Mission
Stable isotope geochemistry is one of the most powerful methods to study not only the origin and composition of fluids and gases and their interaction with solid materials of the geosphere, but also to characterize the compositional and thermodynamic (pressure, temperature) properties of the solid constituents of rocks and sediments. Not surprisingly, the areas of application of stable isotope research are thus also very wide, including topics in igneous and metamorphic petrology, economic geology of hydrothermal and sedimentary deposits, diagenesis, experimental geochemistry, palaeoclimatology and palaeooceanography, as well as environmental geochemistry and archaeology. In essence, this wide range of research topics has the common thread of understanding of fluid(gas)-rock interactions on all scales of earth science processes and allows for a very inter-disciplinary approach to relevant problems in Earth science and beyond.
----------------------------------------------------
Team
Prof. Torsten Vennemann, PD Dr. Jorge Spangenberg, Dr. Benita Putlitz
PhD Students: Cotte Gabriel, Lehmann Anaël, Luz Zoneibe
----------------------------------------------------
Research Projects
- Water resources in the Lake Geneva catchment, canton Vaud, and Western Switzerland
- Ecosystem studies in Chilika Lake
- Namib-Naukluft region groundwater resource management projects
- Origin and growth of fissure minerals: fluid-mineral interaction and implications for the (Alpine) metamorphism and ore mineralization
- Clay minerals as topographic and climatic archives
- Biomineralization of phosphate and carbonate
