Western Coastal and Marine Geology Team Welcomes Peter Swarzenski


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Western Coastal and Marine Geology Team Welcomes Peter Swarzenski

By Sam Johnson
August 2007

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Above: Peter Swarzenski in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, with daughter Simone, who is holding a lake trout she just caught. Photograph by Pete's wife, Pamela. [larger version]

I am pleased to announce that Peter Swarzenski has joined the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Western Coastal and Marine Geology Team at the Pacific Science Center in Santa Cruz, California. Pete transferred from our sister Coastal and Marine Geology Team in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he worked at the Florida Integrated Science Center (FISC)'s Center for Coastal and Watershed Studies. Collaborators on both coasts will continue to benefit from Pete's broad expertise and knowledge of marine and ground-water geochemistry, especially in estuarine and coastal environments.

Pete received a B.S. in environmental geology from the University of Colorado, followed by M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical oceanography from Louisiana State University. His Ph.D. dissertation was titled "Non-Conservative Behavior of Select Naturally Occurring Radionuclides and Metals in Coastal Waters." Pete joined the USGS in St. Petersburg in 1998 as a postdoctoral researcher working with Jack Kindinger and Abby Sallenger and was subsequently hired as a research oceanographer. His USGS work has concentrated on two areas:

Investigation of biogeochemical processes related to fluvial transport and subsequent burial of organic and inorganic constituents in Gulf of Mexico sediment, to provide better understanding of historic and current pollutant storage and transport in this highly industrialized and fragile coastal system. This effort also includes studies of hypoxia (oxygen depletion) cycles in the Mississippi Bight. (See related Sound Waves article, "Delivery of Sediment-Associated Contaminants to the Gulf of Mexico.")
Integrated investigations of coastal aquifers, including study of water-rock interactions, hydrogeology, geomicrobiology, chemical and physical oceanography, marine biology, electrical geophysical techniques, and isotope geochemistry. Current work includes projects in California (Santa Barbara), Washington (Puget Sound), Florida (Florida panhandle, Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay, southeastern coastal waters, west-central Florida, Tampa Bay), and Israel. (See related Sound Waves article, "Studying Submarine Ground-Water Discharge at Dor Beach, Israel.")

Pete is a member of the Geological Society of America, the American Geophysical Union, and the International Association of Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry.

Pete joined the team in Santa Cruz early this month (August 2007). He will continue his work with colleagues in St. Petersburg and Woods Hole (Massachusetts), as well as his ongoing collaborations with the Western Coastal and Marine Geology Team's Bob Rosenbauer, Eric Grossman, and Brian Edwards and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is also assisting with initial plans for a lab that will enable the team to date cores by using lead-210 and cesium-137 and to measure ground-water flux by using a suite of short-lived isotopes; this lab will add a terrific new capability to the Pacific Science Center. Please join me in welcoming Pete Swarzenski to our team!

Studying Submarine Ground-Water Discharge at Dor Beach, Israel
March 2007

Delivery of Sediment-Associated Contaminants to the Gulf of Mexico
June 2003