John Isbell
Professor
328 Lapham Hall
(414) 229-2877
jisbell@uwm.edu
Vita (pdf-232kb)
Degrees:
Ph.D., The Ohio State University
M.S., Northern Illinois University
B.A., Augustana College
Post Doc:
Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University
Key Areas of Interest: Clastic Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, Sequence Stratigraphy, Historical Geology, Glacial and fluvial deposits and processes, The Late Paleozoic Ice Age, Gondwana Geology, Geology of the Southern Hemisphere (Antarctica, Argentina, South Africa, Australia), Landscape evolution during the Cretaceous and Tertiary
Teaching Areas: Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, Physical Sedimentology, Historical Geology, Petrology of Clastic Sedimentary Rocks, Conducted Field Trips in Sedimentary Geology,Sequence Stratigraphy
Research Interests: Dr. Isbell is a clastic sedimentologist and sequence stratigrapher who works with glacial, glaciomarine, fluvial, deltaic, shallow marine and glacially influenced deep marine sediment and sedimentary rocks deposited in foreland, rift, piggyback, and cratonic basins. He currently works on rock exposures in Antarctica, Argentina, Aus- tralia, South Africa, the Falkland Islands, the Russian Far East (Siberia), the western United States, the Appalachian Mountains, and in Wisconsin. His work focuses on understanding environmental changes that occurred during critical intervals in Earth History. These include (1) the late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA), (2) the ensuing Permian- Triassic greenhouse (359 to 199 million years ago) and (3) the transition from the Cretaceous to the Tertiary prior to and following the end-Cretaceous extinction event (145 to 55 million years ago).
Other Activities:
- Associate Editor of PALAIOS
- Delegate:The Gondwana Subcommission.
- Chief Scientist, 03-04 Beardmore Remote Research Camp, Antarctica
- Participant and Field Leader of 14 Research expeditions to Antarctica
Selected Publications:
Isbell, J.L., Henry, L.C., Reid, C.M., and Fraiser, M.L., in press, Sedimentology and palaeoecology of lonestone-bearing mixed clastic rocks and cold-water carbonates of the Lower Permian Basal Beds at Fossil Cliffs, Maria Island, Tasmania (Australia): Insight into the initial decline of the late Palaeozoic ice age, in Slowakiewicz, M., ed., Late Palaeozoic Climate Cycles: Their Evolutionary, Sedimentological and Economic Impact: London, Geological Society Special Publication.
Henry, L.C., Isbell, J. L., Limarino, C.O., in press, The late Paleozoic El imperial For- mation, western Argentina: glacial to post-glacial transition and stratigraphic correla- tion with arc-related basins, Gondwana Research.
Gulbranson, E. L., Isbell, J. L., Taylor, E. L., Taylor, T. N., Ryberg, P., and Flaig, P.P., 2012, Permian polar forests: deciduousness and environmental variation. Geobiology., DOI: 10.1111/j.1472-4669.2012.00338.x
Henry, L.C., Isbell, J.L., Fielding, C.R., Domack, E.W., Frank, T.D., and Fraiser, M.L., 2012, Proglacial deposition and deformation in the Upper Carboniferous to Lower Permian Wynyard Formation, Tasmania: A process analysis: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 315-316, p. 142-157.
Isbell, J.L., Henry, L.C., Gulbranson, E.L., Limarino, C.O., Fraiser, M. L., Koch, Z. J., Ciccioli, P.L., and Dineen, AA., 2012, Glacial paradoxes during the late Paleozoic ice age: Evaluating the equilibrium line altitude as a control on glaciation: Gondwana Research, v. 22, p. 1-19.
Briggs, D. E. G., Miller, M. F., Isbell, J. L., and Sidor, C. A., 2010, Permo-Triassic arthropod trace fossils from the Beardmore Glacier area, central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica: Antarctic Science, v. 22, no. 22, p. 185-192.
Dineen, A.A., Fraiser, M.L., Taboada, A.C., Pagani, M.A., and Isbell, J. L., 2010, Regional Paleoecology of Near-Field Marine Faunas during the late Paleozoic Ice Age, western Argentina: International Association of Sedimentology, International Sedimentology Congress, Sept. 2010, Mendoza, Argentina, Abstracts with Programs.
Dineen, A. A., Fraiser, M. L., Taboada, A. C., Pagani, M. A., and Isbell, J. L., 2010, Regional Paleoecology of Near Field Marine Faunas during the late Paleozoic Ice Age, western Argentina: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol 42, No. 4, p. 258.
Elliot, D.H., Isbell, J. L., Hulett, S. R. W., Koch, Z. J., Sieger, D. N., in press, A large-scale tectonically-driven slide in the Permian Mackellar Formation, Victoria Group, Antarctica: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol 43, No. 4, p.
