Department of Geological Sciences
California State University, Fullerton
Research and Publications
RECONSTRUCTING THE PALEOSEISMIC HISTORY OF THE NEWPORT INGLEWOOD FAULT ZONE
With Dr. Joseph Carlin
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With >20 million people living in southern California, this tectonically active area may be the region most vulnerable to seismic hazards in the US. This region contains numerous active faults, including the Newport Inglewood Fault Zone (NIFZ) that bisects densely urbanized areas in the Los Angeles Basin. Due to this location in the middle of an urban center however, the NIFZ remains understudied. Recent work utilizing coastal wetland stratigraphy along the fault suggests that previous event recurrence interval for the NIFZ may be overestimated (Leeper, et al., accepted). The objectives of this project are to build upon the previous paleoseismic research in the Seal Beach Wetlands (SBW) to better refine the estimate of event recurrence associated with the NIFZ. I hypothesize that abrupt sedimentary contacts throughout the wetland are contemporaneous, and therefore represent laterally extensive environmental changes resulting from coseismic subsidence associated with the NIFZ.
CONSTRAINING THE AGE OF THE EOCENE TALEGA BONEBED THROUGH MICROFOSSIL VERTEBRATE INDEX TAXA
With Dr. James Parham and Gabriel-Philip Santos
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The Talega Bonebed (San Clemente, CA) is the only Eocene bonebed in California, providing a unique window into the fauna of Western North America at this time. Despite the large amount of fossils, the age of the Talega Bonebed is not well constrained. For my thesis I processed matrix from the bonebed using screen washing and heavy liquid separation techniques to obtain more microfossil specimens in order to better constrain the age range of the Talega Bonebed. By recovering, identifying, and studying the small mammals from the Talega Bonebed, my thesis works provides a refined age assessment that will allow for more detailed chronostratigraphic comparisons with other sites. I was able to identify nine taxa of small vertebrates, eight of them mammals. The microfossil taxa Microparamys, Sespedectes, and Simimys, are typical of the middle to late Eocene taxa from Southern California, but the occurrence of the California endemic primate, Dyseolemur pacificus, indicates that the bonebed can be constrained to the late Uintan North American Land Mammal Age (44-41.5 mya). Determining the age of the bonebed is important, as a more constrained age will aid in faunal comparisons to other Eocene sites from California during the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum.
STABLE CARBON ANALYSIS OF SULFUR COMPOUNDS DERIVED FROM GULF OF MEXICO SALT DOMES.​
With Dr. Sean Loyd
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Key findings: Determined that sulfur compounds were mostly methane derived
Graduate Thesis
Undergraduate Thesis
Publications
Adler, M., Carlin, J. April 2017. Reconstructing the Paleoseismic History of the Newport-Inglewood Fault Zone Using Marsh Stratigraphy. Student Geology Research Day, Fullerton, CA, USA.
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Adler, M., Parham, J., Santos, G. May 2016. Constraining the Age of the Eocene Talega Bonebed Through Microfossil Vertebrate Index Taxa. 112th Annual Geological Society of America Meeting, Cordilleran Section, 2016, Onatrio, CA, USA.
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Adler, M., Parham, J., Santos, G. April 2016. Constraining the Age of the Eocene Talega Bonebed Through Microfossil Vertebrate Index Taxa. Student Creative Activities and Research Day, Fullerton, CA, USA.
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Adler, M., Parham, J., Santos, G. April 2016. Constraining the Age of the Eocene Talega Bonebed Through Microfossil Vertebrate Index Taxa. Student Geology Research Day, Fullerton, CA, USA.
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Grants
Independent Study
Recipient of the 2017 Geological Society of America Graduate Student Research Grant.
Grant money will be used to carbon date sediment samples in order to determine if subsidence in the Seal Beach Wetlands is laterally extensive.