Susan L. Brantley, Professor of Geosciences, investigates chemical and physical processes associated with the circulation of aqueous fluids in shallow hydrogeologic settings. Investigations incorporate field and laboratory work, and theoretical modelling of observations. Of particular interest are questions concerning the measurement and prediction of the rates of natural processes, including chemical weathering with and without micro-organisms. Recent work has focused on the effect of microbial life on mineral reactivity, and extraction of nutrients from rocks by microorganisms

Ongoing projects directed or co-supervised by Brantley are listed below. Students are encouraged to write brantley@geosc.psu.edu to inquire about any of these projects or others not listed here.

1. Fe release and isotope fractionation during microbial alteration of silicate and oxide minerals
2. Extraction of Mo from silicate glass by a soil bacterium (Azotobacter vinelandii)
3. Cu isotope fractionation during microbially enhanced mineral dissolution and precipitation
4. Measurement of weathering rinds on basalt from Norway and Costa Rica
5. Rates and mechanisms of spheroidal weathering
6. Reactive transport modelling of weathering

The Water-rock Interaction Laboratory directed by Brantley, is one of many laboratories across the Penn State Campus which focusses on Environmental Chemistry and Geochemistry. These facilities, including state-of-the art instrumentation in four colleges, comprise the Center for Environmental Chemistry and Geochemistry (CECG). The Center fosters undergraduate and graduate work in Environmental Chemistry and Geochemistry. The CECG supports a Finnigan Element I High Resolution Inductively Coupled Mass Spectrometer. One initiative fostered by the CECG is the Biogeochemical Research Initiative for Education (BRIE). BRIE is an NSF-funded initiative to fund up to 30 graduate and 30 undergraduate students to investigate the interface of microbiology and geochemistry at Penn State. Grad and undergrad applicants are encouraged. The latest initiative of the CECG is the Center fro Environmental Kinetics. CEKA fosters investigations in all aspects of scaling of environmental kinetics from the molecular to the field. Susan Brantley is also the Director of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI) at Penn State. EESI fosters interdisciplinary environmental research and education within the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and across the PSU campus.

Brantley Laboratory Group

Contact: brantley@eesi.psu.edu