Fielding, C. R., Frank, T. D., Isbell, J. L., Henry, L. C., and Domack, E. W., 2010, Stratigraphic signature of the late Palaeozoic Ice Age in the Parmeener Supergroup of Tasmania, SE Australia, and inter-regional comparisons: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Environmental processes and biotic responses at high latitudes: a study of Late Palaeozoic sequences, biotas and palaeoenvironmental changes in Gondwana and northern Eurasia, v. 298, no. 1-2, p. 70-90.
Flaig, P. P., Isbell, J. L., Hasiotis, S. T., in press, Tectonically driven facies and architectural change across the Permian-Triassic boundary: Beardmore Glacier region, central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica,: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol 43, No. 4, p.
Gulbranson, E. L., Montañez, I. P., Schmitz, M. D., Limarino, C. O., Isbell, J. L., Marenssi, S. A., and Crowley, J. L., 2010, High-precision U-Pb calibration of Carboniferous glaciation and climate history, Paganzo Group, NW Argentina: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 122, no. 9/10, p. 1480-1498.
Henry, L.C., Isbell, J. L., Fielding, C. R., Domack, E. W., Frank, T. D., Fraiser, M. L., in review, Proglacial deposition and deformation in the Pennsylvanian to Lower Permian Wynyard Formation, Tasmania: a process analysis: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.
Henry, L.C., Isbell, J. L., Fraiser, M. L., Fielding, C. R., Frank, T. D., and Domack, E. W., in press, Glacial sedimentology and micromorphology of the Wynyard Formation, Tasmania, Australia: implications for climate at the peak of the late Paleozoic Ice Age: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol 43, No. 4, p.
Henry, L. C., Isbell, J. L., Limarino, C. O., McHenry, L. J., and Fraiser, M. L., 2010, Mid-Carboniferous deglaciation of the Protoprecordillera, Argentina recorded in the Agua de Jagüel palaeovalley: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology Environmental processes and biotic responses at high latitudes: a study of Late Palaeozoic sequences, biotas and palaeoenvironmental changes in Gondwana and northern Eurasia, v. 298, no. 1-2, p. 112-129.
Isbell, J. L., 2010, Environmental and paleogeographic implications of glaciotectonic deformation of glaciomarine deposits within Permian strata of the Metschel Tillite, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica, in López-Gamundí, O. R., and Buatois, L. A., eds., Late Paleozoic Glacial Events and Postglacial Transgressions in Gondwana: Boulder, CO, Geological Society of America Special Publication 468, p. 81-100.
Isbell, J. L., Henry, L.C., Gulbranson, E. L., Limarino, C. O., Fraiser, M. L., Koch, Z. J., Ciccioli, P. L., Dineen, A. A., in review, Evaluations of glacial paradoxes during the late Paleozoic Ice Age using the concept of the 1equilibrium line altitude (ELA) as a control on glaciation”, Gondwana Research.
Isbell, J. L., Henry, L.C., Limarino, C. O., Koch, Z.J., Ciccioli, P.L., and Fraiser, M. L., 2011, The equilibrium line altitude as a control on Gondwana glaciation during the late Paleozoic Ice Age: in Håkansson, E. and Trotter, J. (eds), 2011, Programe & Abstracts, The XVII International Congress on the Carboniferous and Permian, Perth 3-8 July 2011: Geological Survey of Western Australia, Record 2011/20, 74.
Isbell, J. L., Henry, L.C., Limarino, C. O., Koch, Z.J., Fraiser, M. L., and Dineen, A. A., 2010, The relationship between equilibrium line altitude and latitude as a control on Gondwana Glaciation during the late Paleozoic Ice Age: International Association of Sedimentology, International Sedimentology Congress, Sept. 2010, Mendoza, Argentina, Abstracts with Programs.
Isbell, J. L., Taboada, A. C., Koch, Z. J., Limarino, C. O, Fraiser, M. L., Pagani, M. A., Gulbranson, E. L., Ciccioli, P.L., and Dineen, A. A., 2011, Emerging polar view of the late Paleozoic ice age as interpreted from deep-water, distal glacimarine deposits in the Tepuel-Genoa Basin, Patagonia, Argentina: in Håkansson, E. and Trotter, J. (eds), 2011, Programe & Abstracts, The XVII International Congress on the Carboniferous and Permian, Perth 3-8 July 2011: Geological Survey of Western Australia, Record 2011/20, 74.
Kennedy, M. S., Isbell, J. L., Sheehan, P. M., 2010, Testing extinction as a mechanism for environmental disruption at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (MT, USA): Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol 42, No. 4, p. 492.
Koch, Z.J., and Isbell, J. L., 2010, A Sequence Stratigraphic Study and Reexamination of Upper Paleozoic Glacigenic Deposits of the Pagoda Formation at Tillite Glacier, Central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica: International Association of Sedimentology, International Sedimentology Congress, Sept. 2010, Mendoza, Argentina, Abstracts with Programs.