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David C. Greene

AffiliationFaculty
TitleAssociate Professor of Geosciences
OfficeF.W. Olin Science Hall Rm. 308
Email
Phone
740-587-6476
Fax740-587-6774
B.S. from University of California, Santa Cruz, 1978
M.S. from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1984
Ph.D. from University of Nevada, Reno, 1995

Teaching

Physical Geology. is the department's entry level course, providing an introduction to the Earth and emphasizing the processes that have formed and continue to affect the surface of the planet, where we live.
Environmental Geology. covers a broad range of topics involving human interactions with the physical environment. The course emphasizes geologic hazards and hazard mitigation, surface and groundwater resources and their contamination and remediation, and global environmental change and its potential consequences.
Structural Geology. is a core course for geology majors, providing a working knowledge of the processes and products of geologic deformation, and significant experience in the creation and interpretation of geologic maps and cross sections.
Global Tectonics. is an upper-level course in which students examine global tectonic processes and the evolution of continents through time. Labs in this and all of my courses emphasize the interpretation of geologic maps and remote sensing data at all scales from local to global.
Rare Earth. is an interdisciplinary course that critically examines the so-called Rare Earth Hypothesis; the proposal that the large number of rare events required to form a habitable planet are in total so unlikely that Earth and the intelligent life it supports may be unique in the Universe.

Research

My present research focuses on three areas of primary interest:

1. Paleozoic intraplate tectonics in central Australia, where early extensional structures probably associated with the Neoproterozoic break-up of Rodinia have been reactivated as reverse faults during the mid-Paleozoic Alice Springs intraplate orogeny.

2. Understanding the structure and stratigraphy of metamorphic roof pendants in the Sierra Nevada of California, and the information these pendants provide about the Paleozoic and Mesozoic tectonics of the central Cordillera.

3. The evolution of superposed contractional and extensional structures in the Basin and Range province of western Utah, and the implications of this structural evolution for the development of large low-angle extensional structures such as the Snake Range metamorphic core complex.

On-going research in central Australia is focused on continued development of structural models for fault reactivation during the Alice Springs intraplate orogeny, and application of these models to understand structural geometries and regional tectonic processes along the southern edge of the Georgina Basin.  These pictures from field work in central Australia show some of the geologic structures and terrain of the Aussie "Red Centre" and suggest some of the logistics required for fieldwork in the outback.

Planned projects in the Sierra Nevada include continued geologic mapping and structural studies in the upper Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks of the Mount Morrison and associated roof pendants; and reconnaissance investigation of the Mount Goddard pendant for evidence of dextral transpressional shear zones.

Future work in the Confusion Range of western Utah will focus on detailed geologic mapping of structural geometries in key areas, emphasizing especially the relations between early Tertiary basin formation and the transition from Sevier thrust faulting to low-angle extensional faulting in the eastern Basin and Range. Previous work on the Early Archean Isua Supracrustal Belt in West Greenland is now complete, with publication of results in Tectonophysics (Hanmer and Greene, 2002). These pictures from field work in Greenland show our field area, including geologic structures, very young landforms emerging from the ice, and logistics for working at the edge of the ice cap.

