Dr. Gerald Dickens is associate professor of Earth Science at Rice University in Houston. One area of his research deals with oceanic gas hydrates or clathrate hydrates, which are formed at low temperature and high pressure when certain gases -- usually methane -- become trapped inside a crystals of ice. Clatharates occur naturally in ocean floor sediments. In addition to being a potential energy source, hydrates are of are also a modulator of climate change. Dickens research has included studies on the distribution and composition of gas hydrate in sediment columns, experimental work on the thermodynamic conditions of gas hydrate formation and dissociation, and numerical models pertaining to the release of methane into the ocean and atmosphere.

A related area of research involves the study of geochemical cycling during major oceanographic change. Dickens has constructed chemical profiles of marine sediment across critical time intervals in the evolutionary history of the oceans, with an eye toward understanding how massive inputs of carbon from the ocean to the atmosphere affect atmospheric warming. Previous work has included trace element profiles across the Cenomanian/Turonian and Miocene/Pliocene boundaries. Currently, Dickens is working toward understanding events in the early Paleogene (Paleocene-middle Eocene) and early Aptian, times characterized by major warmth and massive input of carbon.

Dickens also studies sediment-hosted metalliferous ore deposits, marine sedimentary rocks that are host to large ore deposits of certain metals, including iron, manganese, vanadium and barium. In most cases, these deposits result from the combination of unusual paleoceanographic conditions and subsequent weathering or alteration processes. Current research in this area focuses on the origin of BIF-hosted iron ores and black-shale hosted vanadium ores in Australia.

A fourth area of study relates to mixed siliciclastic/carbonate margins. Many continental margins, both modern and ancient, receive significant amounts of terrigenous clastic and shallow marine carbonate sediment. These mixed siliciclastic/carbonate depositional systems have not been well-studied in the past. The North Queensland margin of Australia is the largest extant mixed clastic/carbonate system. Currently, Dickens is quantifying sediment deposition on this margin with the aim of establishing a flux-based model of accumulation.