Philip J. Carpenter

Research Activities

• Developing methods for geophysical (noninvasive) assessment of landfills and
  detection of pollution in adjacent aquifers.  Field sites in the U.S. and China.
• Geophysical imaging of karst features and integration with karst hydrogeology.
• Earthquakes and ambient ground motion in the mid-continent.
• Earthquake history of northern Illinois.
• Ground vibration measurement and analysis.

Recent Grants

2011-12, $122,148, Seismic monitoring of the Asian Carp hydrogen deployment in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and Calumet River, U.S. Geological Survey.

2008-10, $210,000, Software grant from Seismic-Micro Technology (with Ph.D. student Bryce Willems)

2006-08, $21,471, Dynamic water balance and geotechnical stability of bioreactor landfills, Centre de Recherche pour l'Environnement, l'Energie, et le Dechet (CReeD), Limay, France, (K. Reddy, UIC, co-PI).

2007-08, $65,000, International Linear Collider technical feasibility study: ground motion and vibration studies, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy.

Recent Publications

Johnson, B.A. and Carpenter, P.J. (2012). Geophysical response of slackwater and sandy terrace deposits near Savanna, Northwestern Illinois: Environmental Earth Sciences, paper version in press, DOI 10.1007/s12665-012-1798-5.

Carpenter, P.J., Aizhong, D. and Cheng, L. (2012). Identifying groundwater contamination using resistivity surveys at a landfill near Maoming, China, Nature Education, 3(6): electronically published at www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/identifying-groundwater-contamination-using-resistivity-surveys-at-71224000.

Carpenter, P.J., Ding, A. and Cheng, L. (2011). Identifying groundwater contamination using resistivity surveys at a landfill near Maoming, China, Nature Education (in press). 

Atre, S.R. and P.J. Carpenter (2010). Identification of cross-valley faults in the Maynardville Limestone, Oak Ridge Reservation, Tennessee, using seismic refraction tomography: Environmental Earth Sciences, v.60, no. 6, 1245-1256, DOI 10.1007/s12665-009-0265-4.

Carpenter, P.J., Ding, A., Cheng, L., Liu, P., and F. Chu (2009). Apparent formation factor for leachate-saturated waste and sediments: examples from the USA and China: Journal of Earth Science, v. 20, no. 3, 606-617, DOI 10.1007/s12583-009-0050-7.

Carpenter, P.J., Grellier, S., Reddy, K.R., Adib, R., Peters, C. and Gangathulasi, J., (2008). Investigating the interior of a landfill cell with leachate injection using electromagnetic conductivity and ground-penetrating radar surveys: in SAGEEP2008: Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems, Environmental and Engineering Geophysical Society, Wheat Ridge, CO, pp. 212-222 (published on CD-ROM).

Higuera, I.C., P.J. Carpenter, and M.D. Thompson, (2007), Identification of buried sinkholes using seismic refraction tomography at Ft. Campbell Army Airfield, Kentucky, Environmental Geology, 53, 805-812.

Ding, A., L. Cheng, P. Liu, P.J. Carpenter, and Y. Han, (2007), Plant response to metal contamination at an oil shale tailing site in Maoming, South China, Ground Water Monitoring and Remediation, 27, 111-117.

Ahmed, S. and P.J. Carpenter, (2003), Geophysical response of filled sinkholes, soil pipes and associated bedrock fractures in thinly mantled karst, east-central Illinois, Environmental Geology, 44, 705-716.

Ding, A., J. Fu, G. Sheng, P. Liu and P.J. Carpenter, (2003). Effects of oil shale waste disposal on soil and water quality: hydrogeochemical aspects: Chemical Speciation and Bioavailability, 14, 79-86.

Recent Abstracts

Carpenter, P.J., McMakin, D. and Albrecht, M. (2011). Seismicity of northern Illinois: insights from recent earthquakes and a new review of historical sources, Geol. Soc. Amer. Absts. with Progs,, v. 43, no. 5, p. 592.

Carpenter, P.J. and Reddy, K.R. (2011). Refuse conductivity variations following leachate injection in a bioreactor landfill cell: modeling EM results and comparison with well logs. Proc. of the 2011 Symp. on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems (SAGEEP), v. 24, p. 76.

Adams, R. and Carpenter, P.J. (2011). Integrated surface and borehole geophysics to map subsurface cavities and fractures near a Superfund site south of Rockford, Illinois, Proc. of the 2011 Symp. on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems (SAGEEP), v. 24, p. 234.

Carpenter, P.J., Grellier, S., Reddy, K.R. and Thompson, M. (2010). Non-invasive monitoring of leachate movement and gas migration within a bioreactor landfill cell: Illinois Groundwater Association Agenda and Abstracts, p. 5.

Carpenter, P.J., Ding, A., Cheng, L., Sturnfield, E., Liu, P., and F. Chu (2009). Use of geophysics, SRTM and remote sensing to characterize groundwater contamination from oil shale wastes in south China, Abstracts Volume, American Association of Petroleum Geolologists Annual Convention and Exhibition, Vol. 18, p. 36.

Bennett, S. A. and P. Carpenter (2009). Lava tubes in the Alba Patera region of Mars: Future human habitats and incubators of life? North-Central Section - 43rd Annual Meeting (2-3 April 2009), Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 41, No. 4, p. 51.

Sturnfield, E. L. and P. J. Carpenter (2009). Use of SRTM and fieldwork in rural villages near Maoming, southern China, to assess groundwater contamination from oil shale wastes: North-Central Section - 43rd Annual Meeting (2-3 April 2009), Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 41, No. 4, p. 30.

Carpenter, P. J. and D.W. Ekberg (2009). Detection of fractures and filled sinkholes within thinly-mantled karst near Rockford, Illinois, using geophysics: North-Central Section - 43rd Annual Meeting (2-3 April 2009), Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 41, No. 4, p. 17.

Carpenter, P.J. (2009). Contaminant detection and identifying hydrogeological complexity from simple geophysical surveys at landfills near Maoming (south China) and Beijing: North-Central Section - 43rd Annual Meeting (2-3 April 2009), Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 41, No. 4, p. 19.

Teaching

• GEOL 103 Planetary and Space Science
• GEOL 120 Introductory Geology
• GEOL 425/525 Engineering Geology
• GEOL 427/527 Planetary Geoscience
• GEOL 477/577 Field Methods in Environmental Sciences (geophysics segment)
• GEOL 491/591 Geophysical Well Logging
• GEOL 493/593 Groundwater Geophysics
• GEOL 496/596 Geophysics
• GEOL 651 Applied Geophysics: Seismic and Electrical
• GEOL 654 Geophysical Field Methods
• GEOL 735 Soil Mechanics
• GEOL 748A Geophysics Seminar
• GEOL 748J Engineering Geology Seminar
• GEOL 751 Reflection Seismology