Rick Peterson

Graduate Student

Chemical Oceanography
Major Professor: Dr. Bill Burnett

Department of Oceanography
Rm 313, OSB
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida 32306-4320

Research

I am currently studying under Dr. Bill Burnett investigating Submarine Groundwater Discharge using naturally occurring radionuclides as tracers. Most of my work includes using radon and radium to assess groundwater seepage, and also evaluating mixing rates and residence times of coastal waters. I am working on a project on the Kona coast of Hawaii examining the groundwater discharge rates at several different sites. I am also working to find the mixing rates of the Yellow River plume as it progresses into the Bohai Sea in China. Finally, I am funded by NOAA as a graduate research fellow to trace the origin of the suspended particles down the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River system. For all these projects, naturally-occurring radionuclides are our key tracers, as they assign a time-domain to the processes we are examining.