Tim K. Lowenstein
Professor of Geology
PhD (1983)
The Johns Hopkins
University
Science 1, Room 259
(607) 777-4254
lowenst@binghamton.edu
- Article from Science:
Science 29 September 2006:
Vol. 313. no. 5795, p. 1928
DOI: 10.1126/science.1129555
Elevated Eocene Atmospheric CO2 and Its Subsequent Decline
Abstract
Full Text
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Teaching
- GEOL 113: The Dynamic Earth
GEOL 213: The Rock Record and Earth History
GEOL 115: Global Change: A Geologic Perspective
GEOL 270: Environmental Geology: The Changing Earth
GEOL 371X: Field Methods in Geoscience
GEOL 470/570: Geochemistry
GEOL 478/678: Chemical Sediments
GEOL 479/679: Diagenesis
GEOL 677: Fluid Inclusion Geochemistry
GEOL 609A: Geobiology
GEOL 609C: Geochemistry of Natural Waters
GEOL 609P: Climate and Paleoclimate
GEOL 609: Evidence for Ancient Microbial Life
GEOL 609S: The Chemistry of Ancient Seawater
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Current Grants
- Petroleum Research Fund- American Chemical Society, 2003-2006, Secular variations in the chemistry of ancient seawater and the origin of CaCl2-rich basinal brines and fluid inclusions in diagenetic minerals.
- National Science Foundation-Earth Sciences Program, 2004-2006, Antiquity of life in salt deposits? A Rb-Sr age-dating study, Collaboration with Juske Horita and Lee Riciputi, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
- National Science Foundation Biogeosciences Program, 2004-2007, Preservation and long-term bacterial survival in Quaternary age salts from Death Valley, Chile, and Bolivia, (Collaboration with Matthew Parker, Department of Biology, Binghamton University and Russell Vreeland & William Rosenzweig, Department of Biological Sciences, West Chester University).
- National Science Foundation, Earth Sciences Program, 2005-2007, Upgrading of Binghamton University Geoscience Microscopy/Fluid Inclusion Laboratory.
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Recent Publications
- LOWENSTEIN, T.K., LI, J., BROWN, C.B., ROBERTS, S.M., KU, T.-L., LUO, S., and YANG, W., 1999, 200 k.y. Paleoclimate Record from Death Valley Salt Core: Geology, v. 27, p. 3-6.
- YANG, W., KROUSE, H.R., SPENCER, R.J., LOWENSTEIN, T.K., HUTCHEON, I.E., KU, T.-L., LI, J., ROBERTS, S.M., and BROWN, C.B., 1999, A 200,000-year record of change in oxygen isotope composition of sulfate in a saline sediment core, Death Valley, California: Quaternary Research, v. 51, p. 148-157.
- TIMOFEEFF, M., LOWENSTEIN, T.K., and BLACKBURN, W.H., 2000, ESEM X-Ray EDS: An Improved Technique for Major Element Chemical Analysis of Fluid Inclusions: Chemical Geology, v. 164, p. 171-182.
- BAKER, P.A., RIGSBY, C.A., SELTZER, G.O., FRITZ, S.C., LOWENSTEIN, T.K., BACHER, N.P., and VELIZ, Y., 2001, Tropical climate changes at millennial and orbital timescales in the Bolivian Altiplano. Nature, v. 409, p. 698-701.
- LOWENSTEIN, T.K., TIMOFEEFF, M.N., BRENNAN, S.T., HARDIE, L.A., and DEMICCO, R.V., 2001, Oscillations in Phanerozoic Seawater Chemistry: Evidence from Fluid Inclusions. SCIENCE, v. 294, p. 1086-1088.
- LOWENSTEIN, T.K., and BRENNAN, S.T., 2001, Fluid Inclusions in Paleolimnological Studies of Chemical Sediments, In: Last, W.M. and Smol, J.P., editors, Tracking Environmental Change Using Lake Sediments: Physical and Geochemical Methods (Volume 2). Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, p. 189-216.
- BOBST, A.L., LOWENSTEIN, T.K., JORDAN. T.E., GODFREY, L.V., KU, T.-L., and LUO, S., 2001, A 106 ka Paleoclimate Record from drill core of the Salar de Atacama, Northern Chile: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 173, p. 21-42.
- TIMOFEEFF, M.N., LOWENSTEIN, T.K., BRENNAN, S.T., DEMICCO, R.V., ZIMMERMANN, H., HORITA, J., and von BORSTEL, L.E., 2001, EvaluatingSeawater Chemistry from Fluid Inclusions in Halite: Examples from Modern Marine and Nonmarine Environments: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 65, p. 2293-2300.
- BRENNAN, S.T., and LOWENSTEIN, T.K., 2002, The major-ion composition of Silurian seawater. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 66, p. 2683-2700.
- JORDAN, T.E., MUNOZ, N., HEIN, M., LOWENSTEIN, T., GODFREY, L., and YU, J., 2002, Active faulting and folding without topographic expression in an evaporite basin, Chile. Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 114, p. 1406-1421.
- LOWENSTEIN, T.K., 2002, Pleistocene Lakes and Paleoclimates (0 to 200 Ka) in Death Valley, California: Smithsonian Contributions to the Earth Sciences Number 33: “Great Basin Aquatic Systems History (R. Hershler, D.B. Madsen, and D.R. Currey, Eds.), Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., p. 109-120.
