Signals of Provenance, Paleoclimate, and Redox in Mudrocks
Mudrocks are the most abundant yet understudied sedimentary rocks on the planet. Though they may seem difficult to interpret in hand sample, mudrocks are complex sources of geological information and can provide insight into past records of climate and hydrology, redox conditions, depositional environments, and even large-scale tectonic processes by recording changes in sediment source. In the past, I've worked to characterize signals of provenance, paleoclimate, and redox conditions recorded in the ancient mudrocks of the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group (Marcellus Shale & Mahantango Formation) in the Central Appalachian Basin. In addition to characterizing the depositional history of these units, I am interested in further investigating potential controls on organic matter preservation in black shales. In the future I hope to apply similar techniques to Cenozoic mudrocks deposited during abrupt climate events in order to analyze the vigor of hydrologic responses to ancient warming events as well as the associated effects on redox conditions.
Microfacies of the Marcellus Shale. From Hupp & Donovan (2018).
Select Publications & Abstracts:
Hupp, B.N., and Weislogel, A.L., 2018, Geochemical insights into provenance of the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group of the central
Appalachian Basin: Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 88, p. 1153-1165, doi:10.2110/jsr.2018.62. pdf here
Hupp, B.N., and Donovan, J.J., 2018, Quantitative mineralogy of the Marcellus Shale, Appalachian Basin, USA, based on XRD-XRF
integration: Sedimentary Geology, v. 371, p. 16-31, doi: 10.1016/j.sedgeo.2018.04.007. pdf here
Song, L., Paronish, T., Agrawal, V., Hupp, B., Sharma, S., and Carr, T., 2017, Depositional environment and impact of pore structure
and gas storage of Middle Devonian organic rich shale, northeastern West, Virginia, Appalachian Basin: URTeC Paper #2667387, doi: 10.15530/URTEC-2017-2667397. pdf here