My research focuses on biogeochemical cycles, specifically the transport, transformation, and burial of organic carbon. Active margins, found at the junction between continental and marine tectonic plates, are characterized by high sediment transport rates and a close proximity between terrestrial sediment source and marine burial. These factors allow active margins to be particularly effective in the burial of organic carbon, resulting in high fidelity records of the terrestrial and marine environment spanning millions of years. Differences through time in the quantity and type of exported organic carbon from terrestrial environments can provide information on past storm frequency, sea level, precipitation regimes, vegetation type, erosion rate, and tectonic uplift.
Additionally my research follows organic carbon into active margin related subduction zones. These regions represent the ultimate sink for sediment and the associated organic matter. To refine global carbon budgets and volatile production in subduction zones I study the transformations and trajectories of organic carbon in laboratory simulations using a high temperature-high pressure sapphire anvil cell, coupled with Raman spectroscopy.
Recent News:
Second ‘Under the Sea’ Camp Helps Local Children Learn Ocean Sciences
Zindorf, M., März, C., Wagner, T., Gulick, S.P.S., Strauss, H., Benowitz, J., Jaeger, J., Schnetger, B., Childress, L., LeVay, L., van der Land, C., and M. La Rosa. 2019. Deep Sulfate-Methane-Transition and sediment diagenesis in the Gulf of Alaska (IODP Site U1417). Marine Geology, 417, doi: 10.1016/j.margeo.2019.105986.
Thomas, D.J., Röhl, U., and Childress, L.B., 2019. Expedition 378 Scientific Prospectus Addendum: South Pacific Paleogene Climate. International Ocean Discovery Program. https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.sp.378add.2019
Guizan Silva, C., Baker, P.A., Estes, E.R., and Childress, L.B., 2019. Expedition 387 Scientific Prospectus: Amazon Margin. International Ocean Discovery Program. https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.sp.387.2019
Childress, L., and the Expedition 368X Scientists, 2019. Expedition 368X Preliminary Report: South China Sea Rifted Margin. International Ocean Discovery Program. https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.pr.368X.2019
Thomas, D.J., Röhl, U., and Childress, L., 2018. Expedition 378 Scientific Prospectus: South Pacific Paleogene Climate. International Ocean Discovery Program. doi: 10.14379/iodp.sp.378.2018
Childress, L.B., Galy, V., and A. McNichol (2017), Turbidite carbon distribution by Ramped PyrOx, Astoria Canyon. AGU Fall Meeting
Childress, L.B. and S.D. Jacobsen. 2017. High-pressure high-temperature Raman spectroscopy of kerogen: relevance to subducted organic carbon, American Mineralogist, doi: 10.2138/am-2016-5719
Laurel Childress 