- LOWENSTEIN, T.K., HEIN, M.C., BOBST, A.L., JORDAN, T.E., KU, T.-L., and LUO, S., 2003, An assessment of stratigraphic completeness in climate-sensitive closed-basin lake sediments: Salar de Atacama, Chile. Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 73, p. 91-104.
- GODFREY, L.V., JORDAN, T.E., LOWENSTEIN, T.K., and ALONSO, R.L., 2003, Stable isotope constraints on the transport of water to the Andes between 22º S and 26º S during the last glacial cycle: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 194, p. 299-317.
- LOWENSTEIN, T.K., HARDIE, L.A., TIMOFEEFF, M.N., and DEMICCO, R.V., 2003, Secular Variation in Seawater Chemistry and the Origin of Calcium Chloride Basinal Brines. Geology, v. 31, p. 857-860.
- DEMICCO, R.V., LOWENSTEIN, T.K., and HARDIE, L.A., 2003, Atmospheric pCO2 since 60 Ma from Records of Seawater, pH, Calcium, and Primary Carbonate Mineralogy. Geology, v. 31 p. 793-796.
- FRITZ, S.C., BAKER, P.A., LOWENSTEIN, T.K., SELTZER, G.O., RIGSBY, C.A., DWYER, G.S., TAPIA, P.M., ARNOLD, K.K., KU, T.-L., and LUO, S., 2004, Hydrologic Variation During the Last 170,000 Years in the South American tropics, Quaternary Research, v. 61, p. 95-104
- BRENNAN, S.T., LOWENSTEIN, T.K., and HORITA, J., 2004, Seawater Chemistry and the Advent of Biocalcification. Geology, v. 32, p. 473-476.
- HARDIE, L.A., and LOWENSTEIN, T.K., 2004, Did the Mediterranean Sea Dry Out During the Miocene? A Reassessment of the Evaporite Evidence from DSDP Legs 13 and 42A Cores. Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 74, p. 453-461.
- SATTERFIELD, C.L., LOWENSTEIN, T.K., VREELAND, R.H., ROSENZWEIG, W.D, and POWERS, D.W., 2005, New Evidence for 250 Ma age of halotolerant bacterium from a Permian salt crystal. Geology, v. 33.
- SATTERFIELD, C.L., LOWENSTEIN, T.K., VREELAND, R.H., and ROSENZWEIG, W.D., 2005, Paleobrine Temperatures, Chemistries, and Paleoenvironments of Silurian Salina Formation F-1 Salt, Michigan Basin, U.S.A., from Petrography and Fluid Inclusions in Halite. Journal of Sedimentary Research.
- FORESTER, R.M., LOWENSTEIN, T.K., and SPENCER, R.J., in revision, An Ostracode Based Limnologic History of Death Valley. Geological Society of America Bulletin.
- LOWENSTEIN, T.K., TIMOFEEFF, M.N., KOVALEVYCH, V.M., and HORITA, J., 2005, The major-ion composition of Permian Seawater. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 69, p. 1701-1719.
Saline Valley brine pool looking east.
Saline Valley Brine pool looking west.
Biofilm on the southern edge of the saline valley brine pool.
Biofilm on the southern edge of the saline valley brine pool.
Collecting sunken raft crystals off the muddy bottom of the brine pool.
Close up of sunken raft crystals pink with halophilic organisms.
Close up of the sunken raft crystals with scale bar (mm/cm).
Island formed by rafts of crystals crashing into a high spot in the brine pool and breaking up.
Saline Valley panorama, left side is facing west and right is east.
Sunken raft crystals in a brine bright red with halophilic microorganisms. Look for faint irregular white outlines near wooden piles
Sample of the saline valley brines collected in a 60 ml syringe.
Walking on the salt crust that forms at the bottom of the brine pool.
Tim using a chisel breaking through the top crust of Saline Valley.
Digging down to the second layer of salt crust.
The top salt crust layer with layers of salt on top and a layer of mud from a previous flooding event.
Different cross section of crust illustrating the many colors of microorganisms that live in the salts and on the muds.
Digging through the top crust at Saline valley.
Top crust ready to be removed from new hole. The temperature probe is approximately 25 cm long.
Shovel full of the top crust and the underlying mud.
Close up view of top crust with dissolution pipes visiable
The underside of a top piece of crust with dissolution pipes visiable.
Brine pool during the decline of the halophilic bloom.
Changes in water elevation are effected by wind direction and strength. The wind can blow the brine pool onto the surrounding crust and rapidly change the depth of the pool.
Chevron crystals growing at the bottom of a shallow pool in Death Valley California.
Gypsum (CaSO4) mounds along the eastern edges of Death Valley.
CaSO4 rich ground water wicks up and evaporates forming gypsum noduals.
Close up of one Gypsum mound/nodual before opening.
Close up view of opened gypsum mound/nodual. Note the fine filementous structure of the internal gypsum.
Measuring brine salinity with a refractometer.
Raft crystal floating on the surface of the brine pool.
Surface crust on the margins of the Saline Valley brine pool.
Recording field observation.