Publications

Greene, David C.. 2008. Neoproterozoic rifting in the southern Georgina Basin, central Australia: Implications for connecting Australia and Larentia in Rodinia. Geological Society of American Abstracts with Programs. v. 40 no. 1 p. 68 View [pdf]
*Pierson, Mimi L., and Greene, David C.. 2008. Geophysical Evidence for a Newoproterozoic rift basin underlying the Burke River Structural Belt, eastern Georgina Basin, central Australia. Geological Society of American Abstracts with Programs. v. 40 no. 1 p. 68 View [pdf]
Greene, David C.. Great Basin. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology, 10e.
Greene, David C.. 2006. Neoproterozoic rifting in central Australia and the breakup of Rodinia. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. v. 38, no. 7, p. 450. View [pdf]
*Lechler, A.R., and Greene, D.C. (*indicates student author). 2006. Fault reactivation during interacontinental deformation: The Toko Syncline and Toomba Fault, Georgina Basin, central Australia. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. v. 38, no. 5, p. 11. View [pdf]
Glazner, A.F., Lee, J., Bartley, J.M, Coleman, D.S., Kylander-Clark, A., Greene, D.C., , Le, K.. 2005. Large dextral offset across Owens Valley, California, from 148 Ma to 1872 AD. Geological Society of America Cordilleran Section Field Trip Guide. p. 35.
Greene, David C.. 2003. Laramide-style basement block faulting and fault inversion during the mid-Paleozoic intraplate Alice Springs orogeny, Huckitta region, Northern Territory, central Australia. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. v. 34, no. 7, p. 344. View [pdf]
Stevens, C.H., Stone, P., and Greene, D.C.. 2003. Correlation of Permian and Triassic deformations in the western Great Basin and eastern Sierra Nevada: Evidence from the northern Inyo Mountains near Tinemaha Reservoir, east-central California. Reply: Geological Society of America Bulletin. v. 115, p. 1309-1311. View [pdf]
Greene, David C., and Stevens, Calvin H.. 2002. Geologic Map of Paleozoic Rocks in the Mount Morrison Pendant, Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. California Division of Mines and Geology Map Sheet 53. View [pdf]
Stevens, Calvin H., and Greene, David C.. 2000. Geology of Paleozoic rocks in eastern Sierra Nevada roof pendants, California. Geological Society of America Field Guide 2. v. III, p. 237-254.
*Kohlbecker, M.V. and Greene, D.C. (*indicates Denison student author). 2000. Two joint domains in central Ohio: a divide between Appalachian Plateau-style jointing and Midcontinent-style jointing. GSA Abstracts with Programs. v. 32, no. 4, p. A22.
*Dube, J.P., and Greene, D.C. (*indicates student author). 1999. Extensional reactivation of a thrust ramp and implications of deformation in the Confusion Range, west-central Utah. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. v. 31, no. 6, p. 51.
Stevens, Calvin H., and Greene, David C.. 1999. Stratigraphy, depositional history, and tectonic evolution of Paleozoic continental margin rocks in roof pendants of the eastern Sierra Nevada, California. Geological Society of America Bulletin. v. 111, p. 919-933. View [pdf]
Greene, David C., and Herring, Donna M.. 1998. Thick sequences of Early Tertiary limestones deposited in a previously undescribed basin, Snake Valley and the Confusion Range, western Millard County, Utah, in French, D.E., and Schalla, R.A. (eds.), Hydrocarbon habitat and special geologic problems of the Great Basin. 1998 Field Trip Guide, Nevada Petroleum Society, Reno, Nevada. p. 91-92.
Stevens, Calvin H., Stone, Paul, Dunne, George C., Greene, David C., Walker, Douglas J., and Swanson, Brian J.. 1998. Paleozoic and Mesozoic Evolution of East-Central California, in Ernst, W.G., and Nelson, C.A. (eds.) Integrated Earth and Environmental Evolution of the southwestern United States. The Clarence A. Hall, Jr. Volume, Geological Society of America. p. 119-160. View [pdf]
Greene, David C., Schweickert, Richard A., and Stevens, Calvin H.. 1997. The Roberts Mountains allochthon and the western margin of the Cordilleran miogeocline in the Northern Ritter Range pendant, eastern Sierra Nevada, California. Geological Society of America Bulletin. v. 109, p. 1294-1305. View [pdf]
Greene, David C., Stevens, Calvin H., Wise, James M.. 1997. The Laurel-Convict fault, eastern Sierra Nevada, California: a Permo-Triassic left-lateral fault, not a Cretaceous intrabatholithic break. Geological Society of America Bulletin. v. 109, p. 483-488. View [pdf]
Greene, David C.. 1996. Quaternary reactivation of the Lost Lakes fault, a brittle fault zone containing pseudotachylite in the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite, Sierra Nevada, California. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. v. 28, no. 5, p. 70.
Greene, David C., and Schweickert, R. A.. 1995. The Gem Lake shear zone: Cretaceous dextral transpression in the Northern Ritter Range pendant, eastern Sierra Nevada, California. Tectonics. v. 14, p. 945-961.