Perspectives on My Career in Organic Geochemistry

Abstract I have had the pleasure of studying the organic geochemistry of sediments of lakes and oceans for 50 years. I have especially enjoyed the versatility of organic geochemistry; it can be applied to studies of many kinds of geological sequences and parts of geological time. As an important par...

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Main Author: Philip A. Meyers
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2021-12-01
Series:Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2020CN000141
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author Philip A. Meyers
author_facet Philip A. Meyers
author_sort Philip A. Meyers
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description Abstract I have had the pleasure of studying the organic geochemistry of sediments of lakes and oceans for 50 years. I have especially enjoyed the versatility of organic geochemistry; it can be applied to studies of many kinds of geological sequences and parts of geological time. As an important part of my career, I sailed as a shipboard organic geochemist on seven ocean‐drilling cruises that recovered organic carbon‐rich Cretaceous black shales, Mediterranean sapropels, and upwelling zone sediments. Because most marine sediments contain less than one‐tenth of a percent of organic carbon, learning more about the properties and the paleoceanographic processes important to the formation of these carbon‐rich deep‐sea sequences has been a long‐term theme of my career. At the same time, I have studied organic geochemical records in lakes, where higher sedimentation rates and greater organic carbon concentrations enable higher resolution investigation of depositional processes than in the oceans. In addition, I have studied peat sequences, which provide relatively detailed records of the paleoclimatic histories of their locations. In summary, my scientific curiosity has permitted me to be a paleoceanographer, a paleolimnologist, a paleoclimatologist, and above all an organic geochemist.
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spelling doaj-art-5556533d57e84fe1bffd8e6d37eec2b12025-08-20T03:49:17ZengWileyPerspectives of Earth and Space Scientists2637-69892021-12-0121n/an/a10.1029/2020CN000141Perspectives on My Career in Organic GeochemistryPhilip A. Meyers0Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences The University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI USAAbstract I have had the pleasure of studying the organic geochemistry of sediments of lakes and oceans for 50 years. I have especially enjoyed the versatility of organic geochemistry; it can be applied to studies of many kinds of geological sequences and parts of geological time. As an important part of my career, I sailed as a shipboard organic geochemist on seven ocean‐drilling cruises that recovered organic carbon‐rich Cretaceous black shales, Mediterranean sapropels, and upwelling zone sediments. Because most marine sediments contain less than one‐tenth of a percent of organic carbon, learning more about the properties and the paleoceanographic processes important to the formation of these carbon‐rich deep‐sea sequences has been a long‐term theme of my career. At the same time, I have studied organic geochemical records in lakes, where higher sedimentation rates and greater organic carbon concentrations enable higher resolution investigation of depositional processes than in the oceans. In addition, I have studied peat sequences, which provide relatively detailed records of the paleoclimatic histories of their locations. In summary, my scientific curiosity has permitted me to be a paleoceanographer, a paleolimnologist, a paleoclimatologist, and above all an organic geochemist.https://doi.org/10.1029/2020CN000141
spellingShingle Philip A. Meyers
Perspectives on My Career in Organic Geochemistry
Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists
title Perspectives on My Career in Organic Geochemistry
title_full Perspectives on My Career in Organic Geochemistry
title_fullStr Perspectives on My Career in Organic Geochemistry
title_full_unstemmed Perspectives on My Career in Organic Geochemistry
title_short Perspectives on My Career in Organic Geochemistry
title_sort perspectives on my career in organic geochemistry
url https://doi.org/10.1029/2020CN000141
work_keys_str_mv AT philipameyers perspectivesonmycareerinorganicgeochemistry