DEPARTMENT OF EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCES

Research

My research is grounded in stratigraphy, with a particular focus on chronostratigraphy via the integration of stratigraphic data with geochronology, astrochronology, and chemostratigraphy. Many studies are directed at development of high-resolution time scales for stratigraphic successions through application of the tools mentioned above, as well as sequence stratigraphic techniques. The driving motivation for improved time scales builds from my other main research interest—understanding the processes that control burial of carbon in ancient sediments and the relationships between changes in the global carbon cycle and ocean-climate interactions. A particular emphasis of my work has been Ocean Anoxic Events, and more recently, other major ocean-climate perturbations such as the Neoproterozoic glaciations, the P-Tr boundary, the K-T boundary, and the PETM, which are subjects of study by PhD. and post doctoral advisees collaborating with myself and departmental colleagues Jacobson and Hurtgen. I have devoted much of my career to studies of the Cretaceous Western Interior basin of North America, but recent work has included a number of other research sites in Europe and Asia, as well as ODP core samples.

Teaching

EARTH 114: Evolution and the Scientific Method
EARTH 330: Sedimentary Geology
EARTH 331: Field Problems in Sedimentary Geology
ISEN 230 / PHIL 270: Climate Change and Sustainability: Economic and Ethical Dimensions
ISEN 410 / EARTH342: Topics in Contemporary Energy and Climate Change

Selected Publications

Ma, C., Meyers, S.M., and Sageman, B.B., 2017, Theory of chaotic orbital variations confirmed by Cretaceous geological data, Nature 542: 468-472.

Mills, J.V., Gomes, M.L., Kristall, B., Sageman, B.B., Jacobson, A.D., and Hurtgen, M.T., 2017, Massive volcanism, evaporite deposition and the chemical evolution of the Early Cretaceous ocean, accepted for publication in Geology 45: 475–478.

Holmden, C., Jacobson, A.D., Sageman, B.B. and M.T. Hurtgen, 2016, Response of the Cr isotope proxy to Cretaceous Ocean Anoxic Event 2 in a pelagic carbonate succession from the Western Interior Seaway, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 186: 277–295.

Gomes, M.L., Hurtgen, M.T., and Sageman, B.B., 2015, Biogeochemical sulfur cycling during Cretaceous Ocean Anoxic Events: A comparison of OAE1a and OAE2, Paleoceanography. DOI: 10.1002/2015PA002869.

Du Vivier, A.D.C., Jacobson, A.D., Lehn, G.O., Selby, D., Hurtgen, M.T., and Sageman, B.B., 2015, Ca isotope stratigraphy across the Cenomanian-Turonian OAE 2: links between volcanism, seawater geochemistry, and the carbonate fractionation factor, Earth. Planet. Sci. Letters 416: 121-131.

Joo, Y.J. and Sageman, B.B., 2014, Cenomanian to Campanian Carbon Isotope Chemostratigraphy from the Western Interior Basin, Journal Sedimentary Research 84: 529-542.

Ma, C., Meyers, S., Sageman, B., Singer, B., Jicha, B., 2014, Testing the Astronomical Time Scale for Oceanic Anoxic Event 2, and its Extension into Cenomanian Strata of the Western Interior Basin, Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 126: 974-989.

Sageman, B.B., Singer, B.S., Meyers, S.R., Walaszczyk, I., Seiwert, S.E., Condon, D.J., Jicha, B.R., Obradovich, J.D., and Sawyer, D.A., 2014, Integrating 40Ar/39Ar, U-Pb, and astronomical clocks in the Cretaceous Niobrara Formation, Western Interior Basin, USA, Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 126: 956–973.

Sageman B.B., Lyons T.W. and Joo Y.J., 2014, Geochemistry of Fine-Grained, Organic Carbon-Rich Facies. In: Holland, H.D. and Turekian, K., eds., Treatise on Geochemistry, 2nd Edition, v. 9, Elsevier, Oxford, p. 141-179.