The Stable Isotope Geosciences Facility offers courses related to stable isotopes and stable isotope methods.

See below for a list of existing and future courses:

Courses:

GEOL 681, GEOG 681, OCNG 681: Seminar in Stable Isotope Geoscience (1 credit). Current and classic literature in light stable isotopes (H, C, N, O, S) applied to the study of Earth system processes and history; stable isotope technique and conventions, stable isotope modeling; climate change; paleobiology; biogeochemistry; ocean and atmospheric, circulation and chemistry; hydrogeology; petrology; organic and petroleum geochemistry. This course provides an overview of the principles and current applications of stable isotopes.

GEOL 648: Stable Isotope Geology (3 credits). Stable isotopes of oxygen, carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, and hydrogen applied to problems in climate change, biogeochemistry, oceanography, biogeology, carbonate diagenesis, petroleum exploration, and igneous and metamorphic petrology; analytical methods; theory of isotopic fractionation. This course provides in-depth knowledge of the principles and applications of stable isotopes.

Planned Courses:

GEOG 689: Stable Isotope Methods (3 credits). Principles of stable isotope ratio analysis by isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) and cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS); principles of gas chromatography, vacuum technique, and isotope fractionation; methods for measuring H, C, N, O, and S isotopes in a variety of geoscience and bioscience samples including air, water, animal and plant tissue, sedimentary organic matter, gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons, and carbonate minerals, including data reduction protocols. This course is designed to give students hands-on experience in performing stable isotope measurements of samples to be analyzed for their thesis and dissertation research.