SEDIMENTARY GEOLOGY AT UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY

The Program
The Locality
Graduate Courses in Sedimentology
Research Facilities
Faculty
Current Students and Projects
Recent Graduates and Projects
Links

The Department of Geology at Utah State University offers a Masters of Science Degree in Geology with emphasis on Sedimentary Geology. The degree program consists of twenty hours of course work (see below) in Geology and allied departments (e.g. Aquatic, Watershed and Earth Resources; Plants, Soils and Biometeorology) and ten hours of thesis work.

Northern Utah is a sedimentary geologist's paradise. In the immediate area of Logan the entire Paleozoic section is easily accessible and well exposed. This is predominantly a passive-margin marine section. Within a few hours drive of Logan, Mesozoic and Cenozoic sediments also occur. The Mesozoic includes both marine and continental sediments deposited on an active margin while the Cenozoic includes a variety of continental sediments (lacustrine, fan, fluvial). Lacustrine deposits include the famous Eocene Green River and Pleistocene Lake Bonneville deposits.

Graduate Courses in Sedimentology

Basin Analysis (Dehler & Janecke)	Quantitative Geology (Liddell)	Seismic Interpretation *
Fluvial Geomorphology (Schmidt)	Paleoecology (Liddell)	Sedimentary Geochemistry (Kolesar)
Hillslope and Landscape Geomorphology (Pederson)	Petroleum Geology (Evans)	Sedimentary Rocks I - Carbonate Depositional Processes (Kolesar)
Paleoclimatology (Pederson)	Sedimentary Rocks II - Noncarbonates (Dehler)

The department houses numerous facilities for the analysis of sedimentary materials, including a rock preparation area with rock saws, crushers, thin section preparation equipment and sieves; microscope room with research-grade petrographic scopes, automatic point counter and luminoscope; X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) lab; and clean lab for preparation of samples for geochemical analyses. Other departments on campus (Biology; Plant Science, Soils and Biometeorology) and nearby institutions (Brigham Young Univeristy; Idaho State University) provide access to stable isotope, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP) and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) labs.

Faculty

Carol M. Dehler (Assistant Professor, Ph.D. 2001, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque). Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, Sedimentary Geochemistry, and Precambrian Geology. Topical research areas: sedimentology; cyclostratigraphy and chemostratigraphic analyses; Precambrian paleogeography; Rodinia; Snowball Earth hypothesis; geoscience education. Current research: Facies and stratigraphic analyses of the Neoproterozoic Chuar Group, Grand Canyon and Uinta Mountain Group, Utah; Neoproterozoic basin evolution of the southwestern U.S. (“CHUMP” hypothesis); biostratigraphy and paleoecology of early vertebrates; Devonian basin analysis of the Great Basin; and “Trail of Time” geologic interpretive project, Grand Canyon National Park. [Homepage]

Sussane U. Janecke (Associate Professor, Ph.D. 1991, University of Utah) Tectonics. My students and I perform integrated field-based studies of rift basins, develop a stratigraphic framework, document the basin architecture, perform basin analysis, and interpret the basin evolution in light of the local and regional structural geology. Detailed geologic mapping and field studies form the core of my research program. Past and future collaborations with Robert Q Oaks and Brad Ritts provide students a range of viewpoints on the interplay between sedimentation and tectonics. [Homepage]

Peter T. Kolesar (Associate Professor, Ph.D. 1973, University of California, Riverside) Carbonate Petrology and Sedimentary Geochemistry. Current topics include the origin of Late Tertiary/ Quaternary calcite veins and their use in paleoclimatology and groundwater hydrology of the southern Great Basin, geochemistry of ground and surface water, characterization and uses of zeolites. [Homepage]

W. David Liddell (Professor, Ph.D. 1980, University of Michigan) Paleoecology and Sedimentology. Research topics include: modern coral-reef ecology, with emphasis on environmental monitoring; sedimentary facies of western Atlantic carbonate environments; the evolution of Paleozoic hard substrate communities; Cambrian trilobite taphofacies; and sequence stratigraphy and facies architecture of Cambrian rocks in Utah and Nevada. [Homepage]

Robert Q. Oaks Jr. (Professor Emeritus, Ph.D. 1965, Yale University) Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, and Petroleum Geology. Sedimentary processes in modern and ancient settings, interpretation of depositional environments, provenance, and diagenetic history of sedimentary rocks, paleogeography and paleotectonics using stratigraphic studies, and exploration for petroleum resources. Basin studies and tectonics in central Australia, origin of paleovalleys at the base of the Wasatch Formation, northern Utah, and tectonics of Cache Valley during deposition of the Salt Lake Formation.

