Education Ph.D., University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS (Expected Spring 2009) M.S. Geophysics, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, 2005 B.S. Geology, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg, PA, 2000 Current Research PhD Research: TIMING, KINEMATICS, AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF TERTIARY EXTENSION ALONG THE CENTRAL ARABIAN MARGIN OF THE RED SEA RIFT SYSTEM. Abstract While numerous continental rifting models are based on the Red Sea rift system, uncertainties persist concerning the spatial and temporal strain evolution of this region. Rift-related features along the central Arabian flank of the rift system, such as suspected Tertiary-age structural basins, sedimentary basin fill, and basalt flows, remain largely unstudied. Analysis of these features should provide important information about the timing and geometry of the strain-accommodating structures within the Arabian shield that developed contemporaneously to the Red Sea rift system. This proposal outlines an investigation that uses geological data with geo- and thermochronological analyses to further resolve the strain history of the central Arabian Red Sea rift system. This will be done thru the study of enduring pre-, syn- and post-rift structures associated with multi-stage, continental rifting processes. Past Research Masters Research STRUCTURE AND TIMING OF THRUST AND NAPPE DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE MTKVARI RIVER BASIN, SOUTH KARTLI BASIN, REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA. Abstract Geologic mapping in the Mtkvari (Kura) River Basin, Republic of Georgia reveals a complex arrangement of fold and thrust structures that organize a thick sequence of Late Paleogene to Neogene rock suites. The fold and fault kinematics show the deformational style of the basin while the orientation of these structures discloses the local tectonic history. Mapped structures agree with previously proposed thin-skin deformation models for the whole Kartli Basin which consist of south-dipping fault duplexes and north-dipping imbricate thrust fans that thicken basin rock suites overtop a 4-5 km deep basement. These fault complexes show a strong aseismic character that is evident when comparing shortening rates derived from GPS and seismic studies. Newly-discovered seismograms allowed a recalculation of hypocentral locations for four seismic events in the Kartli Basin. These events occur at depths between 8 km and 21 km, well below the estimated 4-5 km deep contact between basin rock suites and crystalline basement. This new data highlights the aseismic character of basin rock suites and supports the theory of faulting in the brittle basement as a result of tectonic loading from nappe development. Field mapping results show that all nappe and fold development within the Mtkvari River Basin occurred within the past 5 to 6 million years during three distinct deformational stages, each accompanied by a variation in the orientation of principal stress directions. Large-scale folding during the Late Miocene to Early Pliocene is the first stage in the sequence in which the Uplistsikhe and Niabi anticlines were formed concurrently by the same principal compressive stress direction (s1), believed to have been oriented in a N-S direction (~358°). In the second stage, previously folded Middle and Upper Miocene rocks were thrust northward along a fault (Niabi Thrust) that developed in the southern limb of the Niabi Anticline and subsequently positioned Lower and Middle Sarmatian rocks (Sochite Anticline) overtop Maykopian age clays and sandstones. During the third and final stage, s1 is speculated to have rotated clockwise to an orientation of ~026°, close to the contemporary orientation of ~030°, allowing further pinching of in-situ folds and oblique movement along developed thrusts that persists until today. Undergraduate Research FIELD STUDY OF COULOMB’S LAW OF FAILURE AND PRINCIPAL STRESS DIRECTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ALLEGHENY OROGENY IN TWO DIFFERING LITHOLOGIES, SHAMOKIN AND MOCANAQUA, PENNSYLVANIA. Teaching Mineralogy and Structure of the Earth Lab (Geol 311) Dept. of Geology, Univ. of Kansas, (2006) Introduction to Seismology and Geophysics, Boston College (2003 – 2004) Publications Barnett, M., A.L. Kafka, A. Pfitzner, and E. Szymanski, 2005, The Living Earth: Inviting students into the world of scientific research through seismology, Journal of College Science Teaching, 34(6), 50-54. Last updated 31 October 2006. |
