Courses
Stable Isotope Geochemistry, Human Use of the Earth, Hydrology

Research Interests
Stable Isotope Geochemistry:Stable isotopes provide a powerful probe into the origin of rocks and natural waters. Professor Criss' research features the use of isotopic tracing and imaging techniques to investigate the transport of aqueous fluids in environments that vary from rivers and cool potable groundwater systems essential to mankind, to deeper and hotter hydrothermal systems associated with granitic batholiths, stratovolcanoes, and ore deposits. The results may be combined with physical, chemical, geologic or petrographic data to deduce numerous aspects about the origin of waters and the processes that subsequently affect them.

A major focus for Criss and his associates is the origin, character and behavior of river and flood waters in the Mississippi, Missouri, and Meramec River basins. In the 1990's, the midcontinent has experienced floods of such severity that they would not, under normal circumstances, be expected to have all occurred in a period less that several centuries. Criss and Everett Shock have proven that engineering modifications of waterways have increased the frequency and severity of floods on most midwestern rivers. Criss and his former students Bill Winston and Chris Frederickson have developed an extensive isotopic and chemical data base and a new technique to quantify the time scales of groundwater transport to rivers. Winston and Criss have exploited our large database and extensive network of precipitation stations to identify the water sources in the fatal flash flood of May 2000, when 15 inches of rain fell in a 13 hour period. Criss, Lee Davisson (LLNL) and Jim Kopp (St. Louis Water Division) have developed a new geochemical technique that may be used to define the source regions of individual solutes in the Missouri River basin.

Selected Publications:

Criss R. E. (1999) Principles of Stable Isotope Distribution, Oxford University Press, New York.

Criss, R.E. and Wilson, D.A., editors (2003) At the Confluence: Rivers, Floods, and Water Quality in the St. Louis Region, MBG Press, St. Louis.

Hofmeister, A.M., and Criss, R.E., (2005) Earth’s heat flux revised and linked to chemistry. Tectonophysics, 395 #3-4; p. 159-177.

Stueber, A.M., and Criss, R.E. (2005) Origin and transport of dissolved chemicals in a karst watershed, southwestern Illinois. Journal American Water Resources Association; JAWRA Special Issue on Agricultural Hydrology and Water Quality, v. 41 (2), p. 267-290,

Melchiorre, E.B., and Criss, R.E. (2005) Stable oxygen isotope hydrology and slow basin response in an old-growth forested catchment, Wolf River basin, Wisconsin. Journal of Environmental Hydrology, v. 13, pap. 17, 18 p. http://www.hydroweb.com/jehabs/melchabs.html