Clara BlättlerAssistant Professor

Research Focus:

isotope geochemistry, geological carbon cycle, paleoceanography

Email:

cblattler@uchicago.edu

Office:

Hinds 321

Biography

• joined the University of Chicago in 2018
• postdoctoral research fellow, Princeton
• DPhil, Oxford, Earth Sciences
• AB, Harvard, Earth and Planetary Sciences

Research Interests

My interests include (but are not limited to) sedimentary geochemistry, Earth history, the carbon cycle, paleoceanography, and paleoclimatology. I use geochemical tools to explore the interactions between the oceans, sediments, the rock cycle, and the climate system. My work involves samples of many different ages (Archean through Recent) and from a broad range of locations and environments, with a particular focus on the sedimentary archives of carbonates and evaporites.

Some active projects within my research group:

• Mediterranean-Atlantic gateway exchange (IODP Exp. 401)
• Paleoproterozoic sedimentary records from Fennoscandia and Gabon
• geochemical behavior of alkaline lake deposits (natural and experimental)
• lingulid brachiopods as archives of seawater chemistry
• early Triassic carbon cycle perturbations
• diagenetic effects on carbonate-associated sulfate records (CAS)
• evaporite records of seawater boron isotope ratios

Selected Publications

Bryant, R.N., J.P. Todes, J.A. Richardson, T.C. Kalia, A.R. Prave, A. Lepland, K. Kirsimäe, C.L. Blättler. Local sedimentary effects shaped key sulfur records after the Great Oxidation Event. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, in press.

Todes, J.P., F.R. Blattmann, T. Vennemann, E. Schneebeli-Hermann, H. Bucher, D.P. Razionale, C.L. Blättler. Smithian–Spathian carbonate geochemistry in the northern Thaynes Group influenced by multiple styles of diagenesis. The Depositional Record, in press.

Wood, M.M., C.L. Blättler, A. Kolevica, A. Eisenhauer, A. Paytan. Stable and radiogenic strontium isotopes trace the composition and diagenetic alteration of remnant glacial seawater. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, in press. doi:10.1016/j.gca.2024.10.028

Flecker, R., E. Ducassou, T. Williams, and the Expedition 401 Scientists, 2024. Expedition 401 Preliminary Report: Mediterranean–Atlantic Gateway Exchange. International Ocean Discovery Program. doi:10.14379/iodp.pr.401.2024

Kemeny, P.C., M.A. Torres, W.W. Fischer, C.L. Blättler, 2024. Balance and imbalance in biogeochemical cycles reflect the operation of closed, exchange, and open sets. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121, e2316535121. doi:10.1073/pnas.231653512

Bryant, R.N., J.A. Richardson, T.C. Kalia, O. Gros, J. Lopez-Garriga, C.L. Blättler, 2023. Inorganic sulfate-based signatures of chemosymbiosis in modern lucinids. Geology 51, 1022–1026. doi:10.1130/G51353.1

Bryant, R.N., T.M. Present, A.S.C. Ahm, H.L.O. McClelland, D.P. Razionale, C.L. Blättler, 2022. Early diagenetic constraints on Permian seawater chemistry from the Capitan Reef. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 328, 1–18, 2022. doi:10.1016/j.gca.2022.04.027  dataset – doi:10.26022/IEDA/112298

Razionale, D.P., R.N. Bryant, C.L. Blättler, 2022. Adapting automated instrumentation for high-throughput calcium isotope measurements by multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 36, e9249, 2022. doi:10.1002/rcm.9249

Blättler, C.L., W.L. Hong, K. Kirsimäe, J.A. Higgins, A. Lepland, 2021. Small calcium isotope fractionation at slow precipitation rates in methane seep authigenic carbonates. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 298, 227–239. doi:10.1016/j.gca.2021.01.001.

Crockford, P.W., M. Kunzmann, C.L. Blättler, B. Kalderon-Asael, J.G. Murphy, A.S.C. Ahm, S. Sharoni, G.P. Halverson, N.J. Planavsky, I. Halevy, J.A. Higgins, 2021. Reconstructing Neoproterozoic seawater chemistry from early diagenetic dolomite. Geology 49. doi:10.1130/G48213.1.

Blättler, C.L., K.D. Bergmann, L.C. Kah, I. Gómez-Pérez, J.A. Higgins, 2020. Constraints on Meso- to Neoproterozoic seawater from ancient evaporite deposits. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 532, 115951. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2019.115951.

Blättler, C.L., J.A. Higgins, P.K. Swart, 2019. Advected glacial seawater preserved in the subsurface of the Maldives carbonate edifice. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 257, 80–95. doi:10.1016/j.gca.2019.04.030.

Blättler, C.L., M.W. Claire, A.R. Prave, K. Kirsimäe, J.A. Higgins, P.V. Medvedev, A.E. Romashkin, D.V. Rychanchik, A.L. Zerkle, K. Paiste, T. Kreitsmann, I.L. Millar, J.A. Hayles, H. Bao, A.V. Turchyn, M.R. Warke, A. Lepland, 2018. Two-billion-year-old evaporites capture Earth’s great oxidation. Science 360, 320–323. doi:10.1126/science.aar2687.