Directory

physical volcanology, kimberlites, rheology, field volcanology

metamorphic petrology, mineralogy, geochemistry, lithosphere

I am a postdoctoral researcher in the CLEVER Planets team working with Professors Cin-Ty Lee and Rajdeep Dasgupta. My research focuses on the partitioning, transport, and distribution of life-essential volatile elements in rocky planet lithospheres.

My PhD work focused on mineralogical tools for identifying extreme metamorphism, including ultrahigh-pressure, ultrahigh-temperature, and high-pressure granulite rocks.

Carbonate Sedimentology, Sequence Stratigraphy, Microbial Reefs, Photogrammetry, Coral Reefs, Reef Morphologies

Pankaj Khanna is currently working on three projects in his PhD at Rice University. Utilizing latest data-sets (multibeam bathymetry and high resolution drone imagery) the ultimate goal of the PhD is to understand morphological evolution of reefs in different localities around world (Gulf of Mexico - Uppermost Pleistocene Reefs, Maldives - Uppermost Pleistocene/Holocene reefs. and Central Texas - Upper Cambrian Microbial Reefs) and to compare the modern and ancient carbonate systems.

geochemistry, petrology, geochronology, geodynamics, volcanology, mass spectrometry

Cin-Ty us petrology, geochemistry, geochronology and geodynamics to investigate the dynamic and compositional evolution of the Earth's interior and crust and how the solid Earth interacts with the oceans and atmospheres.

petrology, geochemistry, volcanology, boron

Bill is a petrologist/geochemist who works on the origin of subduction zone and intraplate magmas.

geodynamics, geophysics, planetary

Adrian is a fluid dynamicist who works on planetary thermal evolution, mantle convection, dynamics of continent formation and evolution, and interactions between planetary atmospheres and their deep interiors.

seismology, geophysics, structural seismology, structure of crust and lithosphere

Alan combines theory with active and passive source seismology to explore the structure of continents and the Earth's upper mantle. He also works on exploration and environmental geophysics.

Geochemistry of Volatiles C-N-S-H & Chalcophile-Siderophile Elements; Planetary Magma Oceans; Geofluids; Ore Deposits

Clumped isotopes of O2
Ocean science
Primary production
O2/Ar

Project1:
Kinetic isotope effects for O2 air-water gas transfer and implications for estimating marine gross oxygen productivity and clumped isotope signature during gas transfer.
Measured the first time triple oxygen kinetic fractionation factors and kinetic fractionation signals for clumped O2 like 36O2 and 35O2. We tried to apply the factors to calibrate the kinetic effects happened on the surface ocean in order to better estimate the GOP (Gross oxygen production) of the surface ocean.
Project2: The potential impact of bubble injection of air to the estimate of net oxygen production (NOP) in the surface ocean

Seismology

geophysics, seismology, Galicia, tectonics, extension, passive margins

The W coast of the Iberian Peninsula is a classic magma-poor rifted margin, where slow crustal hyperextension allowed rising mantle to cool/harden instead of melting. A long, margin-parallel Peridotite Ridge (PR) separates the final prerift material from this trans. zone of exhumed mantle. The PR has been dredged, drilled, and imaged in 2D for over 40 years, but new 3D seismic finally reveals its inner structure and evolution.

hydrogeology, fluid flow in porous media, biochar and soil hydrology, soil physics

Studying how biochar's physical and chemical properties and amendment rate influence hydrology, water storage, and carbon storage in soil