Research Interests
I'm interested in the interactions among Earth internal processes (tectonic and magmatic), surface processes (erosion and weathering), and their role in the rock cycle, global climate, and the emergence and evolution of life. Over geological time, variations in the style and rate of tectonic activity, climate and ecology alter the compositions of rocks, ocean and atmosphere, and may register as variations in the texture and composition of sedimentary rocks and minerals. In recent years, my research has been focused on the development of new approaches to translate measured geochemical signals in such materials (e.g., clumped-isotope signals measured in carbonate minerals) to quantitative constraints on thermal, compositional and deformational histories of surface, sedimentary basins and metamorphic environments. I have been applying these approaches to study open and closed system reactions during the exhumation of the metamorphic core complex in Naxos (Greece), reconstruct the oxygen isotope composition of the Phanerozoic Ocean, constrain the uplift and exhumation history of the Colorado Plateau, and study the relationship between uplift and exhumation of the Himalaya and the Indian Monsoon intensity, and its potential effect on global climate.
Ongoing and future projects:
- The Precambrian growth and stabilization of the continental lithosphere and its hypothetical role in the Oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere, global climate, and evolution of life.
- Reconstructing the oxygen isotope composition of the Precambrian Ocean as a proxy for the proportions of weathering and hydrothermal alteration reactions in deep-time.
- Developing new carbonate clumped-isotope based analytical and modeling tools aimed to refine thermal compositional and deformational histories of sedimentary basins and metamorphic environments.
- Test alternative hypotheses for the ‘Dolomite-Problem’ and the study the relationship between dolomitization and the Ocean Mg/Ca ratio in the geological past.
- Test various hypotheses linking tectonic uplift and exhumation of the Himalayas to the Indian Monsoon intensity and Cenozoic global cooling.
Get in touch: uri.ryb@mail.huji.ac.il