Charles H. Langmuir
Harvard University
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Primary Section: 15, Geology Secondary Section: 16, Geophysics Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2006)
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Research Interests
My interests are in the solid earth geochemical cycle, and understanding the mechanisms that control material transfer among Earth's reservoirs. To explore these questions we make use of chemical analyses of all types of rocks, both to understand the systematics of the chemical diversity, and to compare the data to quantitative models of Earth processes. This work has led to hypotheses for the origin of the compositional diversity of the major silicate rocks types of the ocean floor, ocean islands and convergent margins, and their relationship to aspects of mantle convection, plate tectonics, and ocean sediment compositions. The understanding of modern Earth processes has led to current research projects exploring how these processes may have changed through time, and how the composition and stability of ocean and atmosphere, and the habitability of Earth for life, have been influenced by solid Earth processes.
