Franco Marcantonio
  • Professor and Jane and Ken R. Williams ’45 Chair in Ocean Drilling Science, Technology and Education
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Research Areas
  • Ancient Life & Environments
  • Environmental & Engineering Geology & Geophysics
  • The Earth System & Other Planetary Bodies

Research Interests

I pursue several areas of research, all of which involve the measurement of radiogenic and non-traditional stable isotopes. I use: 1) radiogenic isotope and trace element tracers to better understand the relationship between climate change and its forcing and response mechanisms, and 2) non-traditional stable metal isotopes as biomarkers to answer questions related to the prevention and diagnosis of human disease.

Educational Background

  • PhD, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, 1994
  • MSc, Geology, McMaster University, 1988
  • BSc, Chemistry and Geology, with highest honors, Carleton University, 1986

Awards & Honors

  • 2020-College of Geoscience Dean’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Faculty Excellence in Research
  • 2017-Jane and Ken R. Williams Chair in Ocean Drilling Science
  • 2015-Elected Fellow of the Geological Society of America

Selected Publications

  • (*denotes Marcantonio graduate student)

    Anderson, R. F., Marcantonio, F., and Pinedo-González P. (2025), Chemical tracers of scavenging, particle dynamics, and sedimentation processes, in Treatise on Geochemistry (Third edition), Vol 4, edited by A. Anbar and D. Weis, pp. 479-512, Elsevier, Oxford, doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-99762-1.00045-0.

    Sierra-Hernandez, R., Marcantonio, F., Griffith, E., and Thompson, L. (2024) Tracing Lead (Pb sources to the Guliya ice cap in northwestern China since pre-Bronze Ages, Nature Communications Earth and Environment, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01724-w.

    Glaubke, R. H., Schmidt. M. W. Hertzberg, J. E., Thirumalai, K., Ward, L. G., Marcantonio, F. and Schimmenti, D.* (2024) An inconsistent ENSO response to Northern Hemisphere stadials over the last deglaciation, Geophysical Research Letters 51 (12), e2023GL107634, https://doi. org/10.1029/2023GL107634.

    AlSaif, M.*, Becker, M., Donovan, A., and Marcantonio, F. (2024) Investigating the potential of unconventional resources in the Midland Basin: a comprehensive chemostratigraphic analysis of a Cline Shale (Wolfcamp-D) core, Journal of Marine and Petroleum Geology, 168, 107022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2024.107022.

    Schimmenti, D.*, Marcantonio, F., Hayes, C. T., Hertzberg, and Schmidt, M. W. (2022) Insights into the deglacial variability of phytoplankton community structure in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean using [231Pa/230Th]xs and opal-carbonate fluxes, Nature Scientific Reports, 12, 22258,| https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26593-1.

    Becker, F.*, Marcantonio, F., Datta, S., Wichterich, C. Cizmas, L., Surber, J., Kennedy, K., Bowles, E., (2022) Tracking source of contaminant lead in children’s blood, Environmental Research, 212, p.113307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.113307.

    Prince, B. H.*, Marcantonio, F., and Knappett, P. S. K. (2022) Characterizing groundwater-surface water interaction across the Brazos River watershed with uranium isotopes, Applied Geochemistry, 147, 105491.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2022.105491.

    Marcantonio, F., Hostak, R.*, Hertzberg, J. E., Schmidt, M. W. (2020) Deep Equatorial Pacific Ocean Oxygenation and Atmospheric CO2 Over the Last Ice Age. Nature Scientific Reports 10, 6606. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-63628-x.

    Reimi, M. A., Marcantonio, F., Lynch-Stieglitz, J., Jacobel, A. W., McManus, J. F., and Winckler, G. (2019) The penultimate glacial termination and variability of the Pacific intertropical convergence zone, Geophysical Research Letters 46, 4826–4835. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL081403.

    Loveley, M. R.*, Marcantonio, F., Wisler, M. M.*, Hertzberg, J. E., Schmidt, M. W., and Lyle, M. (2017) Millennial-scale iron fertilization of the eastern equatorial Pacific over the past 100,000 years, Nature Geoscience, https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO3024.

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