Current Research Interests

Marine geology, stable isotope geochemistry, sedimentary geochemistry

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Michael came to Penn State in 1990 from the Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island. He is a paleoceanographer using geochemistry, including stable isotopes, to interpret patterns of past global change. He and his students have participated in oceanographic expeditions to the Black Sea, Baffin Bay/Labrador Sea, and offshore northwest Africa, Japan, Peru, southern California, and Florida. Michael has been active in the Deep Sea Drilling and Ocean Drilling Programs and has employed submersibles in his research. He and his students are presently conducting sedimentologic and geochemical studies of cores recovered from the Black Sea and Peru margin to assess patterns of organic matter preservation and to examine the cycling of sulfur andformation of phosphate mineral phases during early diagenesis. Another effort (with Kate Freeman) involves examining the carbon isotopiccomposition of marine phytoplankton, which has been suggested to vary as a function of ambient dissolved CO2 (CO2(aq)). This technique might provide a tool for hindcasting the pCO2 of ancient atmospheres. Other projects include studies of Cretaceous paleoenvironments and black shale deposition in epicontinental seas and reconstructing paleotemperatures for the Maastrichtian using oxygen isotopic studies of calcareous plankton and benthos.