Environmental Magnetism

Mission: Use the concentration, composition, and grain size distribution of magnetic minerals in natural and engineered materials to understand environmental conditions of the past and present.  

Sediments layers marking floods preserved in a stalagmite from Spring Valley Cavern. Feinberg et al., 2020.

Iron-bearing minerals can be incredibly sensitive recorders of environmental conditions and processes. In soils, they can record information about mean annual precipitation and temperature, seasonality, and microbial activity. In atmospheric dust, they can act as provenance indicators and influence the absorption of solar radiation. Within contaminated aquifers, Fe-bearing minerals can act as both electron acceptors and donors, thereby controlling the pace of environmental remediation. Within engineered stormwater filtration systems, Fe-bearing minerals can adsorp excess phosphorus, leading to improved water quality.   

Magnetic methods allow researchers to detect ppm concentrations of common Fe-oxides (magnetite, maghemite, hematite), oxyhydroxides (goethite, akiganeite, lepidocrocite), sulfides (greigite, pyrrhotite), and phosphates (vivianite).  Some of these minerals are also sensitive indicators of oxygen conditions in natural environments.

My research group uses magnetic methods as a lens to explore natural and anthropogenic environments.  We typically combine these methods with material characterization tools, such as electron microscopy and diffraction. We love working and learning in the field with our collaborators.

Funding for this research has been provided by

Related Publications

Fisher, B.A., Yoo, K., Aufdenkampe, A.K., Nater, E.A., Feinberg, J.M., and Nyquist, J.E., 2023. Mineral surface area in deep weathering profiles reveals the interrelationship of iron oxidation and silicate weathering. Earth Surface Dynamics. 11, 51–69. https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-51-2023

Ohenhen, L.O., Feinberg, J.M., Slater, L.D., Ntaragiannis, D., Rios-Sanchez, M., Isaacson, C.W., Stricker, A., Atekwana, E.A., 2022. Magnetic Evidence of Anaerobic Oxidation and Iron Mineral Dissolution in Hydrocarbon-Contaminated Aquifer, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JG006560

Voelz, J.L., Hobart, K.K., Stahovich, K.A., Ziebol, H.E., Harper, N.A., Feinberg, J.M., Arnold, W.A., and Penn, R.L., 2022, Organic Matter Inhibits Redox Activity and Impacts Heterogeneous Growth of Iron (Oxyhydr)oxides on Nano-Hematite, ACS Earth and Space Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsearthspacechem.1c00419

Silveira, V.E.P., dos Santos, N.B., Franco, D.R., La Terra, E.F., Feinberg, J.M., Scorzelli, R.B., Fontes, M.B., Bertolino, L.C., Cagliari, J., Souza, M.K., Hartmann, G.A., 2021. Environmental magnetism evidence for longshore drift distribution of Fe-being phases: An example from the Brazilian southeastern coastal region. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 91(11), 1133-1150, https://doi.org/10.2110/jsr.2020.089

Feinberg, J.M., Lascu, I., Lima, E.A., Weiss, B.P., Dorale, J.A., Alexander Jr., E.C., Edwards, R.L., 2020. Magnetic detection of paleoflood layers in stalagmites and implications for historical land use changes. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 530(115946),1-6, doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2019.115946.

Jelinski NA, Sousa M, Williams A, GreyBear E, Finnes, K, Mulligan D, Cole C, Stillinger M, Feinberg JM.  2019.  Cryoturbation and Carbon Stocks in Gelisols under Late-Successional Black Spruce Forests of the Copper River Basin, Alaska. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 83:1760-1778. doi.org/10.2136/sssaj2019.07.0212

Maxbauer DP, Feinberg JM, Fox DL, Nater E.  2017.  Response of pedogenic magnetite to changing vegetation in soils developed under uniform climate, topography, and parent material. Scientific Reports, 7, 17575, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-17722-2.

Zhu, Z., Feinberg, J.M., Xie, S., Bourne, M.D., Huang, C., Hu, C., and Cheng, H. 2017. Holocene ENSO-related cyclic storms recorded by magnetic minerals in speleothems of central China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi:10.1073/pnas.1610930114.

Jaqueto P, Trindade RIF, Hartmann GA, Novello VF, Cruz FW, Karmann I, Strauss BE, Feinberg JM.  2016.  Linking speleothem and soil magnetism in the Pau d'Alho cave (central South America). Journal of Geophysical Research - Solid Earth. 121(10), 7024-7039. Doi: 10.1002/2016JB013541.

Byrne JM, van der Laan G, Figueroa-Garcia A, Appel E, Qafoku O, Rosso KM, Wang C, Pearce C, Jackson M, Feinberg JM.  2016.  Size dependent microbial oxidation and reduction of magnetite nano- and micro-particles. Scientific Reports. 6(30969). Doi: 10.1038/srep30969.

Maxbauer DP, Feinberg JM, Fox DL, Clyde WC.  2016.  Magnetic minerals as recorders of weathering, diagenesis, and paleoclimate: a core-outcrop comparison of Paleocene-Eocene paleosols in the Bighorn Basin, WY, U.S.A. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 452:15-26. Doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2016.07.029.

Maxbauer, D.P., Feinberg, J.M., Fox, D.L., 2016. Magnetic mineral assemblages in soils and paleosols as the basis for paleoprecipitation proxies: A review of magnetic methods and challenges, Earth-Science Reviews, 155: 28-48. Doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2016.01.014.

Bourne, M.D., Feinberg, J.M., Strauss, B.E., Hardt, B., Cheng, H., Rowe, H.D., Springer, G., and Edwards, R.L., 2015. Long-term changes in precipitation recorded by magnetic minerals in speleothems. Geology, 43(7), 595-598. Doi: 10.1130/G36695.1.

Moron, S., Fox, D.L., Feinberg, J.M., Jaramillo, C., Bayona, G., Montes, C., 2013. Climate change across the Paleocene-Eocene boundary in the Bogotá Basin (Colombia) inferred from paleosol carbon isotope stratigraphy, major oxides, and environmental magnetism. Palaeogeography, Paleoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 388, 115-127. Doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.08.010.

Lindquist, A., Feinberg, J.M., Waters, M.R., 2011. The Rock Magnetic Properties of a Soil Developed on an Alluvial Deposit at Buttermilk Creek, Texas, USA, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, doi:10.1029/2011GC003877.