Alan Jay Kaufman
Distinguished University Professor
Ph.D. University of Indiana, 1990
Contact
CHM 0217A
Chemistry Building
8051 Regents Drive
College Park, MD 20742
kaufman [at] umd [dot] edu
Laboratory
Links
Research Interests
My research has focused on the determination of changes in the isotopic composition of the oceans through time, by the analysis of stragraphic suites of little-altered carbonate rocks. Thus far, most of these studies have centered around Neoproterozoic (ca. 1000-544 million-year-old) sedimentary successions in Svalbard/East Greenland, Namibia, arctic Canada and Alaska, India, and the western USA. Temporal variations in C and Sr isotopes can be used as stratigraphic tools within and between basins, and through detailed correlations allow us to order key tectonic, biogeochemical, and paleoenvironmental events in Earth history.