George Lazar
California State University-San Bernardino, CA·Earth & Environmental Science
Where does the methane bubbling out of deep-sea hydrothermal vents come from? Some forms by the breakdown of buried organic matter under heat, some forms through purely chemical (abiotic) reactions between rock and water, and some is made by microbes.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Chemistry
- Topics
clumped isotopes
methane isotopologues
deuterium
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2027
What they work on
- Measure how the rare methane isotopologues 13CH3D and 12CH2D2 are distributed when organic matter decomposes under hydrothermal conditions, using lab experiments analyzed on the Panorama high-resolution mass spectrometer.
- Determine the clumped isotope signatures of methane made by abiotic reduction of carbon dioxide over mineral catalysts. The goal is to define how minerals shape the isotope signal of non-biological methane.
- Map equilibrium relationships among methane, hydrogen gas (HD) and water (HDO, H2O) isotopes by reacting non-equilibrated methane gases with minerals in hydrothermal experiments.
- Test how the hydrogen isotope makeup of water affects the Delta-13CH3D and Delta-12CH2D2 values of methane formed by abiotic and heat-driven pathways, relevant to water–rock interaction in oceanic crust.
More about the research
Telling these sources apart helps scientists trace how carbon moves between Earth's interior and the oceans. It also bears on how life survives in extreme environments and on ideas about the origin of life.
Why it matters
Vent methane carries clues about carbon exchange between Earth's interior and the ocean, but its source is hard to read. Laboratory calibrations of methane clumped isotopes could let geochemists separate abiotic, heat-driven and microbial methane in field samples. That could sharpen models of the deep carbon cycle and inform the search for habitats of extreme life and studies of life's origins.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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University of Arizona, AZ·Earth & Environmental Science
Expand a prototype TILDAS system, an infrared laser instrument that identifies molecules by the light they absorb, by adding a new laser unit to measure oxygen-17 in CO2.
Jena Johnson
University of Michigan, MI·Earth & Environmental Science
Precipitate the iron(II) silicate mineral greenalite at high pH in simulated ancient seawater and measure the resulting iron isotope fractionation and iron-to-manganese ratios.
Jill McDermott
Lehigh University, PA·Earth & Environmental Science
Determine how the April 2025 eruption at 9°50'N East Pacific Rise reorganized crustal permeability and fluid pathways, using high-temperature vent fluid sampling paired with in situ temperature measurements.
The school
California State University-San Bernardino: 1 labs on PI Pages, $11M a year on research, 11 research doctorates a year.
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