UNL DEPARTMENT OF GEOSCIENCES Dr. Tracy D. Frank Carbonate Sedimentology and Geochemistry Earth System History Associate Professor Ph.D. 1996, University of Michigan Chief Undergraduate Advisor (Geology) Curriculum vitae Department of Geosciences University of Nebraska-Lincoln 214 Bessey Hall Lincoln NE 68588-0340 voice: 402-472-9799 email: tfrank2 <<at>> unl.edu Go to: RESEARCH TEACHING STUDENTS & POSTDOCS PUBLICATIONS DEPT HOME

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My research sits at the interface between geology and oceanography, and uses the chemical compositions of ancient marine sediments and rocks to understand past changes in climate, environment, and the oceans. I am particularly interested in rocks such as limestone and chalk, which are composed of calcium carbonate minerals. The value of carbonate rocks in interpreting the history of the Earth history lies in their formation from a combination of biological and chemical processes. Not only are they rich in the fossils of marine organisms, but a record of the ambient marine environment is also preserved in the chemistry of the fossil shells and skeletons.

My research combines field and laboratory work. Field work involves the collection of samples from outcrops of marine deposits exposed on land and from cores of sediment obtained from the deep sea. Observing the physical relationships of strata provides insight into the original environment of deposition. Geochemical data obtained in the lab are interpreted within the framework provided by field observations. My research has taken me to such diverse locations as the Great Barrier Reef, the Canadian arctic, Antarctica, and the Australian outback. I have also sailed on research excursions to the Bahamas, to Shatsky Rise in the northern Pacific, and to the Porcupine Basin off SW Ireland with the Ocean Drilling Program (now Integrated Ocean Drilling Program), an international initiative to study Earth's history and structure as recorded in seafloor sediments and rocks.

Current projects CLICK HERE for overviews and photos.

(1) Ancient ice age climates

(2) The Cenozoic glacial history of Antarctica

(3) Climates and oceans during past warm climate intervals

(4) Carbonate diagenesis

Research in the news:

Climate instability at the end of the late Paleozoic ice age CLICK HERE

Protracted oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere CLICK HERE

ANDRILL Antarctic Drilling Project to understand past climate CLICK HERE

Field sites – past and present:

Map by Ron Blakey jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/

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TEACHING TOP

GEOL103H (Historical Geology for Honors Students)

GEOL421/821 (Carbonate Petrology)

GEOL422/822 (Marine Geology and Paleoceanography)

GEOL495/GEOS895 - Schramm Course in Economic & Exploration Geology




STUDENTS AND POSTDOCS TOP

Current:

Zi Gui (MS student) completed her BS at Beijing University. Her research focuses on diagenetic processes in sediment cores from the Ross Sea of Antarctica, recovered during ANDRILL’s Southern McMurdo Sound Project in Oct. – Dec. 2007.

Jesse Koch (PhD student) is investigating how climate and sea level changes during the late Paleozoic ice age are recorded in carbonate rocks that were deposited in the tropics, far from sites of glaciation. His field area is in central New Mexico, which during the Permian was located near the equator.

Jessica Pritchard (MS student) is studying Permian carbonate deposits in Western Australia, which formed in close proximity to sites of glaciation during the late Paleozoic ice age.

Mark Russell (PhD student) is studying diagenetic processes in modern and ancient deep-water coral mounds.

Former:

Lauren Birgenheier (PhD 2007) became Dr. Birgenheier in August 2007! She worked with Chris Fielding and me to evaluate the record of glaciation preserved in deposits of late Paleozoic age that are exposed in eastern Australia. She is currently a postdoc at UNL, but will soon move to take up a position at the Energy and Geoscience Institute at the University of Utah.

Mike Rygel (postdoc) worked with Chris Fielding and me on aspects of the stratigraphic record of the late Paleozoic Ice Age in eastern Australia. He is now an assistant professor in the Department of Geology at SUNY Potsdam.

Eric Schroeder (MS 2007) used isotopic records derived from benthic foraminifera from Shatsky Rise in the northern Pacific Ocean to examine how mid-Maastrichtian environmental, climatic, and biotic changes affected the region. He is now working for the USGS and lives in Tallahassee, FL.

Jonathan Schueth (BS 2007) was awarded a UCARE grant to study the distribution and ecological significance of benthic foraminifera on the Great Barrier Reef. He is now pursuing a MS degree in the Geosciences Department at Penn State University.

Stephanie Thomas (MS 2005) is now pursuing a PhD at Southern Methodist University. While at UNL, she studied the lithostratigraphy and geochemistry of the mid Permian Wandrawandian Siltstone in the Southern Sydney Basin of New South Wales, Australia. Chris Fielding was her co-advisor.




REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS TOP

Frank, T.D., Birgenheier, L.P., Montanez, I.P., Fielding, C.R., and Rygel, M.C. (in press) Controls on late Paleozoic climate revealed by comparison of near-field stratigraphic and far-field stable isotopic records, In: Resolving the Late Paleozoic Ice Age in Time and Space, C.R., Frank, T.D., and Isbell, J., eds. GSA Special Paper, v. 144.

Frank, T.D. (in press) Late Holocene reef development on the inner zone of the northern Great Barrier Reef: insights from Low Isles Reef, Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences.

Fielding, C.R., Frank, T.D., and Isbell, J. (eds.) (in press) Resolving the Late Paleozoic Ice Age in Time and Space, GSA Special Paper, v. 144.

Rygel, M.C., Fielding, C.R., Bann, K.L., Frank, T.D., Birgenheier, L., and Tye, S.L. (in press) The early Permian Wasp Head Formation, Sydney Basin: High-latitude, shallow marine sedimentation during an early-middle Sakmarian interglacial in eastern Australia: Sedimentology.

Schueth, J., and Frank, T.D., (in press) Reef foraminifera as bioindicators of coral reef health: Low Isles Reef, northern Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Journal of Foraminiferal Research.

Fielding, C.R., Frank, T.D., Birgenheier, L.P., Rygel, M.C., Jones, A.T., and Roberts, J. (2008) Alternating glacial and non-glacial intervals characterize the late Paleozoic Ice Age: stratigraphic evidence from eastern Australia: J. Geol. Soc. Lond., v. 165, p. 129-140. pdf

Thomas, S.G., Fielding, C.R., and Frank, T.D. (2007) Lithostratigraphy of the Mid-Permian Wandrawandian Siltstone, NSW, Australia: Record of Glaciation or Onset of the Hunter-Bowen Orogeny? Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 54, p. 1057-1072.

Montanez, I.P., Tabor, N.J., Niemeier, D., DiMichele, W.A., Frank, T.D., Fielding, C.R., Isbell, J.L., Birgenheier, L.T., and Rygel, M., (2007) CO₂-forced Climate and Vegetation Instability During Late Paleozoic Glaciation: Science: 315, 87-91. pdf

Frank, T.D. ,& Jell, J.S., (2006) Recent developments on a nearshore, terrigenous-influenced reef, Low Isles Reef, Australia: Journal of Coastal Research, 22:474-486, doi: 10.2112/03-0127.1. pdf

Jones, A., Frank, T.D., & Fielding, C.R., (2006) Cold climate in the eastern Australian mid to late Permian may reflect cold upwelling waters: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 237: 370-377, doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2005.12.009. pdf

Kah, L.C., Bartley, J.K., Frank, T.D., and Lyons, T.W., (2006) Reconstructing sea level change from the internal architecture of stromatolite reefs: an example from the Mesoproterozoic Sulky Formation, Dismal Lakes Group, arctic Canada: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 43: 653-669, doi: 10.1139/E06-013.

Frank, T.D., Thomas, D.J., Leckie, R.M., Arthur, M.A., Bown, P.R., Jones, K., and Lees, J.A., (2005) The Maastrichtian record from Shatsky Rise (northwest Pacific): a tropical perspective on global ecological and oceanographic changes, Paleoceanography, 20: PA1008. pdf

Kah, L.C., Lyons, T.W., and Frank, T.D. (2004) Low marine sulphate and protracted oxygenation of the Proterozoic biosphere. Nature, 431: 834–838. pdf

Frank, T.D., & Fielding, C.R. (2004) Environmental sedimentology and geochemistry of an urban coastal lake system: Coombabah Lake Nature Reserve, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 10: 261–262. pdf

Frank, T.D., Kah, L.C., & Lyons, T.W. (2003) Changes in organic matter production and accumulation as a mechanism for isotopic evolution in the Mesoproterozoic ocean. Geological Magazine, 140: 1-24. pdf

Frank, T.D., & Bernet, K. (2000) Isotopic signature of burial diagenesis and primary lithologic contrasts in periplatform carbonates (Miocene, Great Bahama Bank). Sedimentology, 47: 1119-1134.

Frank, T.D., & Lyons, T.W. (2000) The integrity of δ¹⁸O records in Precambrian carbonates: A Mesoproterozoic case study. In Carbonate Sedimentation and Diagenesis in the Evolving Precambrian World, edited by J. P. Grotzinger and N. P. James, SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology) Special Publication, 65: 315-326.

Frank, T.D., & Arthur, M.A. (1999) Tectonic forcings of Maastrichtian ocean-climate evolution. Paleoceanography, 14: 103-117. pdf

Frank, T.D., Arthur, M.A., & Dean, W.E. (1999) Diagenesis of Lower Cretaceous pelagic carbonates, North Atlantic: Paleoceanographic signals obscured. Journal of Foraminiferal Research, 29: 340–351. pdf

Frank, T.D., & Lyons, T.W. (1998) "Molar-tooth" structures: A geochemical perspective on a Proterozoic enigma. Geology, 26: 683-686.

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