The GP3 Lab

Geochemical Perspectives on Paleoclimatology & Paleoceanography Laboratory

News and Updates

May 2026 - New GP3 Lab Paper Alert! Iron fertilization of the North Pacific did not drive long‐term Pliocene to Quaternary cooling in AGU Advances.

April 2026 - PI Abell has been awarded a Leibniz Science Campus Visiting Researcher position at Universität Tübingen for Summer 2026 to collaborate with Dr. Susan Mentzer on a variety of geoarchaeological projects.

May 2025 - PI Abell received a Lehigh University Faculty Innovation Grant to constrain the modern spatial variability in extraterrestrial helium-3 to improve climate reconstructions.

The GP3 Lab is recruiting! Check out the “Opportunities” page for more information if you are:

  • Interested in pursuing a Ph.D. focused on studying the Earth system in the past.

  • A Lehigh undergraduate who will be around for the 2026-2027 academic school year and would like some research experience.

About the GP3 Laboratory

Our lab takes an interdisciplinary approach to investigate a broad range of questions relating to Earth’s atmosphere and ocean in the past, the role of dust in the climate system, processes impacting marine sediment accumulation and transport, and the interaction between surficial geology and regional climate. Specifically, we use a suite of geochemical methods and tracers, with a particular focus on noble gas mass spectrometry and the distribution of major, trace and rare-earth elements applied to a variety of archives that span the Cenozoic. Combining these techniques with models of the Earth system, we address questions such as:

  • How do atmospheric and ocean circulation respond to warmer-than-present climate states?

  • Can we accurately characterize the scale and distribution of atmospheric aerosols in the past, and if so, what are the driving mechanisms and downstream impacts?

  • How can we better constrain the accumulation of material in the deep sea, and what are the related impacts on our ability to reconstruct past environments?

  • What can we learn about early animal domestication and use-of-space from combining geochemistry and archaeology?