Chad Deering on Key Links in the Evolution of Earth’s Rock Cycle and Its Ocean

Chad Deering
Chad Deering

Chad Deering (GMES) was quoted in a University of Wisconsin Oshkosh news story picked up by Science Daily and Phys.org. The story explains how a study led by Deering and UW-Oshkosh geologist Timothy Paulsen links zircon data from sandstones recovered from Earth’s major continental landmasses to the evolution of the Earth’s rock cycle and its oceans. Snehamoy Chatterjee (GMES) is also a co-author on the study.

“Continents tend to be worn down by weathering and rivers tend to transport this sediment to the oceans, leaving scattered puzzle pieces for geologists to fit together,” said Chad Deering, a Michigan Tech geologist and coauthor on the paper. “There is increasing evidence that important pieces of the puzzle are found in the ancient beach and river sediments produced through continental weathering and erosion.”

Read more at UW Oshkosh Today, by Natalie Johnson.

Continental Magmatism and Uplift as the Primary Driver for First-Order Oceanic 87Sr/86Sr Variability with Implications for Global Climate and Atmospheric Oxygenation
T. Paulsen, C. Deering, J. Sliwinski, S. Chatterjee, and O. Bachman
GSA Today, pp. 4–10, 2022.
doi.org/10.1130/GSATG526A.1