Environmental Internship Program - 2023 Booklet

Bill Haarlow ’25
GEOSCIENCES
CLIMATE AND
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
PROJECT TITLE
Metal Isotopes in Ancient
Carbonates
ORGANIZATION(S)
Higgins Lab,
Department of
Geosciences,
Princeton University
LOCATION(S)
Princeton, New Jersey
MENTOR(S)
John Higgins,
Professor of Geosciences;
Matthew Nadeau, Ph.D.
candidate, Geosciences
I gathered data about various isotopes in
ancient carbonates, including lithium, carbon
and oxygen, to study how their concentrations
changed over time and with ocean depth. These
ancient carbonates included limestones and
dolomites from around the world, ranging from
formations in the United States to the middle of
the Pacific Ocean. The carbonate rocks studied
may preserve information from ancient surface
environments about their local climate and
ecosystems and may thus serve as proxy archives
of paleoclimate at various times in the ancient
past. We used column chromatography and mass
spectroscopy to determine the compositions and
concentrations of isotopes within the carbonates.
The isotopic records for many different elements
are incomplete due to the recency of the work. It
was awesome to work with people at the cutting
edge of the field. Through this internship, I
gained experience in experimental design and
learned to use common technology used in the
field, including automatic ion chromatography
machines, ion columns and mass spectroscopy
machines. These skills will be useful in my
ongoing research projects at Princeton and my
future career.
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