PhD Course: Models and Methods for Material and Environmental Sciences Universitą di Modena e Reggio Emilia
SHORT COURSE
Stable isotopes in Earth Sciences: principles, methods and applications
Teacher:
Prof. Mariano Parente
(DiSTAR, Universitą di Napoli Federico II)
Dipartimento Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, via Campi 103 Modena.
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For information: francesca.bosellini@unimore.it
Aim and content:
Stable isotopes have many applications in sedimentary geology. Carbon, oxygen and strontium isotopes have been widely used during the last decades both as tools of high resolution stratigraphy and as tracers of palaeoceanographic and palaeoclimatic changes. These isotopes are routinely analyzed and are a common dataset of many studies in sedimentary geology. At the same time, new isotopic proxies are continuously introduced and refined, paralleling the progress in analytical techniques. The record of the isotope ratios of geological materials, like sedimentary minerals and rocks, organic matter and fossils, opens a window on the history of earth climate and on the functioning of biogeochemical cycles. Successful application of stable isotope data requires an understanding of the processes controlling isotope speciation and fractionation. Transferal of an isotopic signal from the earth reservoir (i.e. the atmosphere or the ocean) to a geological material acts always as a complex filter. Geological processes, like diagenesis, erosion and reworking, acting during the long span of time from the original imprinting of the isotopic signal in a geomaterial to our analysis in the lab, must be carefully evaluated as they can blur or overprint the pristine signal.
The aim of this course is: