Friday February 25th
12:30PM
Austin 108
Title: Clumped isotope applications to paleoclimate, paleoecology, and paleotopography
Abstract: Clumped isotopologues of carbonates are a novel technique in isotope geochemistry, with great promise for recovering temperature records from geologic archives. Recent advances in mass spectrometry, calibrations and standards, and environmental proxy relationships have allowed for broad applications to a range of paleo-fields. Here I will discuss a series of new applications in paleoclimate, paleoecology, and paleotopography, including 1) reconstructing temperature seasonality in continental interiors during greenhouse events like the mid-Cretaceous, PETM, and EECO; 2) using thermometry to distinguish body temperature, biological sex, and pathologies in major dinosaur clades; and 3) pairing thermometry and stable isotope compositions to describe fluid pathways and uplift rates in tectonically complex regions through time. Altogether this work highlights new types of questions in isotopologue geochemistry, and lays the groundwork for targeting myriad new frontiers in deep time.
Biography: Ethan received a BA in Geology from Carleton College (Minnesota) with an honors thesis on Eocene-Oligocene magnetostratigraphy in Italy. He then worked for the National Park Service (Mt. Rainier) and as a backcountry ski guide before returning to graduate school at the University of Michigan for an MS in Paleobotany (on biases in phytolith records), a certificate in Public Policy (in Science and Technology), and a PhD in Paleoclimatology and Sedimentology (on terrestrial paleoclimates of the early Eocene). He then spent 2 years as a “Future of Ice” postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington and time as a visiting scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory before starting the Paleo³ Research Group at NC State in 2017.
For more information, contact: Christin Donnelly at christin.donnelly@uconn.edu