Geology Department Postgraduate Web Pages

Name: Meabh Gallagher

Contact Details

Tel: +353 (0)1 896 2675
Fax: +353 (0)1 6711199
Email: megallag@tcd.ie

Title of Project

Pushing the Limits of Chamical Fingerprinting

Project details

Many natural processes leave chemical traces, chemical fingerprinting is the science that discovers these patterns and links them to the origional processes. In the last fifteen years the scope for chemical fingerprinting has grown exponentially. Despite this there is an ongoing need for improvement of chemical fingerprints. My project has the technological goal of further improving analytical detection limits and deconvoluting complex geochemical signals with the aim of illustrating usefullnes in three areas of application.
The first area of research focusses on reconstruction of the deposition of volcanic ash from iceland into northern and central european sphagnum moss peat bogs. This information will provide much needed backround information to better prepare for management of the north atlantic air space.
Second, chemical fingerprints will be extracted from exceedingly rare limestone rocks that contain the earths oldest evidence for multi-cellular life and compared with younger examples of the organisms suspected to have created the morphological evidence.
Third, chemical fingerprints will be extracted from ice cores from greenland to help reconstruct the end of the last interglacial stage. This period in time witnessed the end of a warm period similar to the present. Understanding its termination, particularly the tempo with which the following glacial period started is critical to prepare for future climate change.

Name of supervisors

Balz Kamber

Postgraduate personal details

In June 2012 I graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a B.A. mod in Geology. My undergraduate dissertation was the product of six weeks mapping an area in the surrounds of Blaenau Ffestiniog a historic mining town in Gwynedd, Wales. During my undergraduate years, I developed a strong interest in geochemistry and its applications. Following my graduation I started work on my current project in Trinity College Dublin.

Project Start Date

October 2012

Funding

Marie Curie Career Integration Grant