Richard W. Murray

Professor of Earth Sciences

Office: Stone 139
Phone: 617.353.6532
E-mail: rickm@bu.edu

Educational Background

Ph.D. 1991 University of California at Berkeley
B.A. 1985 Hamilton College

Research

Rick Murray’s marine biogeochemical research is oriented toward interpreting signatures of oceanographic, climatologic, and tectonic processes recorded in marine sediment. He studies the paleoceanographic record at a variety of time scales, as well as modern processes that control chemical and isotopic distributions in sediment. His analytical work is based on state-of-the-art ICP-emission spectrometry and ICP-mass spectrometry combined with TIMS isotopic analyses, using the BU Analytical Geochemistry Laboratories. Murray and his graduate students are active participants on oceanographic research cruises that gather sediment (e.g., coring) as well as study modern oceanographic and geochemical processes. Ongoing study areas and topics include the equatorial Pacific Ocean (geochemical paleoceanography/paleoclimatology, the subseafloor microbial biosphere), the Cariaco Basin offshore of Venezuela (redox history, terrigenous inputs, and climate), the northwestern Pacific (the sedimentary record of volcanism), the South Pacific Gyre (geochemical paleoceanography/paleoclimatology, the subseafloor microbial biosphere), and the central Atlantic Ocean (the distribution of trace metals in the water column).

Climate and Earth History research group
Coastal and Marine Science research group
Geochemistry research group
Surface Processes research group

Teaching

  • Oceanography (ES 144)
  • Marine Biogeochemistry (ES 423/623)
  • Marine Geology (ES 440/ES 640)
  • Analytical Methods in Geochemistry (ES 573)

Recent Students

  • Ann Dunlea; PhD (current); Biogeochemistry of sediment and porewaters in microbially active pelagic marine sediment
  • Rachel Scudder; PhD (current); Regional assessment of volcanic, terrigenous, and authigenic inputs to the Western Pacific Ocean “Subduction Factory”
  • Nahysa Martinez; PhD (2008); Sources of terrigenous material in the modern Cariaco Basin and in the Cenozoic Arctic Ocean: Using geochemical provenance as a proxy for climatic and paleoceanographic change
  • Rachel Scudder; MA (2008); Dispersed ash in deeply buried sediment from the Northwest Pacific Ocean: An example from the Izu-Bonin Arc (ODP Site 1149)
  • Christa L. Ziegler; PhD (2007); Terrigenous Deposition in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean: Determining its Composition and Relationship to Export Production at Multiple Time Scales
  • Tommy Moore; MA (2003); Anaerobic Methane Oxidation and the Formation of Dolomite
  • Lacie L. Quintin; MA (2003); Geochemical Studies of Pacific Ocean Marine Sediments: ICP-emission Spectrometry of Sediments onboard the JOIDES Resolution, and Terrigenous Input and Dispersed Ash at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1149, Northwest Pacific
  • Kelly A. Kryc; PhD (2003); The Development and Application of Marine Sedimentary Chemical Proxies of Climate Change in Antarctica and the Equatorial Pacific Ocean
  • Junenette Peters; MA (1999); Partitioning of Caribbean Sea Sediment and Its Implications for Provenance, Terrigenous Matter, and Dispersed Ash
  • Kristen Yarincik; MA (1999); Eolian, Hemipelagic, and Redox-controlled Deposition in the Cariaco Basin, Venezuela, over the past 578,000 years
  • Wendy Nystrom; MA (1996); Chemical Determination of Depositional Regimes of Chert from the Sylvester Allochthon, British Columbia
  • Jessie Schroeder; MA (1995); Biogenic and Terrigenous Controls of Chemical Sedimentation in the Equatorial Pacific over the past 12 m.y.: Multi-element Analysis of Ocean Drilling Program Site 850

Selected Publications (*=student)

  • Murray R. W., Leinen M., and Knowlton C., 2012, Links between Fe input and opal deposition in the Pleistocene equatorial Pacific Ocean. Nature (Geoscience), 5, 270-274, doi:10.1038/ngeo1422.
  • *Martinez N.C., Murray R.W., Thunell R.C., Peterson L.C., Muller-Karger F., Lorenzoni L., Astor Y., and Verla R (2010), Local and regional geochemical signatures of surface sediments of the Cariaco Basin and Orinoco Delta, Venezuela. Geology, 38, 159-162.
  • *Scudder R. P., Murray R.W., and Plank T. (2009). Dispersed ash in deeply buried sediment from the northwest Pacific Ocean: An example from the Izu-Bonin Arc (ODP Site 1149). Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 284, 639-648. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2009.05.037.
  • *Martinez N.C., Murray R.W., Dickens G.R., and Kolling M. (2009) Discrimination of sources of terrigenous sediment deposited to the Central Arctic Ocean through the Cenozoic. Paleoceanography, 24, PA1210, doi:10.1029/2007PA001567.
  • *Ziegler C. L., Murray R.W., Plank T., and Hemming S.R. (2008) Sources of Fe to Equatorial Pacific Ocean from the Holocene to Miocene. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 270, 258-270. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2008.03.044.
  • *Martinez N. C., Murray R. W., Thunell R. C., Peterson L. C., Muller-Karger F., Astor Y., and Varela R. (2007), Modern climate forcing of terrigenous deposition in the tropics (Cariaco Basin, Venezuela). Earth and Planetary Science Letters 264, 438-451.
  • Filippelli G. M., Latimer J. C., Murray R. W., Flores J.-A. (2007), Productivity records from the Southern Ocean and the equatorial Pacific Ocean: Testing the glacial shelf-nutrient hypothesis, Deep-Sea Research 54, 2443-2452. (**Featured in “Editor’s Choice” in Science, 2007, 318, 535.)
  • Sivan O., Schrag D. P., and Murray R. W. (2007), Rates of methanogenesis and methanotrophy in deep-sea sediments. Geobiology, 5, 141-151.
  • *Ziegler C. L. and Murray R. W. (2007), Geochemical evolution of the central Pacific Ocean over the past 56 Ma. Paleoceanography, 22, PA2203, doi:10.1029/2006PA001321.
  • *Ziegler C. L., Murray R. W., Hovan S. A., and Rea D. K. (2007), Resolving eolian, volcanogenic, and authigenic components in pelagic sediment from the Pacific Ocean. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 254, 416-432.
  • *Ziegler C. L. and Murray R. W. (2007), Analytical sediment chemistry on-board the JOIDES Resolution: A comparison of shipboard and shorebased sample preparation protocols. Scientific Results of the Ocean Drilling Program, Leg 206. http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications/206_SR/009/009.htm.
  • *Moore T. S., Murray R. W., Kurtz A. C., and Schrag D. P. (2004), Anaerobic methane oxidation and the formation of dolomite. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 229, 141-154.
  • *Kryc K. A., Murray R. W., and Murray D. W. (2003), Elemental fractionation of Si, Al, Ti, Fe, Ca, Mn, P, and Ba in five marine sedimentary reference materials: results from sequential extractions. Analytica Chimica Acta, 487, 117-128.
  • *Kryc K. A., Murray R. W., and Murray D. W. (2003), Al-to-oxide and Ti-to-organic linkages in biogenic sediment: Relationships to paleoexport production and bulk Al/Ti. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 211, 125-141.