Current Students
Patrick Brennan
Andy Cyr
Emily Finzel
Nick Fischietto
Christie Lindemann
John Witmer

Alumni
Lauren Bierly
Kevin Eastham
Eric Farmer
Michele Gutenkunst
Brian Hampton
Jay Kalbas
Rick Hoy
Paul Landis
Mark Lesh
Jeff Manuszak
Danielle Murray
Jeff Trop

I'm the one on the left

Icefield Ranges of St. Elias Mtns.

Virgin Cottonwood tree along the Wabash Heritage hiking trail

Newest member of the Ridgway clan

My research focuses on the inter-relationships between sediments and fluids in both modern and ancient continental sedimentary environments. I am interested in how fluids and sediments interact on microscopic to regional scales, and how these interactions are affected by differences in depositional environments and hydrogeochemical conditions, structural and tectonic settings, burial history and diagenesis. My work combines field-based studies and analytical laboratory work; including petrography, fluid inclusion analyses, major and trace element geochemistry, stable isotope geochemistry, and reflectance spectroscopy (in situ and remote) to map out spatial changes in authigenic minerals that reflect paleo fluid-rock interactions. This work has important implications for the evolution of petroleum systems and mineral and fluid resources. I am also interested in the sedimentary geology and fluid-rock history of Mars, and study depositional and diagenetic environments on Earth as analogs for potential processes on Mars.

My research projects focus on how specific geochemical, hydrologic, tectonic, climatic and structural conditions affect sediments and sedimentary rocks over time using field-based studies and low-temperature geochemistry to characterize chemical interactions between fluids and sediments. I evaluate the interplay between sedimentary architecture, basin history, and diagenetic alteration, and am especially interested in how both regional and small-scale structural fabrics influence fluid flow and diagenesis. I am interested in how physical, chemical, and even biological systems interact in modern depositional systems to create unique packages of sedimentary rocks, and how evidence of these conditions are preserved in the rock record. I have worked in a variety continental depositional environments, including eolian (dune and interdune), lacustrine, and fluvial facies; both modern (southern Australia) and ancient (Mesozoic of the Colorado Plateau). By mapping out spatial changes in cementation patterns and authigenic mineral precipitates, we can evaluate past fluid-flow pathways that reveal variations petrophysical properties, and elucidate changes in reservoir characteristics. The effects of sedimentary alteration provide new and vital lines of evidence for interpreting both Earth and planetary evolution.

The use of remote sensing in my research provides a new and exciting way to look at regional patterns in alteration that can be related to diagenetic facies that are characterized on petrographic and geochemical scales. Combining laboratory and field reflectance spectroscopic data with remote imaging spectroscopy, basin scale patterns in mineralogy and alteration can be evaluated. Put into the context of overall burial history and regional structure, large-scale paragenesis sequences can help reveal the history of basin evolution. A wide range of tools can be used to examine authigenic minerals in sediments and sedimentary rocks that provide geochemical “fingerprints” of paleo-fluids. Field work and petrography are vital components of all of my research. In conjunction, I use a variety of geochemical techniques (on solids and fluids) including: major, minor, and trace element analyses (using IC, ICP-MS, XRF, XRD, FTIR, etc.), stable isotope analyses, fluid inclusion studies, and VIS/NIR reflectance spectroscopy. All of these data are evaluated in a spatial context using GIS analyses.

Much of my work in the last few years has focuses at least partially on how extreme environments, both modern and ancient, can serve as important Earth analogs to depositional and diagenetic conditions and processes on Mars. An increasing number of remote orbital sensors, and NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, continue to provide a weath of images and data on the Red Planet, revealing a world with a rich sedimentological and diagentic history and evidence for abundant sediment-rock interactions. Interpreting these data and images requires a solid and multi-faceted understanding of potentially similar environments on Earth. In addition, studying “biosigatures” in Earth analog environments has implications for evaluating astrobiology and preservation potential for possible life on Mars.

For more information on potential student research opportunities, please contact me!

E-mail: beitl1b@cmich.edu
Website: http://www.eas.purdue.edu/sed

I am a second year Ph.D. student in the Basin Analysis Group at Purdue University.  My research is focused on the deformational history of the Alaska Range in central Alaska.  I plan to incorporate a wide range of geological tools to investigate the multiple phases of deformation that have produced the current configuration of this mountain belt. In particular my research will attempt to discern the links between the surficial geology that we can map and observe in the field and the larger scale geologic and tectonic features of Alaska.  Seismological observations allow us to develop ideas about the structure of the lithosphere beneath the Alaska Range, and the possible influence between deep-seated and surface structures.  While, numerical modeling of fault geometries and slip-rates across Alaska provides a kinematic model of the Alaska Range.  By synthesizing these geophysical observations with geologic ones, it becomes possible to consider the influences of multiple scales as well as multiple phases of deformation across the mountain belt.  This study of the Alaska Range will hopefully increase our understanding of collisional tectonics; and by incorporating geophysical and geologic data we are provided with the unique opportunity of observing a mountain belts evolution and structure from its peaks to its deepest roots.

Originally from the Finger Lakes of New York, I received my B.S. in the science of earth systems from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.  There I worked on a project that provided a paleontological and stratigraphic analysis of the upper/middle Devonian contact in the Appalachian Basin of Central New York.  The project focused on applying paleontological evidence to help understand paleo-environmental, and evolutionary trends and changes within the basin.  I have since then worked on the St. Elias Teconics and Erosion Project (STEEP) in southeastern Alaska, metamorphic core-complex development in southern Arizona, and began my own Ph.D. research described above.

