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Alan Jay Kaufman

Professor

Ph.D. University of Indiana, 1990

Contact

CHM 0217A
Chemistry Building
8051 Regents Drive
College Park, MD 20742

Phone: (301) 405-0395

Phone: (301) 405-8461 (CHEM 1216)

Phone: (301) 405-0395 (CHEM 0224)

Fax: (301) 405-3597

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.