Chemical and physical processes weather solid rock into loose sediments. Under the right environmental conditions, these sediments mix with organic matter and mature into soils through a complex suite of physical, chemical, and biologic processes.

It is often difficult to discern exactly when sediment becomes soil, as both are the products of complex continua of physics and chemistry. So, we tend to lump them together conceptually within the scope of our research interests.

Sediment & soil as environmental records

Sediment and soil formation processes are determined by the conditions of their environment, including (but not limited to) temperature, aridity, biota, slope. We study environmental histories of environments through the lens of the chemical properties of their sediments and soils.

Geochemical evolution of sediments & soils

Typically, rocks form in equilibrium with an environment that is substantially different from the Earth’s surface. The chemical changes of sediments and soil from their parent (rock) material reflects the process of re-equilibration with the Earth surface environment. In other words, sediments/soils reflect their histories of equilibration with Earth’s (near) surface and, therefore, record climatic and environmental information. We reconstruct these environmental histories and change by examining the elemental and isotopic properties of sediments and soil.