E-mail: prbrenna@purdue.edu

Website: http://web.mac.com/prbrenna

I am in my second year of the Ph.D. program here. My research is centered on using the radionuclides 10Be and 26Al in Pliocene and younger sediments and sedimentary rocks as a means of studying tectonic and surficial processes in the Apennine Mountains of Italy. These isotopes are produced in quartz at the earth surface (depths <10m) by interaction with high-energy cosmic radiation which is constantly bombarding the Earth. These radionuclides (10Be and 26Al) are measured using the accelerator mass sprectrometer (AMS) at Purdue’s PRIME Lab and, because they accumulate and decay at known rates, can be used to calculate the age of burial, erosion rates across the drainage basin, or the length of time of exposure to cosmogenic rays. Currently I have data pending for several different projects. These include: modern river sediments from the Emiglia-Romagna Apennines south of Bologna for examination of the dominant uplift process (tectonic v. isostatic) in the region; age of uplift and exposure of a marine terrace near La Spezia, and; burial ages of fluvial terraces along the Esino River in Le Marche in order to correlate them with already dated terraces along other Marchean rivers. Future research will focus on exposure dating of a series of 800 ka marine terraces in Calabria and eastern Sicily in order to study the pattern of uplift rate of the region.

Originally from northeastern Massachusetts, I received my B.S. in geology from Allegheny College in Meadville, PA, and an M.S. in geology from Miami University in Oxford, OH. My previous research projects have included a structural and geochemical analysis of Tertiary aged volcanic rocks in the Northern Talkeetna Mountains of Alaska (while at Allegheny), and an evaluation of the Eocene-Oligocene paleoelevation of the northern Tibetan Plateau using stable 18O as determined from lacustrine carbonates.

E-mail: ajcyr@purdue.edu

The Ph.D. project I began in fall ’06 addresses the geodynamics of sedimentary basin development along convergent plate margins. The combination of field-based geologic studies and computer-aided numerical modeling provides a robust tool for evaluating the geodynamics of sedimentary basin development along convergent margins.  Analysis of surface geologic features in the field provide building blocks and realistic constraints for numerical models that in return help us to understand the present state of strain at the Earth’s surface. The Cook Inlet forearc and the Bristol Bay retroarc basins of southern Alaska collectively contain over 8000 m of hydrocarbon- and coal-rich Miocene and Pliocene strata.  These strata provide a database that can help us understand the growth of first order tectonic features along this convergent margin, such as volcanic arcs and accretionary prisms.  Exhumation and growth of these first order tectonic features is directly linked to subsidence and sediment supply in adjacent sedimentary basins. 

The first objective of this research is to better refine the stratigraphic framework for the Neogene formations in both these basins in order to filter out local versus regional controls on basin subsidence and sediment supply.  A second objective is to develop a geodynamic model of the region through numerical modeling constrained by geophysical and field-based observations.  An important component of the modeling will be to test the role of the Neogene collision of the Yakutat terrane along the southern margin of Alaska as it relates to the development of the Bristol Bay and Cook Inlet sedimentary basins. 

A Midwesterner at heart, I was born and raised in southeast Wisconsin where I received a B.S. in Geology at the University of WI – Milwaukee in 2001. I subsequently completed the M.S. program at the University of Alaska – Fairbanks in 2004, where I studied the origin of Cretaceous conglomerate exposed on in a growth syncline in the northern Brooks Range foothills; central in this project was the defining the relationship between timing of deposition of the conglomerate and deformation of the anticline. During graduate school at UAF, I was a geological intern at the Alaska State Geological Survey and I accepted a full-time position there upon completion of the M.S. program.   Ultimately, I decided to go back to school to pursue a Ph.D. in the basin analysis group at Purdue.  Summer ’07 was spent doing fieldwork in the Cook Inlet basin and interning for Chevron-Texaco, Inc. in Anchorage, AK.

E-mail: efinzel@purdue.edu

I am in the first year of my M.S. degree in geology at Purdue.  While I have not yet decided on a particular thesis topic, my main research interests include clastic sedimentary systems, sedimentary responses to tectonic processes, and basin evolution.

I grew up in northeastern Ohio and received my B.S. in Geology from Allegheny College in Meadville, PA.  While at Allegheny, I was involved in research on Eocene forearc magmatism, structural deformation related to the accretion of the Wrangellia terrane, and provenance analysis of a deformed accretionary prism mélange, all in south-central Alaska.  Additionally, I worked on Tertiary clastic sedimentary systems in southwest Montana.

E-mail: nfischietto@purdue.edu

Michele Gutenkunst is working as an earth scientist for Chevron International Exploration and Production on the Nigeria/Mid-Africa Regional Geology Team.  Currently, Michele is conducting a post-drill analysis of a well in the outer fold and thrust belt of the Niger Delta using seismic and well log data.  This analysis will be evaluated along with the results of other wells in the outer fold and thrust belt and integrated with the regional picture to assess the remaining exploration potential for this trend in deepwater Nigeria.

Now that Michele lives in Houston she can play soccer year round with a city full of soccer enthusiasts rather than trying to teach Ken the finer points of playing soccer.

E-mail: mgkd@chevron.com