Pope, Michael Professor and Department Head

My research interests focus on three main topics: 1) Integrating litho-, chemo- and chronostratigraphy in a regional sequence stratigraphic framework to understand high-frequency and long-term climatic and oceanic processes affecting development of sedimentary successions; towards this end I am currently most interested in the transitions that occur between global icehouse and greenhouse conditions and how these affect reservoir characterization. 2) Using detrital zircon geochronology to understand sediment dispersal and large-scale tectonic processes. 3) Determining the structural deformation (twinning, cataclasis, brecciation, etc.) produced in carbonates by meteorite impacts as a means to establish objective criteria for cratering - similar to shocked quartz.