UGA Stratigraphy Lab

The data is in the strata

Graduate Studies

Our graduate students in stratigraphy and stratigraphic paleontology study a range of problems mostly centered on some aspect of sequence stratigraphy and its application to paleontologic problems. Some test particular claims of the sequence stratigraphic paradigm, such as the correlatability and synchroneity of surfaces. Others apply sequence principles to particular field problems. Recent work emphasizes the relationships between sequence stratigraphic architecture and many aspects of paleontology, including morphometrics, biostratigraphy, and paleoecology. Students with interests in combining paleontology and stratigraphy are highly encouraged to apply. The stratigraphy lab emphasizes field work, the pursuit of outside funding for their research, and the publication of research.

Graduate Research in Progress

Noel Heim, 5th-year Ph.D. candidate: Community assembly and assessing the role of dispersal in creating local, regional, and global diversity: a case study of the middle Carboniferous of the eastern Great Basin and the Ozarks, USA

Completed Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Karen Layou, Ph.D., 2007: Biotic recovery from a regional extinction event: the Late Ordovician of the Appalachian Basin of the eastern United States

Jessica Allen, M.S., 2003: Sequence stratigraphic and facies analysis of the Harding Sandstone: implications for the habitat of some of the earliest fish

Gayle Levy, M.S., 2002: Morphologic change and sequence architecture in the brachiopod Sowerbyella rugosa: Upper Ordovician, Cincinnati, Ohio area

Dan Hunter, M.S., 2000: Testing for subaerial exposure at Upper Ordovician sequence boundaries, Nashville, Tennessee

Andrew Benson, M.S., 1998: The marine carbon and oxygen isotopic record during the M3-M5 transition in the sourthern Appalachians

Alan Peoples, M.S., 1997: Marginal Marine Parasequences in the Cretaceous Dakota Group, Canon City Embayment, Colorado

John Jordan, M.S., 1997: Sequence Stratigraphy of a Carbonate to Siliciclastic Transition: the Missippian / Pennsylvanian Boundary Interval of Eastern Tennessee

Polly Bouker, M.S., 1996: Quantitative Testing of Storm Bed Proximality Gradients, Silurian Red Mountain Formation, Ringgold Gap, Georgia

Applications and More Information

For more information on graduate studies, contact me:

Steven Holland
Department of Geology
The University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-2501
stratum@uga.edu