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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