Earth's History
July 26-31
Steve Shirey
Geochemist
Department of Terrestrial Magnetism
Carnegie Institute of Washington
Carnegie Institution geochemist Steven Shirey is researching how Earth's continents formed. Continent formation spans most of Earth's history, continents were key to the emergence of life, and they contain a majority of Earth’s resources. Continental rocks also retain the geologic record of Earth's ancient geodynamic processes.
Shirey’s past, current, and future studies reflect the diversity of continental rocks, encompassing a range of studies that include rocks formed anywhere from the deep mantle to the surface crust. Studying continents from the deepest samples led to Shirey’s recent research on diamonds carried to the surface in volcanic eruptions of kimberlite. To conduct his work, Shirey uses Carnegie’s extensive chemistry and mass spectrometry labs to analyze the isotopes (different atoms of the same element with differing numbers of neutrons) of naturally occurring radioactive elements. These radioactive decaying elements, critical to his work and the work of all the geochemists at Carnegie, are like atomic clocks and decay at predictable rates.
Shirey received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, his M.S. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and his Ph.D. in geochemistry from SUNY Stony Brook. Before joining the Carnegie staff in 1985 he was a postdoctoral researcher at Carnegie. For more see http://home.dtm.ciw.edu/users/shirey
