Research
Chemical reactions between fluids and minerals create the environments that are uniquely characteristic of Earth’s surface. For example, chemical weathering reactions support the growth of soils and organisms and regulate the flow of elements to the oceans. The rates of these reactions also control the release and storage of natural and human-derived contaminants. Over geologic timescales, mineral-fluid reactions have helped to maintain a mostly habitable planet. Over human timescales, these reactions will regulate our ability to use Earth’s resources, such as soils, waters, and minerals.
Research Specifics
Our research focuses on the rates of chemical reactions that occur at Earth’s surface and in the shallow subsurface, including three closely related areas involving geochemistry and reactive transport (i.e., the coupling between water flow and chemical reactions). These areas are:
Environmental Geochemistry
Reactive transport of metal and radionuclide contaminants in the subsurface and solutions for remediation.
Water
Our research in the area of freshwater focuses on water availability and water quality in wild and managed environments.
Carbon Dioxide Removal
Our research in this area is focused on the carbon cycle, past, present and future.
Research Facilities
Our research is supported by a number of outstanding analytical and computational facilities present at Stanford (learn more). A primary research tool for our research group is the newly developed Stanford Isotopic and Geochemical Measurements and Analysis laboratory, or SIGMA. We also apply a variety of numerical reactive transport models and machine learning approaches using the high-performance computing capacity of Sherlock.
