I am interested in estimating the contribution from the outgassing of deep methane and carbon dioxide hosted in exhumed metasediments to the atmospheric greenhouse gas global budget. These emission estimates are done by using CH4/CO2 concentrations measured by bulk gas extraction analysis from graphite-bearing metapelitic rocks and associated quartz veins from different metamorphic terranes.
I’m also interested in using stable isotopes in silicate minerals to track surface fluids that are channelized via faults and fractures from extensional detachment fault systems. I focus on relating microstructures and textures in silicate minerals to oxygen isotope signatures to reconstruct deformation histories and crustal strength behaviors over a range of temperatures, depths, and/or fluid sources.
I use detailed microstructural and petrographical analysis and microanalytical techniques such as SIMS, EPMA, SEM (BSE, SE, EDS, CL), EBSD, Raman Spectroscopy, and Cavity Ringdown Spectroscopy to make high spatial resolution chemical and isotope analysis to understand the relationship between growth, deformation, compositional homogeneity, and fluids in silicate minerals from mid-crustal rocks.
