Researchers

I am a geologist that conducts field-based research to understand the geo-tectonic evolution of western North America and how these physical processes drive landscape change. My Sonoran Desert research is focused on the tectonic formation and subsequent flooding of the Gulf of California. I’ve conducted field-based geologic mapping in coastal Sonora, on the Midriff Islands (Tiburón and Angel de la Guarda), and throughout the Baja California peninsula. I co-lead a research team that is creating an animated, map-view reconstruction of the tectonic and paleogeographic evolution of the Gulf of California over the past 12 million years. I was involved in the NGen 6&6 project with Tom Baumgartner, which developed paleo-topographic artistic renderings of this Gulf of California tectonic reconstruction. I’m currently working with a multi-disciplinary team of NSF-funded geologists, biologists, and geneticists to understand the interplay of geologic processes and genetic evolution of species along the length of the Baja California peninsula. I believe that both the past and present-day geologic setting of the Gulf of California plays a fundamental role in the ecological, biological, economic, and cultural architecture of the modern Sonoran desert.