Check out Tyler Huth‘s new paper reporting triple oxygen isotope data for speleothems in the western US.  The paper is the first product from Ty’s postdoc work and the first IPL effort to work on what we can learn about paleoclimate from 17O in speleothems. It also has some basic data about the basics of how triple oxygen isotopes work in carbonates. The highlights from the paper include

• New framework for interpreting triple oxygen isotope variability in speleothems.
• Results from our lab’s results on the triple oxygen isotope fractionation between water and carbonate.
• Explanation for how to use the combination Δ′¹⁷O data to  assess within-cave kinetics.

As part of this paper, Ty did a ton of behind-the-scenes work to improve the measurements and data analysis in the lab which is also helping studies led by others and data comparison between labs.

Huth TE, Passey BH, Cole JE, Lachniet MS, McGee D, Denniston RF, Levin NE, A framework for triple oxygen isotopes in speleothem paleoclimatology, Geochimica et Cosmochimica  Acta, doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2021.11.002.

Matthew is a freshman working in the lab, getting started on the CZ17O project with Julia and Naomi, investigating carbonates that are prevalent in local glacial deposits, as part of a UROP project. Matthew is part of the M-Sci Academy and also an Earth Camp alumnus!

In September, Ty Huth (red hat) and Ben Passey (olive hat) met up with Amy Ellwein (white hat), Thure Cerling (no hat) and Dave Marchetti (green hat) in the Capitol Reef / Thousand Lakes Plateau area to study and collect laminated soil carbonate rinds.  This is part of an NSF-funded project to examine the use of laminated carbonate rinds for reconstructing late Pleistocene paleoclimate and vegetation distributions.

Ty at the campsite using a diamond-blade wet saw to section a carbonate rind.

Overturned Boulder with Carbonate Rind

Welcome to Million Alemayehu Mengesha!  Million is a lecturer at Addis Ababa University and visiting the lab from September 2021 – January 2022  as part of the University of Michigan African Presidential Scholars Program (UMAPS). While visiting, Million is working on developing a triple oxygen isotope record of soil carbonates from the Afar region of Ethiopia and the Turkana region in Kenya.

Julia is gearing up the local field work operation now that the CZ17O project has officially started. On Friday Julia, Naomi, Miriam, Margaret, Kirsten and Natalie headed to the Edwin S. George Reserve (ESGR) to check on the soil carbonates at the site and to check on the soil CO2 and temperature loggers that were buried.

Miriam and Margaret undergrads and new to the project and to IPL. This was a great way to get them started!

We managed a lab party on Friday despite the rain. It was nice to all be together outside the lab but bittersweet as we say goodby to two postdocs before they move away. Phoebe is off to DC and Tyler off to Maine.

Undergrad Kirsten returns to the lab for the summer, after returning from Camp Davis. Welcome back Kirsten! It’s great to be able to have you back working in the lab after the long pandemic delay.  Kirsten will be learning the ropes on the mass specs this summer – starting with clumped isotope measurements and then moving to 17O measurements.