Faculty
Miquela Ingalls
Email: mki5108@psu.edu
Phone: 814-865-7965
Office Address: 508 Deike Building
Title: Assistant Professor of Geosciences
Unit: Department of Geosciences
Research Interests:
- Stable and ‘clumped’ isotope geochemistry
- Terrestrial paleo-environments and tectonics
- Biological and chemical sediments
- Carbonate alteration processes
Research:
I combine field geology, petrography, and stable isotope geochemistry to improve the use of chemical sediments in tectonic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. I am particularly interested in how terrestrial environments, like those in which humans live, responded to globally warm periods in Earth history to better understand how our habitats will adapt (or not) to future warming. To understand the feedbacks of tectonic uplift, weathering, and marine and atmospheric carbon, I measure carbon, oxygen, and clumped isotopes in carbonate rocks to reconstruct uplift of high-altitude terranes and alkalinity of ancient oceans. In addition, I am interested in reconstructing the phosphate levels of Precambrian environments to better understand the how phosphate accumulated for prebiotic phosphorylation and the role phosphate played in biological processes on early Earth.
About:
I am a sedimentary geochemist who works in modern and ancient environments to understand how chemical sediments archive Earth history information.
