Welcome to SIGL
Welcome to the pages of the Scripps Isotope Geochemistry Laboratory (SIGL). Our laboratory specializes in high-precision isotopic analyses, elemental abundances and petrology. Current research in the SIGL includes:
Cosmochemistry - the study of the chemical composition of matter in our Solar System and universe.
Planet formation processes - How did planets form and how did they reach their present-day states?
Earth's interior - What is the compositional variability in Earth's interior, how has it changed with time, and what impact has this had on Earth's surface?
Modern Volcanism - Time-series analysis of basaltic volcanism from La Palma (2021), Iceland (2021-present) and Mauna Loa (2022) is providing new insight into how volcanoes erupt and what happens to the magmas that feed them.
If you are interested in the research that we conduct and are considering the Scripps graduate program, please feel free to contact us.
Eruption of the Cumbre Vieja, La Palma, Canary Islands (Sept 19 to Dec 13, 2021)
The Searchers
James M D Day, 2018
Way down in the South, where nothing else roams, Stand three tents on the ice, golden statues of stone.
Within are four guys, come to search the unknown, Eking a living out of frozen boxes from home.
Where do they come from and why perservere? To search for space rocks that might reveal why we’re here.
But nothing is certain, nothing is known, For the weather it howls and the wind it does groan.
In the frigid cold air stands wily old John, Thirty-six seasons of cold, yet still he comes home.
He watches the sky, the clouds and the snow, Can we search? Should we stay? He looks and he knows.
In the tents lie Scott from the north, and Ioannis from Greece, Both new to this place, but they enjoy none the least.
Despite the cold, the wind and the pain, Antarctica grips you, you see, there’s nothing so plain.
What’s the allure, what’s the spell, of this place that’s so white and so cold, yet so swell?
Perhaps the sastrugi, the light, and the way it plays on the ice, or the Skidoos and tracks that they leave in a trice.
Perhaps it’s the meteorites, or the freezing cold air, Whatever it is, why ever we came, Antarctica’s grip reigns you once over again.
The last of the four, I sit and I write, looking for meteorites, well that’s alright! Awake in the tent, waiting to see, if the Antarctic will unlock its secrets to me.
Now, as you read this, in front of the fire, Beware, this place holds some despair and requires, Patience and stoicism, and slow deliberate respire.
The time in the tent is time not on the ice, finding the stones that keep science alight.