Prof. Dr. Rolf Kipfer (2012 – 2018)

Rolf Kipfer

Rolf Kipfer holds a doctoral degree of Natural Science of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), where he is lecturer and professor in aquatic physics and tracer hydrology at the Department of Environmental Sciences and was appointed professor in April 2008. He heads the research group of Environmental Isotopes and is head of the Department of Water Resources and Drinking Water at Eawag. His research group applies transient tracers and times series analysis to study and to quantify the physical processes in the aquatic environment and to analyze the response of water bodies to environmental and climate change. He applied the integrated analysis of transient tracers to analyze deep water formation in the world largest inland water masses, such as Lake Baikal, the Caspian and Black Sea and Lake Tanganyika and to determine He emanation in lakes. The research on ground water focused on paleoclimatic reconstructions using noble gases and the analysis of the physics gas/water partitioning in porous media.

Recently the group applied noble gases in new aquatic environments, such as fluid inclusions in stalagmites and the pore water of unconsolidated lacustrine sediments. The latter investigations were successful in reconstructing lake level changes, determining past CH4 production and emanation and analyzing the terrestrial He emissions from the solid Earth.

Key Publications

  • Aeschbach-Hertig W., Peeters F., Beyerle U., and Kipfer R. (2000) Palaeotemperature reconstruction from noble gases in ground water taking into account equilibration with entrapped air. Nature 405:1040-1044.
  • Brennwald M. S., Imboden D. M., and Kipfer R. (2005) Release of gas bubbles from lake sediment traced by noble gas isotopes in the sediment pore water. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 235(1-2):31-44.
  • Brennwald M. S., Peeters F., Imboden D. M., Giralt S., Hofer M., Livingstone D. M., Klump S., Strassmann K., and Kipfer R. (2004) Atmospheric noble gases in lake sediment pore water as proxies for environmental change. Geophys. Res. Lett. 31(4):L04202.
  • Kipfer R., Aeschbach-Hertig W., Baur H., Hofer M., Imboden D. M., and Signer P. (1994) Injection of mantle type helium into Lake Van (Turkey): The clue for quantifying deep water renewal. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 125: 357-370.
  • Strassmann K. M., Brennwald M. S., Peeters F., and Kipfer R. (2005) Dissolved Noble Gases in Porewater of Lacustrine Sediments as Palaeolimnological Proxies. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 69(7):1665-1674.

Letzte Änderung: 13.01.2012