COSI Lab

Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington IN

About

The COSI (Clumped and Oxygen Stable Isotope) lab studies modern and ancient environmental change on land using stable isotope geochemistry. We are in the process of setting up carbonate clumped and triple oxygen isotope capabilities at Indiana University Bloomington. We are located within IU’s Stable Isotope Research Facility.. This is Julia Kelson’s personal website and may not be perfectly up to date.

Please get in touch with Julia if you are interested in graduate school or postdoc opportunities.

Projects

CZ17O: Triple Oxygen Isotopes in Soil Carbonates

New perspectives on soil carbonate formation

Goldschmidt 2020 - Virtual Presentation

Fingerprinting Soil Water Evaporation with Triple Oxygen Isotopes of Pedogenic Carbonates

Seasonality of soil carbonate formation

When the When matters

Sediment Fingerprinting

River restoration in central Oregon

Developing Methods of Clumped Isotope Geochemistry

Geeky but necessary

Greenhouse climates of the Cenozoic

How hot was it really?

Hobbies

Maintaining sanity

Posts

Julia is awarded GSA's 2025 Donath Medal (Young Scientist Award)

Julia is honored to be the 2025 Donath Medalist for the Geological Society of America. The Donath Medal is awarded to an early career …

Jul 1, 2025 1 min read

17O TILDAS arrives in Bloomington

Jun 30, 2025 1 min read

COSI lab heads to New Mexico for field work

Jan 10, 2025 1 min read

Removing vegetation for a look at glacial deposits in the George Reserve, Michigan

For the past couple of years, we’ve been working on a local field site, the Edwin S George Reserve, just north of Ann Arbor, …

Nov 12, 2022 2 min read

New paper on the Goler Formation! Can we detect mountains from sea-level, using stable isotopes of oysters?

I’m excited that the first paper from my NSF EAR postdoc fellowship has been accepted for publication in Geology! The initial …

Jan 24, 2022 1 min read

Publications

Triple oxygen isotope distribution in modern mammal teeth and potential geologic applications

Reconstructing water availability in terrestrial ecosystems is key to understanding past climate and landscapes, but there are few …

S Lehmann, NE Levin, BH Passey, H Hu, TE Cerling, JH Miller, L Arppe, EJ Beverly, KA Hoppe, TE Huth, JR Kelson, J Luyt, J Sealy

DOI

Looking upstream with clumped and triple oxygen isotopes of estuarine oyster shells in the early Eocene of California, USA

The δ18O of carbonate minerals that formed at Earth’s surface is widely used to investigate paleoclimates and paleo-elevations. …

JR Kelson, SV Petersen, NA Niemi, BH Passey, AN Curley

DOI

Dynamics of pedogenic carbonate growth in the monsoonal tropical domain

Pedogenic carbonate is widespread at mid latitudes where warm and dry conditions favor soil carbonate growth from spring to fall. The …

A Licht, JR Kelson, S Bergel, A Schauer, SV Petersen, A Capirala, KW Huntington, G. Dupont-Nivet, Zaw Win, Day Wa Aung

DOI

Comparing isotopic estimates of paleoelevation from carbonates and volcanic glass from the Miocene-age Chucal Formation in northern Chile

Paleoaltimetry reconstructions of the Central Andes based on stable isotope data indicate variable timing and rates of uplift, …

S Jimenez-Rodriguez, J Quade, M Dettinger, KW Huntington, J R Kelson

DOI

InterCarb: A Community Effort to Improve Interlaboratory Standardization of the Carbonate Clumped Isotope Thermometer Using Carbonate Standards

Increased use and improved methodology of carbonate clumped isotope thermometry has greatly enhanced our ability to interrogate a suite …

S. M. Bernasconi, M. Daëron, K. D. Bergmann, M. Bonifacie, A. N. Meckler, H. P. Affek, N. Anderson, D. Bajnai, E. Barkan, E. Beverly, D. Blamart, L. Burgener, D. Calmels, C. Chaduteau, M. Clog, B. Davidheiser-Kroll, A. Davies, F. Dux, J. Eiler, B. Elliott, A. C. Fetrow, J. Fiebig, S. Goldberg, M. Hermoso, K. W. Huntington, E. Hyland, M. Ingalls, M. Jaggi, C. M. John, A. B. Jost, S. Katz, J. Kelson, T. Kluge, I. J. Kocken, A. Laskar, T. J. Leutert, D. Liang, J. Lucarelli, T. J. Mackey, X. Mangenot, N. Meinicke, S. E. Modestou, I. A. Müller, S. Murray, A. Neary, N. Packard, B. H. Passey, E. Pelletier, S. Petersen, A. Piasecki, A. Schauer, K. E. Snell, P. K. Swart, A. Tripati, D. Upadhyay, T. Vennemann, I. Winkelstern, D. Yarian, N. Yoshida, N. Zhang, M. Ziegler

DOI

See all publications

Isotope Goechemistry Primers

Triple Oxygen Isotopes

What are all those primes for anyway?

Carbonate Clumped isotopes

What is clumped isotope thermometry and is it real?