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I study geological processes utilizing isotopic effects as tracers. I have worked on diverse problems including the evolution of early earth, genesis of flood basalts, generation of oceanic lithosphere, meteorite impacts, generation of mantle heterogeneities, serpentinization and methane production on planetary surfaces, economy of osmium in the oceans and relationship between solar magnetism and terrestrial climate. At present, we have been working on the following projects:1) Osmium and Iron isotope composition of solar photosphere using solar wind collected during NASA's Genesis Mission (with Prof. Amy Jurewicz (Dartmouth & ASU), and Prof. D. Burnett (Caltech), 2) Cause(s) of Younger Dryas abrupt climate change by examinging platinum metals and osmium and lead isotopes in Greenland ice cores (with PhD student Ji-Hye Seo, Prof. Erich Osterberg, Prof. Brian Jackson, Prof. Sungmin Hong, Korea and Dr. J. P. Steffensen, Denmark), 3) Differentiation of Laacher See magma and platinum metal transport (with PhD student Siddhartha Bharadwaj, Prof. Gerhard Wörner, Göttingen), 4) water-rock interaction during hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and enrichment of fracking wastewater in barium and and radium (with Senior Researcher Josh Landis and Dr. Devon Renock); 5) Diagenesis and preservation of carbonaceous matter in black shale (with PhD studnet Danielle Niu, Prof. Leslie Sonder and Prof. Xiahong Feng). Some of the results from the last project have led to my most recent interest in removing atmsopheric CO2 by utilizing clay minerals (with Prof. George O'Toole, Geisel School of Medicine and Prof. Erik Zinser, University of Tennessee).
M. Sharma (2019) Platinum Group Elements and Their Isotopes in the Ocean. Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences, 3rd Ed. https://www.sciencedirect.com/referencework/9780128130827/encyclopedia-of-ocean-sciences
J. D. Landis, M. Sharma , D. Renock, and D. Niu (2018) Rapid desorption of radium isotopes from black shale during hydraulic fracturing. 1. Source phases that control the release of Ra from Marcellus shale. Chemical Geology , 496, 1-13.
P. Cohen, J. Strauss, A. Rooney, M. Sharma and N. Tosca (2017) Controlled hydroxyapatite biomineralization in an ~810 million year old unicellular eukaryote. Science Advances . 2017;3: e1700095 28 June 2017.
D. Niu, D. Renock, M. Whitehouse, J. Leone, Harry Rowe, J. Landis, K. Hamren, C. W. Symcox, and M. Sharma (2016) A relict sulfate–methane transition zone in the mid-Devonian Marcellus Shale. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 182: 73–87
D. Renock, J. Landis, and M. Sharma (2016) Reductive weathering of black shale and release of barium during hydraulic fracturing. Applied Geochemistry 65: 73-86
T. Blazina and M. Sharma (2013) The impact of arc terrain weathering on the global cycles of Sr, Os and C as deduced from the North Island of New Zealand. G3 doi: 10.1002/ggge.20222
Y. Wu, M. Sharma , M. LaCompte, M. Dimitrioff (2013) The origin and provenance of magnetic sphereules at the Younger Dryas Boundary. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1304059110
M. Sharma (2011) Applications of Osmium and Iridium as Biogeochemical Tracers in the Environment. Handbook of Environmental Isotope Geochemistry , Advances in Isotope Geochemistry (ed: M. Baskaran), DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-10637-8_11. Springer-Verlag.
R. Andreasen and M. Sharma
(2009) Fractionation and mixing in a thermal ionization mass spectrometer source: implications and limitations for high-precision Nd isotope analyses. International Journal of Mass Spectrometry & Ion Processes:
doi:10.1016/j.ijms.2009.04.004
C. Chen and M. Sharma (2009) High precision and high sensitivity measurements of osmium in seawater. Analytical Chemistry: doi:10.1021/ac900600e.
C. Chen, P. Sedwick, and M. Sharma (2009) Anthropogenic osmium in rain and snow reveals global-scale atmospheric contamination. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences : 106:7724-7728.
R. Andreasen and M. Sharma (2007) Mixing and Homogenization in the Early Solar System: clues from Sr, Ba, Nd, and Sm isotopes in meteorites. The Astrophysical J. 665: 874-883.
M. Sharma , E. R. Rosenburg, and D. A. Butterfield (2007) Search for the proverbial mantle osmium sources to the oceans: Hydrothermal alteration of mid-ocean ridge basalt. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 71: 4655-4667.
C. Oze and M. Sharma (2007) Serpentinization and the Inorganic Synthesis of H2 in Planetary Surfaces. Icarus . 186: 557-561 (doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2006.09.012).
R. Andreasen and M. Sharma (2006) Solar nebula heterogeneity in p-process Sm and Nd isotopes. Science . 314: 806-809 (doi: 10.1126/science.1131708).
M. Sharma (2002) Variations in Solar Magnetic Activity during the last 200,000 years: Is there a Sun-Climate Connection? Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. , 199 (3-4): 459-472.
J. Eisele, M. Sharma , J. Blichert-Toft, C. Devey, S. Galer, and A. W. Hofmann (2002) The role of sediment recycling in EM-1 inferred from Os, Pb, Hf, Nd, Sr isotope and trace element systematics of the Pitcairn hotspot. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. , 196 (3-4): 197-212.
M. Sharma , G. J. Wasserburg, A. W. Hofmann, and G. J. Chakrapani (1999) Himalayan uplift and osmium isotopes in oceans and rivers, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, . 63, 4005-4012.
M. Sharma (1997) Siberian Traps. In: Large Igneous Provinces: Continental, Oceanic, and Planetary Flood Volcanism. Eds. J. J. Mahoney and M. Coffin, AGU Monograph, Volume 100, p 273-295, American Geophysical Union, Washington D.C.