Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Sciences - Surface Processes and Properties

Carbonate and clastic depositional systems, and sequence stratigraphic studies provide insights into the transfer and storage of sediments in marine environments, and the larger climatic processes that drive them. These processes can be used to investigate changes in sea-level through time, ice-volume storage, and glacial retreat rates over large time and space scales. Ongoing marine geological research offshore of Antarctica focuses on climate in the region during the Holocene, to gain a better understanding of the factors that regulate climate change and how these changes have influenced glaciers and ice sheets. Coastal studies, for example, along the Texas coast, focus on predicting the response of coastal environments to climate change and accelerated sea-level rise. Other studies look at shallow basin systems to understand how ancient systems formed and evolved. Research programs in carbonate and mixed clastic-carbonate systems currently focus on late Quaternary and Cenozoic evolution of the shelf edges, platform margins, slopes and adjacent basins in Maldives, the Great Barrier Reef, the Western Gulf of Mexico, and Gulf of Papua, and the Belize margin.

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