Primary research interest is in documenting the Cumberland Overthrust that is recorded in folds, faults, amd related structures in the Pennsylvanian shales, coals, and coarse clastic rocks of the Southern Cumberland Plateau.The upper third of the Plateau moved westward over older rocks during the Alleghanian Orogeny. Present work with Sewanee geology students is concentrated in Fiery Gizzard and along several of the coves opening towards Interstate 24.
Other local research includes landslides and rockfalls, including the 1994 Dotson Point rockfall. I am also researching the history of the geological sciences at Sewanee, and I am at work on a book about the geological history of the Cumberland Plateau for interested hikers and laypeople. Research outside the southeast is on deformation of the Vishnu Schist in the western Grand Canyon.
