Stratigraphy & Sedimentology Department

The Stratigraphy & Sedimentology Department teaches students to read geological history according to the principle of uniformitarianism, by reproducing Earth's sedimentary record and stratigraphy — depositional environments and the rock cycle — through sedimentary-basin modeling. Students build and interpret sedimentary-basin models in project work to reconstruct past depositional environments; by graduation, the stratigraphic and sedimentological data-analysis skills needed to interpret geological history have become a fully practiced craft.

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Mathematics Department Physics Department Chemistry Department Biology Department Atmospheric Sciences Department Stratigraphy & Sedimentology Department Structural Geology & Tectonics Department Petrology & Mineralogy Department Geochemistry Department Paleontology & Evolutionary Biology Dept Remote Sensing & Earth Observation Dept Hydrogeology & Soil Science Department Physical Oceanography Department Marine Geology & Geophysics Department Chemical Oceanography Department Marine Biology & Ecology Department

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⭐ Hutton

Chair

💡 stratigraphy

Researchers (real GeoVerse Lab members) 14

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1638–1686

Nicolas Steno

Researcher

💡 Formulated the foundational laws of stratigraphy, including superposition, original horizontality, and lateral continuity

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1831–1865

Albert Oppel

Researcher

💡 Established the ammonite biozone system for Jurassic strata, founding rigorous quantitative biostratigraphy

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1907–1987

Harry E. Wheeler

Researcher

💡 Developed time-stratigraphic diagram methods (Wheeler diagrams) for representing depositional hiatuses and unconformities through geologic time

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1814–1865

Amanz Gressly

Researcher

💡 Coined the term 'facies' and founded the practice of interpreting depositional environments from lateral rock variation

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1932–2011

Arnold H. Bouma

Researcher

💡 Defined the Bouma sequence, the standard model for interpreting internal structures of turbidite deposits, described as a geological milestone

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1909–2005

Norman D. Newell

Researcher

💡 Pioneered modern carbonate sedimentology and reef paleoecology through fieldwork on Permian reef complexes and Bahamian carbonate banks

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1923–2004

Raymond Siever

Researcher

💡 Co-authored the foundational sandstone petrology textbook and advanced understanding of sedimentary diagenesis and silica geochemistry

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1821–1890

James Croll

Researcher

💡 Developed the astronomical theory linking Earth's orbital variations to the timing of ice ages, foundational to later Milankovitch cycle theory

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1932–2020

John R. L. Allen

Researcher

💡 Established the physical and process-based framework for interpreting fluvial sedimentary structures and bedforms

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1906–1984

Edwin D. McKee

Researcher

💡 Established the systematic classification of cross-bedding structures in aeolian dune deposits through decades of Grand Canyon and desert fieldwork

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1904–1975

Marshall Kay

Researcher

💡 Developed the classification of geosynclinal sedimentary basin types, founding systematic tectonic-sedimentary basin analysis

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1926–1987

Allan V. Cox

Researcher

💡 Established the geomagnetic polarity time scale, founding magnetostratigraphy as a dating method for sedimentary sequences

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1870–1946

Amadeus William Grabau

Researcher

💡 Founded modern Chinese stratigraphy and proposed the pulsation theory of global sea-level cyclicity for stratigraphic correlation

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1927–2012

Heinrich D. Holland

Researcher

💡 Established the chemical evolution model of Earth's atmosphere and oceans through analysis of sedimentary rock geochemical records