki’s study of microbial suspects and fluid inclusion chemistry from acid evaporites from Western Australia, Renee Foster’s experiments on water-rock interactions, and Deidre LaClair’s and Jessie Walker’s completed senior theses on the physical sedimentology of acid solutions. Our next step is to find funding to drill cores in Western Australia to investigate the evolution of these acid saline waters.
A related study of acid saline lakes brought me to the Andes Mountains of Chile in March, 2007. The National Geographic Society funded this field work. We found windy, gypsum- and sulfur-rich lake deposits.
Another exciting research project is senior thesis work with Jonathan Knapp on the discovery and descriptions of newly-found Pennsylvanian red beds and coals in Saginaw. There are beautiful plant fossils in these rocks and Jonathan and I are fortunate to have Dr. Joanne Dannenhoffer as a paleobotanist collaborator. We think these rocks may represent a new stratigraphic unit for the Michigan Basin, which we are tentatively calling the haybridge formation. We received funding from CMU Research Excellence Fund to core these rocks in May, 2007.
Chris is an awesome stay-at-home dad to John, 7, Colleen, 4, and Maggie, 3. Cubby the Wonder Dog is now 16 years old and growing old gracefully.
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