Geochemistry Lunchtime Reading Group – SPRING 2003

 

The geochemistry reading group is an informal seminar in which students, post-docts and faculty read one or two related papers each week. Topics and papers are chosen by the students, post-docts, faculty, and occasionally, scientists from NASA. Occasionally, we will have a formal lecture from a visiting scientist. Typically, whoever chooses the topic will lead the discussion, providing background information first before opening up the discussion. 

 

This reading group is purely for fun.  There are no assignments and, in fact, there’s not even any pressure to read every paper.  Everyone is welcome to drop in at any time.  You can participate, or you can just sit and listen quietly.  We will try to continue the tradition of having pizza!

 

WHEN:  Every Friday 1230 PM to 2 PM (unless otherwise noted)

WHERE: Room 327

 

To suggest a topic, contact Cin-Ty Lee at ctlee@rice.edu

 

17 January

Theme: Origin and cycling of water in the mantle

Discussion Leader: Lee

Recycled dehydrated lithosphere observed in plume-influenced mid-ocean-ridge basalt
JACQUELINE EABY DIXON, LORETTA LEIST, CHARLES LANGMUIR & JEAN-GUY SCHILLING

Nature 2002, v. 420: 385-389

 

24 January

Theme: Geomicrobial activity in sediments

Discussion Leader: Catie Donohue

Wellsbury, Peter, Mather Ian and R. John Parkes, "Geomicrobiology of deep, low organic carbon sediments in the Woodlark Basin, Pacific Ocean", FEMS Microbiology Ecology, Volume 42, Issue 1, pg 59-70, 2002

 

Fredrickson, James, "Influence of Mn oxides on the reduction of uranium (VI) by the metal-reducing bacterium Shewanella putrefaciens.  Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 66, No. 18, pg. 3247-3262, 2002.

 

31 January

Theme: Physical chemistry of trace-element partitioning

Discussion Leader: Martin Collier

 

Bernard J. Wood, Jonathan D. Blundy, A predictive model for rare earth element partitioning between clinopyroxene and anhydrous silicate melt Contrib Mineral Petrol (1997) 129: 166-181

optional

Bernard J. Wood, Jonathan D. Blundy, The effect of cation charge on crystal-melt partitioning of trace elements, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 188 (2001) 59-71

 

7 February

Theme: Chemical reactions at the mineral surface

Discussion Leader: Tom Fewless

Blum, Alex E., Lasaga, Antonio C.  Monte Carlo simulations of surface reaction rate laws. Aquat. Surf. Chem. (1987), 255-92.

   Pick up papers outside of ROOM 325

 

14 February

Theme: Carbon cycle

Dana L. Royer, Robert A. Berner, David J. Beerling, Phanerozoic atmospheric CO2 change: evaluating geochemical and paleobiological approaches, Earth-Science Reviews 54 2001 349–392

 

19 February (Wednesday: 12 – 1 PM, RM 327; joint with Geophysics Seminar)

Theme: Upper mantle heterogeneities and composition

Discussion Leader:  Dr. Walter Mooney (Weiss Visiting Professor)

Dr. Roberta Rudnick (U Maryland) will also be present.

 

21 February

The question of uniqueness of ancient bacteria, by RH Vreeland and WD Rosenzweig, Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology (2002) 28, 32–41

 

26 February (Wednesday: NOTE SCHEDULE CHANGE AND LOCATION CHANGE THIS WEEK)

Time: 12-1 PM, ROOM 107 Earth Science Building

Special seminar: Magmatic CO2 degassing and global paleoclimate

Speaker: Dr. Derrill Kerrick, Pennsylvania State University

Readings: Reviews of Geophysics, 2001, v. 39, p. 565-585

 

28 February - none

 

7 March

Changing sources of nutrients during four million years of ecosystem development

Chadwick et al., Nature 397 (1999) – 491-497

 

4 April

Discussion Leader: Tom Fewless

Mathematicsl modeling of precipitation and dissolution reactions in microbiological systems

Rittmann et al. 2002, Biodegradation 13: 239-250. 

Obtain papers outside ROOM 324.