Research Interests
My research interests focus on four main topics:
- 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.
- Along similar lines as those above I am very interested in fullyr understanding the depositional processes of unconventional resources,
- Using detrital zircon geochronology to understand sediment dispersal and large-scale tectonic processes.
- 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.
Research Focus
- sedimentology
- sequence stratigraphy
- carbonate
- siliciclastic
- unconventional resources
Educational Background
- 1985 B.S. Earth and Planetary Sciences, UCLA
- 1989 M.S. Geology, University of Montana
- 1995 Ph.D. Geology, Virginia Tech
- 1995-1998 Post-doctoral Research Associate, MIT
Awards & Honors
National Association of Geology Teachers-U.S.G.S. Summer Field Assistantship, 1985
Geological Society of America, Sedimentary Division, Outstanding Student Research Proposal 1993
Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Student Excellence and Development Award 1993
Chair, Sedimentary Geology Division, Geological Society of America 2007
Geological Society of America Fellow, 2008
Selected Publications
Donovan, A.D., *Gifford, S., *Pramudito, A., *Meyer, M., Pope, M.C., and S. Paxton, 2019, Unraveling the Secrets of the Eaglebine, Unconventional Resources Technology Conference, Paper 1028, 20 p.
* Al-Bader, A., Laya, J.C., Kaczmarek, S.E., Miller, P., and Pope, M.C., 2019, Oomoldic Porosity in a Marine Realm, submitted to Geology
* Peavey E., and Pope, M.C., Chronostratigraphy and Lateral Equivalence of Woodbine, Eagle Ford, and Austin Group Deposits in west Texas: An Integrated Framework for Correlation of Cenomanian-Turonian Strata Along the southern Aperture of the Western Interior Seaway: in Review at AAPG Bulletin
* Gao, Perez, Miller, B., and Pope, M.C., 2019 Competing Sediment Sources during Paleozoic Closure of the Marathon-Ouachita remnant ocean basin: accepted, GSA Bulletin (68)
*Tesch, P., Reece, R.S., Markello, J.R., Laya, J.C., and Pope, M.C., Adding the Missing Third and Fourth Dimensions to Trajectory Analysis in Carbonate Systems: in review at Basin Research
* Moustafa M.S.H., Pope, M. C., Grossman, E., and Mriheel, I. Y., in review, The Diagenetic history of the Middle-Late Triassic Al-Aziziyah Formation, Jifarah Basin, Northwest Libya: Sedimentary Geology
* Moustafa M.S.H., Pope, M. C., Pope and Mriheel, I. Y., accepted, High-Resolution Sequence Stratigraphy of the Middle-Late Triassic Al Aziziyah Formation, Northwest Libya: African Journal of Earth Sciences
* Hendricks, J.K., Raymond, A.L., Pope, M.C., Metz, C.L., Grossman, E., and *Gong, J., in revision, Original Morphology of the Tepee Buttes Mounds: Implication for Mound Paleoecology and Formation: at Journal of Sedimentary Research
* Meyer, M., Pope, M.C. and A.D. Donovan, Chemostratigraphy of the Woodbine and Eagle Ford Groups, Brazos Basin, Texas, accepted at American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin
*Tesch, P., Reece, R. S., Pope, M.C., and Markello, J.R., 2018, Quantification of architectural variability and controls in an Upper Oligocene to Lower Miocene carbonate ramp, Browse Basin, Australia; Marine and Petroleum Geology, v. 91, p. 432-454.
Grader, G. W., Isaacson, P. E., Doughty, P. T., Pope, M. C., and DeSantis, M. K., 2017, Idaho Lost River Shelf to Montana Craton: North American Late Devonian stratigraphy, surfaces, and intrashelf basin, in Playton. E., Kerans, C., and Weissenberger, J. A. W., New Advances in Devonian Carbonates: Outcrop analogs, reservoirs, and chronostratigraphy, SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology) Special Publication No. 107, p. 347-379.
Tice, M. M., *Quezerque, K. , Pope, M.C., 2017, Microbialite Biosignature Detection by Mesoscale X-ray Fluorescence (mXRF) Mapping, Microbiology, v. 17, p. 1161-1172.
*Wahl, P.J., Yancey, T.E., Pope, M.C., Miller, B.V., and Ayers, W.B., 2016, U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology of the Upper Paleocene to Lower Eocene Wilcox Group, east-central Texas: Geosphere, v. 12, no. 5. Doi:10.1130/GES01313.1
* Denotes Student