I am a PhD student at the Department of Geology, University of Maryland. I am interested in global elemental and isotopic cycles of trace metals, especially focusing on quantification of the effect of chemical weathering from the continental crust point of view.

PhD Research

My current research projects include studying weathering profiles developed on Columbia River Basalts, as well as river chemistry of catchments that drain only these basalts in order to quantify the chemical changes accompanying basalt weathering using major & trace elements, and lithium & magnesium isotopes.

My PhD advisors are Profs. Roberta Rudnick and Bill McDonough.

MS research

I have worked with Profs. Roberta Rudnick and Saswata Hier-Majumder in collaboration with Mona Sirbescu on modeling Li isotopic behavior of diffusion-advection controlled processes from pegmatites to their country rocks in Wisconsin Pegmatite Fields.

My MS thesis can be downloaded here.

A paper was published from my MS thesis work:

Liu, X-M, Rudnick, R.L., Hier-Majumder, S., and Sirbescu, M.C. (2010) Processes Controlling Lithium Isotopic Distribution in Contact Aureoles: a case study of the Florence County Pegmatites, Wisconsin. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems., 11, Q08014, doi:10.1029/2010GC003063.