Current Research - Allen W. Archer

Funded Project-Related Research

Specific Areas of Research


Preliminary analysis of local area sand dunes

Funded by Kansas State Univerisity, USRG Program, 1996-1997
This is a preliminary project, funded by Kansas State University, to analyze and date late Holocene(?) dunes in the Kansas River valley. These dunes are interbedded with fluvial facies and contain important paleoclimatic information because they indicate significant periods of drought.

Tidal rhythmites in the Proterozoic Big Cottonwood Formation, Central Utah: Sedimentology, Sequence Stratigraphy, and Astrophysical implications

Funded by National Science Foundation, Grant EAR-93-16177, 1994-1997
This collaborative project includes M. Chan, University of Utah, and E. Kvale, Indiana Geological Survey. The research involves analysis of a thick sequence of Proterozoic tidal rhythmites and associated facies near Salt Lake City, Utah. Aspects of the cyclicities, and stratigraphy have been presented. Preliminary aspects of CAT-scan image analysis have been described and the reliability of extracted periods have been presented. Some of the rhythmite data is available in a downloadable format.

Sedimentology of the Fluvial to Mid-estuarine Facies of Pennsylvanian-age Valley-fill Deposits

Funded by the National Science Foundation, Grant EAR-9405123, 1994-1997
A collaborative project that includes W. Lanier, Emporia State University, Emporia, Kanas. This involves undergraduate research on Carboniferous cores from Kansas and comparision of fine-scale sedimentology to a modern analog in the Bay of Fundy, Canada. Research has included undergraduate presentations and use of acquired data for periodicity analysis and for modeling of a Pangean paleocean sieche.

Instructional Videos for Use in Field-Trip Activities at the Tuttle Creek Spillway, Manhattan, Kansas

Funded by the Educational Communications Center, Bob Dole Hall, Kansas State University, 1994-1996
Because of the tremendous local and regional interest of the spillway erosion at Tuttle Creek Reservoir that occurred in conjunction with the 1993 floods, a video was produced on the geology of the site. This video, produced by J. Kinser of the Educational Communications Center, is targeted for non-geology majors and is 23 minutes in length. For additional information contact A. Archer (E-mail: aarcher@unix.ksu.edu or Office Phone: 913-532-6724)

Analysis of Shale Microfabric and its Relationship to Structural Failure,

Funded by the Kansas Department of Transportation (K-DOT), 1991-1992
Specific facies of the Douglas Group (Virgilian: Pennsylvanian) of Kansas exhibit various types of structural failure, both in slope failures and also in failures when used as fill. This project preliminary analysis on available cores and outcrops in order to determine if sedimentological and/or stratigraphic controls were related to structural failure.

Results are summarized in "Analysis of Microfabric and its Relationship to Mineralogy and Structural Failure," which is available as Report No. K-TRAN: KSU-91-6 available from K-DOT, Docking State Office Building, Topeka, KS 66612.

Published research related to this project included aspects of image analysis of microfabric delineation of the facies as constrained by valley-fill sequences.

Origin of Nonconcretionary Carboniferous Lagerstattan in North America

Funded by National Science Foundation, Grant EAR-9018079, 1990-1994
This collaborative project involved H. Feldman and C. Maples, Kansas Geological Survey, H.-P. Schultze, University of Kansas, and R. West, Kansas State University. The project undertook detailed analysis and coring of a number of sites where articulated vertebrates (principally fish) had been preserved. Sedimentological assessment of these sites indicated that several were related to tidally controlled sedimentation and had been formed in incised valley sequences. This includes sites at Hamilton and Garnett, Kansas. A site at the Kinney Quarry, New Mexico was related to tidal deltaic/estuarine sedimentation and exhibited prominant tidal cyclicity. Other sites included the Bear Gulch beds, Montana, and carbonaceous black shales in Indiana.

Published research include analysis of fine-scale laminae in fine-grained limestones, delineation of valley-fill sequences, and a general model for Carboniferous Lagerstattan.



Specific Areas of Research

Sequence Stratigraphy: Carboniferous incised valley fills (IVFs)

Nonmarine-marine gradients in Carboniferous deposystems

Sedimentology of cyclic tidal rhythmites

Periodicities and modelling of cyclic tidal rhythmites

Computer-based image analysis

Trace-fossil assemblages and applications

Paleobiology/paleoecology

Modelling of binomial correlation coefficients