Gavin reports from Goldschmidt 2012, Montreal, Canada

This year from 24-29 June Montréal, Canada played host to the 22nd Goldschmidt geochemistry conference.  Project PI Gavin Foster , with his B-team (Post-docs Miguel Martinez-Boti, Marcus Gutjahr; Eleni Anagnostou, and PhD students Michael Henehan, Rosanna Greenop and Tom Chalk), and around 3000 other geochemists attended (including Descent project member Richard Pancost).  Perhaps it was because it coincided with the Montréal Jazz festival, or perhaps it was the sunny weather, or maybe simply the science, but I felt this year’s conference was particularly good.

 

It all started with a pre-conference boron user group meeting on the 24^th (organised by Marcus Gutjahr, Bärbel Hönisch from LDEO and me) where around 30 scientists from Europe, US and world-wide discussed what is needed to improve the accuracy of boron isotope (and concentration) measurements in marine carbonates – a central technique of the Descent into the Icehouse project.  After some presentations and some discussion, we all agreed on a set of CaCO₃ reference materials and have an outline now for a set of experiments to ensure we are better able to compare data between laboratories in the future.

Goldschmidt 2012 itself was intense to say the least.  Most days had a 0830 am start with some sessions only finishing at 1730 (with obligatory breaks in the afternoon for EURO 2012 – though sadly this wasn’t an issue for the English contingent after Sunday!).  Highlights for me included:

1.  Our boron-based proxies session on Monday;
2.  On Tuesday the news from IODP 318 Wilkes Land expedition which suggested that East Antarctica was more dynamic than previously thought during the warm Pliocene (Cook et al.) and middle Miocene (Pierce et al.) periods.
3. In several sessions studies were discussed where major steps forward are being made in reconciling the overly hot temperatures the TEX₈₆ proxy is spitting out for the early Cenozoic. 
4. Thanks to some very innovative approaches shown later in the week involving NanoSIMS (Alex Gagnon) and laser ablation (Howie Spero) we seem to be getting closer to understanding exactly how and why foraminifera record the environment they live in.  Other highlights from the meeting can be found at http://www.goldschmidt2012.org/. 

I am certainly glad to be home but I’m really looking forward to presenting our new data from the Descent into the Icehouse project in Florence at Goldschidt 2013!

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