Sarah Carmichael Department of Geology
ASU Box 32067
572 Rivers Street
Boone, NC 28608
Phone: 828-262-8471
email: carmichaelsk@appstate.edu


Geochemistry, Petrology, and Biomineralogy

My interests involve reactive fluid flow and mineralization in all levels of the earth's crust, in both ancient and modern environments - through regional and contact metamorphism, metasomatism at mid-ocean ridges, and through microbially mediated reactions at the earth's surface.

My research involves a variety of techniques such as CL (cathodoluminescence), scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), X-ray diffraction, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), LA-ICPMS and LA-ICP-OES (laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry or optical emission spectroscopy) and stable isotope analysis (particularly carbon and oxygen). Some of my students also work with Dr. Suzanna Bräuer's research group in the Department of Biology to culture biomineralizing bacteria and fungi. We do extensive fieldwork in southern Appalachian caves as well as on a variety of regional rocks at the surface that have experienced reactive fluid flow and/or biomineralization. For more information about our geomicrobiology research group, visit http://geomicrobiology.appstate.edu.

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