Richard Murray

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).