Joel L. Pederson (Assistant Professor, Ph.D. 1999, University of New Mexico) Geomorphology, Sedimentology and Paleoclimatology. Climate controls on landscape change and sedimentation; hillslope sedimentology; continental basin sedimentation; GIS landscape analysis; Cenozoic landscape evolution of the Colorado Plateau and Grand Canyon. [Homepage]

John C. (Jack) Schmidt (Adjunct Associate Professor of Geology, Associate Professor of Aquatic, Watershed and Earth Resources, Ph.D. 1987, Johns Hopkins University) Geomorphology and Environmental Geology. Current research: geomorphic effects of large dams on downstream rivers (Glen Canyon Dam/Grand Canyon National Park, Flaming Gorge Dam/Green River, Hells Canyon Dam/Snake River), geomorphic basis of aquatic habitat, geomorphic basis of in-stream flow determination; temporal and spatial patterns of sediment storage in western river systems. [Homepage]

Ben Belgarde - Sedimentary and Stratigraphic Evolution of the Clark Fault Termination, the San Jacinto Fault Zone, Southern California. (Janecke)

Andy Brehm - Re-evaluation of the Jesse Ewing Canyon Formation: Implications for Neoproterozoic Paleogeography and Tectonic Setting of Northeastern Utah. (Dehler)

Scott Friedman - Extensional Modes and Characteristics of the Latest Jurassic and Cretaceous Chifeng Basins; Yanshan Mountain Belt of Northeast China. (Ritts)

Ben Kessel - Sequence Stratigraphy of Paleozoic Carbonates in Central China. (Ritts/Liddell)

Caroline Myer - Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, and Geochemistry of the Neoproterozoic Red Pine Shale, Western Uinta Mountains: Implications for Paleogeography, Tectonic Setting, and Climate Change during the Crogenian of Western Laurentia (Dehler)

Doug Smith - Sequence Stratigraphy of the Middle Cambrian Marjum Formation in Western Utah. (Liddell)

Alex Steely - Late Cenozoic Stratigraphic and Tectonic Evolution of a Portion of the Western Salton Trough, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Southern California: Initiation and Evolution of the West Salton Detachment Fault and San Jacinto Fault Zone. (Janecke)

Bronson Barton - A Reanalysis of the Enigmatic Late Triassic Armored Reptile Vancleavea campi, Including a Description of a New Partial Skeleton from Petrified Forest National Park. (Liddell)

Isaac Westfield - Paleoecology of Microbial Buildups in the Cambrian Wheeler Shale. (Liddell)

Adrian K. Berry. 2003. Characteristics, Evolution, and Lateral Variation of Lower Cretaceous Supradetachment Basins in the Daqing Shan, Inner Mongolia, China. (Ritts)

Melissa V. Connely. 2002. Stratigraphy and paleoecology of the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic), Como Bluff, Wyoming. (Liddell)

Alba B.R.M. Dias Dos Santos. 2003. Evaluation of Chela Formation in the Kambala-Livuite Area, Southern Block O, Cabinda, Angola. (Ritts)

Julie C. Kickham. 2002. Structural and Kinematic Evolution of the Eocene-Oligocene Grasshopper Extensional Basin, Southwest Montana. (Janecke)

Stefan M. Kirby. 2005. The Quaternary Tectonic and Structural Evolution of the San Felipe Hills, California. (Janecke)

Elizabeth S. Langenburg. 2003. The Middle Cambrian Wheeler Formation: Sequence Stratigraphy and Geochemistry
Across a Ramp-to-Basin Transition. (Liddell)

Joseph P. Matoush. 2002. The Stratigraphic, Sedimentologic, and Paleogeographic Evolution of the Eocene-Oligocene Grasshopper Extensional Basin, Southwest Montana. (Janecke)

Andrew W. Taylor. 2002. Sedimentology, Facies Architecture, and Reservoir Characterization of Lacustrine Rocks, Eocene Green River and Colton Formations, Uinta Basin, Utah. (Ritts)