Research with Faculty

Earth and Environmental Geosciences research labs are run by faculty focused on specific research. Students and faculty work together in research labs to discover solutions to geosciences issues. The labs are equipped with sophisticated instrumentation and machines, and much of the research done in these labs is published in leading scientific journals. Students are invited to contribute to this research, give presentations, and lead discussions on the research issues at hand.

Volcanology and Tectonics

Professor: Kurt Knesel, Visiting Assistant Professor

Research focus: Knesel studies the origin and behavior of magma. He and his students combine field, textural, and geochemical study of volcanic rocks with laboratory simulation of molten rock to improve our understanding of how volcanoes work. This information also provides insight into large-scale geodynamic processes, such as the motion and interaction of tectonic plates and their influence on the flow of mantle rock.

Projects: Most recently, Knesel and his students have been investigating eruptive behavior of rhyolitic volcanoes, which are among the most destructive on Earth. Student projects are currently focused on decoding chemical signatures and textural analysis of tiny crystals and bubbles in volcanic glass from the largest volcano in eastern Australia to better understand pre-eruptive conditions and processes dictating eruptive style.

Carbonate platform evolution, basin development, and mass extinction events

Professor: Daniel Lehrmann, Gertrude and Walter Pyron Professor

Research focus: Lehrmann focuses on the factors controlling the evolution of marine sedimentary basins, the evolution of carbonate platforms and tropical reefs, changes in Earth’s chemical and biological systems, diagenetic alteration of carbonate sediments, and major events in the history of life such as the end-Permian mass extinction. He and his students employs techniques including field work, satellite image analysis, GIS, petrography including fluid inclusion geothermometry, CL and point counting, geochemistry, biostratigraphy, paleoecology, database assembly, forward stratigraphic modeling, and statistical analysis.

Projects: Lehrmann and his students are investigating the role of seawater chemistry on carbonate sedimentation and platform evolution at field sites in south China, and locally, he and his students use sedimentology, stratigraphy, and geochemistry to evaluate the paleoenvironment of dinosaur track sites in south Texas.

Fault system evolution and tectonics

Professor: Benjamin Surpless, Professor

Research focus: Surpless focuses on well-exposed faults, folds, and fracture networks in western Nevada, western Texas, and southern Utah, considering how the evolution of those geologic systems can be used to constrain seismic hazard, elucidate potential subsurface fluid pathways, and to predict the structural development of other, less well-exposed systems worldwide. He and his students use geomechanical computer modeling, cross-section analysis, structure-from-motion (SfM) models from drone photography, and classic field data collection and interpretation to address a wide range of research questions.

Projects:Most recently, Surpless and his students have focused on evolution of the active, segmented Sevier fault zone in southern Utah. They use a combination of classic geologic field mapping, documentation of fracture geometries and intensities, and drone-based video capture and model construction of inaccessible rock outcrops to interpret the evolution of the complex Sevier fault system.

Sedimentary basin evolution and tectonics

Professor: Kathleen Surpless, Professor and Department Chair

Research focus: Surpless focuses on the evolution of sedimentary basins in the Cordilleran mountain belt of the western United States and Canada. Results from her investigations have addressed fundamental questions about the formation and destruction of past mountains and ocean basins, past climates, and plate tectonic reconstructions. Her work also has implications for energy resource exploration and carbon capture methods, because underground carbon storage depends on sedimentary layering and structure below the surface.

Projects: Surpless is currently working with students to investigate provenance and depositional age of Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous sedimentary strata within the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California and the Klamath Mountains in northern California and southern Oregon. These strata record the history of the basins in which they were deposited as well as the larger paleogeographic and plate tectonic context for their formation. In addition to field work and sample collection, Surpless and her students will collect compositional, geochemical, and age data from these strata to constrain maximum depositional ages and inform sedimentary provenance interpretations in the context of basin evolution and plate tectonics.

Quaternary, climate, and planetary sciences

Professor: Dr. Graham Edwards, Assistant Professor

Research focus: Edwards is a Quaternary and planetary scientist. As a Quaternary scientist, Edwards studies the chemistry of rocks and soils to reconstruct climate and environmental change over the Earth's "recent" history (the last few million years), with particular interest in environments beneath and at the periphery of ice sheets during the last Ice Age. As a planetary scientist, Edwards studies the chemistry of meteorites to reconstruct the early evolution of the solar system and its planetary bodies.

Projects:  Members of the Edwards Lab use a combination of analytical and computational techniques to reconstruct time and process in Earth and asteroidal systems. We generate elemental and isotopic data from Earth and planetary materials in our geochemical laboratory suite at Trinity University. We interpret both novel data and archival geo-/cosmo-chemical datasets with a range of statistical and high-performance computing techniques. Field locations include the edges of extinct ice sheets (e.g. New England, northern Midwest, Baffin Island) and more local field sites in Texas.

Landscape dynamics, river environments, and remote sensing

Professor: Xiwei Guo, Assistant Professor

Research focus: Guo studies Earth’s surface dynamics through the lens of geomorphology, hydrology, and environmental geography. His research integrates field sampling, satellite and drone remote sensing, and modeling approaches to investigate the forms and processes of rivers across spatial and temporal scales. The goal is to better understand the past, present, and future of river systems in a changing environment, and to promote the effective use of scientific findings in water resource management and urban-rural development.

Projects: Guo’s current research focuses on quantifying and modeling the morphological and hydraulic characteristics of alluvial rivers, particularly multi-channel systems, at regional and global scales, and on developing remote sensing-based methods to monitor sediment transport in rivers with limited or no gauge data in high-latitude and high-altitude environments.

Climate and Marine Environmental Laboratory (CaMEL) 

Professor: Cait Livsey, Assistant Professor

Research focus: Livsey is a paleoceanographer and paleoclimatologist who aims to better understand how the oceans will respond to human-caused climate change by looking at how past variations in climate have impacted ocean conditions. More specifically, Livsey uses the geochemistry, community assemblages, and morphology of foraminifera to reconstruct water temperature, salinity, current patterns, and ecosystem dynamics across abrupt climate events since the Last Glacial Maximum.  

Projects: The CaMEL(ab) has a few ongoing projects. One involves studying the living plankton communities of Canyon Lake to identify human influence on the microscopic life in the lake. Another is focused on the Gulf of Mexico benthic foraminiferal communities and how they respond to abrupt weather events such as a hurricane to assess resilience of the organisms to environmental perturbations.