Research Projects
Note that all published papers and most abstracts are available on the CV page. If something is missing, please email and I will happily send a reprint.
Heavy Noble Gases
I am interested in the application of the heavier noble gases (krypton and xenon) to geochronology. These gases present analytical challenges due to their high mass and low abundance in most environments, but their many stable and long-lived isotopes and different geochemical properties also present opportunities for expanding the capabilites of noble gas dating.
Mono Lake
During the year that I continued working in the AGES Lab before coming to Caltech, I started work on a different research project that aims to improve the chronology of the Wilson Creek Formation at Mono Lake, CA. This formation consists of lake sediments from the last glacial period that are punctuated frequently by rhyolitic ashes, so we hope to date the constituents of the ashes to better constrain the records preserved in the lake sediments. I am working on applying the (U-Th)/He technique to allanite found in some of these ashes.
East Antarctica
As an undergraduate, I participated in the broad Antarctic sediment provenance research project that is ongoing at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. As a member of Sidney Hemming's AGES Lab, I worked on 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology at Lamont and (U-Th)/He thermochronology in Pete Reiners' Arizona Radiogenic Helium Dating Laboratory. More information about this project can be found here: AGES -- Antarctica