Richard W. Murray
Professor of Earth Sciences
Director, Boston University Marine Program (BUMP)
Office: CAS 135
Phone: 617-353-6532
rickm@bu.edu
Climate - Surface Interactions Research Page
Classes: ES 144,
ES 423,
ES 440,
ES 573,
ES 623,
ES 640
| Ph.D. | 1991 | University of California at Berkeley |
| B.A. | 1985 | Hamilton College |
Prof. Murray's research is oriented towards interpreting chemical signatures of oceanographic, climatologic, and tectonic processes that control the abundances of the major, trace, and rare earth elements in sediment and sedimentary rocks. Unravelling the competing forces controlling a given sediment's chemical composition allows us to develop chemical proxies for marine biologic production, diagenesis, and sedimentary depositional environment. These multi-element chemical proxies can then be applied to a variety of sediment and sedimentary rock types, resulting in a mutually reinforcing and internally consistent understanding of the biogeochemistry of the oceans.
Selected Publications
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.
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.