Zoom Meeting ID#929 5335 9947
The geochemical composition of Earth’s continental crust and the fine-grained sediment produced through its weathering (known as dust) is key for understanding how the solid Earth interacts with and influences surface environments, climate, and life. Much of what we know about the timing of wet magmatism through plate subduction, past contributions of nutrients sourced from mineral dust to marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and fundamental changes in Earth surface conditions reconstructed from dust preserved in the paleoclimate record is possible through the application of isotope geochemistry. I will present a new method using stable titanium isotopes of Earth’s oldest presently known rocks to glean information about the geodynamic setting these rocks formed in. I will then pivot to a dust record preserved in ice from the last interglacial period to explore whether sediment transport and composition can be used to infer past ice sheet extent.