Welcome to Becky Dorsey's Home Page

Teaching Geology 450 Geology Field Camp Geology 334 Sedimentology and Stratigraphy Sediment Gravity Flows Blue Mountains Field Trip Blue Mountains Seminar Geology 440-540 Sedimentary Basin Analysis Geology 103 The Evolving Earth (older, Spring 1999)

She can also be found working on alluvial fans in southern California, or roaming around the New Zealand countryside.

Research Overview

My research is focused on field studies of tectonically active sedimentary basins, with the goal of understanding the complex tectonic, sedimentary, and geomorphic evolution of active regions. Stratigraphy provides unique insights into past environments and tectonic events that often cannot be gained from other disciplines. Integrated basin analysis informs us about the dynamic interplay between ancient fault systems that create sedimentary basins, and the surface processes that fill them with sediment. Stratigraphy also provides a useful tool for analyzing the complex evolution of streams and geomorphology in active fault zones. I am working primarily in two areas: (1) Miocene to Pleistocene evolution of basins along the San Andreas plate boundary system in southern California and NW Mexico; and (2) Mesozoic stratigraphy and regional tectonics related to accretion and translation of oceanic terranes in central and eastern Oregon.

Current and Recent Research Projects:

Late Miocene Coastal Sonora project

Plio-Pleistocene tectonics and paleoclimate, Fish Creek - Vallecito Basin, southern California

Triassic-Jurassic collisional tectonics, Blue Mountains of NE Oregon

Late Cenozoic detachment faulting in the Western Salton Trough, southern California

Older Projects, representative of my interests:

Quaternary San Jacinto Fault Zone, southern California

Pliocene-Quaternary Loreto Basin, Baja California Sur, Mexico

Pleistocene to Holocene Laguna Salada, southern San Andreas fault system, northern Mexico

Miocene Detachment Basins, SE California and W Arizona

Jurassic Utah-Idaho Trough, U.S. western interior

A Few Current and Recent Graduate Students:

Rebecca Ambers - now teaching at Sweet Briar College, Virginia

Robin Beebee - now working for the U.S. Forset Service in Sitka, Alaska

Mike Darin - working on tectonic mapping and basin analysis in Sonora, Mexico

Todd LaMaskin - now working for URS in Maryland

Bob Lenegan - now advising Biology students at Northern Arizona University

Andy Lutz - now working for William Lettis and Associates, southern California

Tom Peryam - working on basin evolution and O-isotopes in southern California

Derek Ryter - now working for the USGS in Lincoln, Nebraska

A Few Other Links: