UW-Madison Department of Geoscience

Shanan Peters
Assistant Professor
Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology
(608) 262-5987
Email: peters@geology.wisc.edu
Office: 495 Weeks Hall

Department Links
Personal Home Page

Research

“I look at the geological record as a history of the world imperfectly kept…only here and there a short chapter has been preserved; and of each page, only here and there a few lines.” C. Darwin, The Origin of Species

My current research emphasis involves quantifying the rock record in order to better understand which lines of earth history have been preserved, why they have been preserved, and to what effect. Specifically, I use "macrostratigraphy" to test hypotheses that span a range of earth systems, including the evolution of marine and terrestrial life, the carbon cycle and global climate, and cycling rates of geologic materials via tectonic uplift and subsidence.

Students interested in new approaches to quantifying the rock record should drop me a line.

Macrostratigraphy is cool, but I live for sed-paleo in the field. Some of my recent exploits include:

1) Eocene marine sequence stratigraphy and vertebrate taphonomy in Egypt,
2) Maastrichtian terrestrial stratigraphy, paleogeomorphology, and vertebrate taphonomy in India,
3) Pennsylvanian-Permian marine/terrestrial stratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy in the Appalachian Basin, and
4) Cambrian marine stratigraphy and paleontology in western Montana.

Students interested in field-oriented paleo-strat problems should drop by. There’s lots to do.

Teaching

I am developing courses in Geologic Evolution of Earth (204), the History of Geological Thought, Sedimentary Environments, and Analytical Paleobiology and Stratigraphy.