• Senior Lecturer, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester

• Royal Society University Research Fellow, 1995-2003, Experimental mechanics of rocks and ice: flow laws with internal state variables, Rock and Ice Physics Laboratory, Department of Geological Sciences, University College London (1995-99), and Experimental Rock Deformation Laboratory, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Manchester (1999-2003)

• Natural Environment Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 1992-95, State variable descriptions of the inelastic deformation of calcite at high temperatures, Rock Deformation Laboratory, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Manchester

• Postgraduate Research Assistant, 1989-92, on a Natural Environment Research Council funded grant held by E.H. Rutter and K.H. Brodie entitled The experimental study of the role of grain-size reduction in the mechanical properties and microstructures of rocks, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Manchester

• Ph.D. for a thesis entitled Application of a state variable description of inelastic deformation to geological materials, University College London, 1992

• Courses in applied mathematics and solid/fluid mechanics, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, U.S.A., 1985-87

• M.Sc. (Structural Geology and Rock Mechanics), including a thesis entitled The grain growth kinetics of calcitic aggregates, Department of Geology, Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, 1986

• B.Sc. (Geology), (independent field mapping project in the Ross of Mull Moines; undergraduate dissertation on Grain growth in some calcitic marbles from Naxos, Greece), Department of Geology, Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, 1984

My principal research background is in characterizing the mechanical properties of geological materials by a combination of deformation experiments, physical property measurements, microstructural characterization, and field mapping. However, I also have a developing interest in quantitative estimation from the textures and composition of sedimentary deposits

Characterizing the plastic flow properties of geological materials

• Incorporating deformation history dependence into the plastic flow laws of monomineralic materials by using internal mechanical state variables
• Considering the impact that general loading geometries (combinations of pure shear and simple shear rather than just pure shear or just simple shear) have on the description of the plastic flow properties of geological materials and on texture development
• Formulating flow laws for polymineralic materials in terms of the plastic flow properties of their constituent mineral phases, with particular interest on the microstructural controls on load transfer between the phases
• Investigating the influence that grain boundary migration during recrystallization and grain growth has on the rates of grain boundary diffusion in geological materials (and the potential consequence that faster diffusion has under such circumstances for rheological and electrical conductivity properties, and for rates of isotopic and chemical re-equilibration)
• Evaluating the normal grain growth kinetics of geological materials and the rheological consequences of such grain growth

Developing neutron diffraction techniques for characterizing the mechanical properties of geological materials

• Monitoring strain partitioning between the phases during deformation of polymineralic rocks
• Identifying the onset of mechanical twinning in calcite rocks during deformation experiments in a neutron beam-line
• Monitoring internal stresses generated by the large thermal expansion anisotropy of calcite during heating of calcite rocks with different microstructures
• Examining the elastic deformation behaviour of hydrous minerals using neutron diffraction

The interrelationships between deformation, metamorphism and fluid flow during orogenesis

Influence of climate variability and tectonic activity on terrestrial clastic deposits

• Quantitative estimation of palaeoslopes, sediment flux and palaeohydraulic parameters from fluvial sandstones and conglomerates
• Extracting Late Quaternary climate change information from loess deposits

• BSc Geology (London) 1984
• MSc Structural Geology and Rock Mechanics (London) 1986
• PhD Plastic Flow Properties of Geological Materials (London) 1992

• Structural and Petrological Geoscience

My principal undergraduate teaching activities are related to Structural Geology and Field Mapping

• EART10122 British Stratigraphy /Geological Maps: lectures in the geological history of Great Britain (fom 10^-43 s after the Big Bang to the Anthropocene); practicals in strike-lines/cross section drawing and introductory stereonets (1st year)

• EART20292 Structural Geology: lectures and practicals providing an outline of the geometry of folds, faults, stress and strain (2nd year)

• EART30141 Introduction to Geomechanics: lectures describing rock deformation mechanisms (elastic, intracrystalline plasticity, diffusive mass transfer, brittle); practicals with exercises in geomechanics (3rd year)

• EART20300a Introductory field mapping: 12 days field mapping in France (2nd year)

• EART20300b Structural mapping: 12 days field mapping in Scotland (2nd year)

• EART20300c Measured sections in sedimentary rocks: 5 days fieldwork in Pembrokeshire (2nd year)

Some final year undergraduate research dissertations I have supervised

• Investigation of the influence of mineral phase distribution on the elastic properties of polymineralic rocks: analysis of the results of neutron diffraction experiments on some olivine+magnesiowüstite samples [Amy Ellis]
• The use of contiguity as a shear sense indicator in plastically deformed rocks [Darren Jones]
• The effect of cracking on the seismic properties of experimentally fractured Carrara marble [Tony Barrett]
• Experimental investigation of the influence of specimen dimensions on the brittle and plastic strength of cylindrical rock samples [Jo Silk]

• The topology of microstructures produced by normal grain growth [Jo Szulc]
• An analysis of the size and topology of polygonal fracture patterns on Martian terrain [Shannon Carter]
• An experimental study of crack interactions produced by dessication [Nathan Rochelle-Bates]

• Ar/Ar dating of the Ross of Mull Moines [Nick Fellowes; Ray Burgess (co-supervisor)]

• Determining slip-rates on the Mam Tor landslip from the road repair stratigraphy [Nick Goodwin; Merren Jones (co-supervisor)]
• An investigation into inverse grading in landslide deposits using flume experimentation [Tiiu Ligema; Merren Jones (co-supervisor)]
• Investigating controls on the distribution of heavy minerals in upland gravel rivers: a field study [Rosanne McKernan; Merren Jones (co-supervisor)]
• Investigation of the controls on down-stream mineral sorting in a meandering gravel bed river (Coledale Beck, Lake District) [Ivy Morland; Merren Jones (co-supervisor)]

• Identification of possible loess deposits within the geologically recent Canterbury Plains gravel stratigraphy and their impact on the understanding of climatic variation in the late Quaternary [Joleen Harris; Merren Jones and Bart van Dongen (co-supervisors)]
• An occurrence of Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra in loess at Mt. Cass, eastern South Island, New Zealand: implications for establishing a regional climate record through the Last Glacial Maximum [Joe Shaw; Merren Jones and Ray Burgess (co-supervisors)]
• Exploring the Lattice Preferred Orientation Development in Carrara Marble Samples Experimentally Deformed in Combined Torsion and Axial Compression Tests [Isaac Taschimowitz; Julian Mecklenburgh (co-supervisor)]
• The progress of a transgression: the sedimentological and diagenetic record of regional relative sea level change during a Carboniferous glacial-interglacial cycle of global sea level change, as preserved at Amroth, Pembrokeshire [Hannah Dolley]