Research

The Eartly Earth and Experimental Geochemistry is comprised of several facilities. These include a full experimental laboratory space, an LA-ICP-MS and a benchtop SEM to aid in experimentation and research.

In some cases, the analytical facilities we need to address our research questions pull us out of Rochester to national laboratories. We spend time out at UCLA using the CAMECA ims 1270/1290. We also travel to the Advanced Photon Source Synchrotron, which is part of Argonne National Labs. In other cases, our "research tools" start with basic field equipment. Along with colleagues, we have visited a range of localities throughout the world; a major goal of our field work involves the collection of remnant material from the earliest stages of our planet's history.

Above, is a panoramic image from our trip to the Acasta Gneiss, located about 300 km north of Yellowknife, Canada. This photo was taken looking north toward the northern peninsula of the island where ~4.0 Ga rocks were first discovered. The rocks are composed of interleaved gabbroic, tonalitic and granitic gneisses, and the folds are Paleoproterozoic in age. There are four geologists in this image for scale. See if you can find them in the high resolution image (280 megapixels).