Climate and Global Change Atmospheric and Environmental Chemistry Dynamics of the Atmosphere and Other Geophysial Fluids The Paleogeographic Atlas Project High Pressure Geophysics Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology Paleontology and Evolution Other Departments and Related Institutions Affiliated Centers

Environmental chemistry is the study of relatively short timescale chemical processes which are related, in some way, to the maintenance of life on the planet. However, in order to fully understand multidimensional issues of current importance, such as nuclear waste disposal and coastal pollution, requires a detailed understanding of the geochemical nature of all processes which occur in the atmosphere and oceans, and at the surface of the Earth. Correspondingly, the focus taken by faculty members who are interested in environmental chemistry is upon understanding these geochemical phenomena over a range of timescales and on a global scale. Examples of faculty research interests include: the uptake of carbon dioxide by the oceans and its relationship to the possibility of enhanced greenhouse warming, the role of atmospheric particulates in affecting the levels of ozone in the both the troposphere and stratosphere, the effects of industrial pollutants upon the transmission of ultraviolet radiation through the atmosphere, and the use of state-of-the-art mass spectrometry analytical techniques for deciphering the cycling of trace elements through the Earth/atmosphere/ocean system.

Relevant Faculty include:

• David Archer, Chemical Oceanography
• Albert Colman, Biogeochemistry, Joining the Department in January 2008
• John E. Frederick, Radiative Transfer
• Douglas R. MacAyeal, Glaciology
• Pamela Martin, Paleoceanography
• Elisabeth J. Moyer, Atmospheric Chemistry
• Frank M. Richter, Geochemistry