Dr Alan Baxter
Lecturer in Earth Sciences, School of Environmental and Rural Sciences
Contact
| Email: | alan.baxter@une.edu.au |
| Room: | Earth Sciences (C2) Room 211 |
| Phone: | 02 6773 2843 (or +61 2 6773 2843 overseas) |
| Fax: | 02 6773 3300 |
Areas of Teaching
Course coordinator:
GEOL120: Geology and the Environment II
GEOL206: Field Mapping and Sedimentology
Lectures in:
GEOL110: Geology and the Environment I
Research interests
My main research interests are in tectonics, sedimentology and biostratigraphy. I am especially interested in convergent margins such as the modern day Central American subduction system, as well as ancient examples such as the India-Asia collision zone.
The geological history of convergent margins can be understood by utilising the unique geochemical and geochronological information contained in detrital minerals extracted from important sedimentary horizons. Furthermore, by studying the marine fossils that we find in these sediments, we can apply time constraints to major events that occurred over the evolution of these margins.
I received my undergraduate geology degree from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland in 2005. In 2010, I completed my PhD. thesis at the University of Hong Kong entitled "Applied radiolarian biostratigraphy and detrital mineral analysis of Mesotethyan and Neotethyan sediments from India and Tibet". I spent 15 months at the University of Sydney as a postdoctoral fellow before joining the School of Environmental and Rural Science as a Lecturer in Earth Sciences in August 2012.
Recent Publications
Expedition 344 Scientists, (2013. Costa Rica Seismogenesis Project, Program A Stage 2 (CRISP-A2): Sampling and quantifying lithologic inputs and fluid inputs and outputs of the seismogenic zone. IODP Prel. Rept., 344. doi:10.2204/iodp.pr.344.2013.
Ali, J.R., Aitchison, J.C., Chik, S.)Y.S., Baxter, A.T., Bryan, S.E., (2012). Paleomagnetic data support Early Permian age for the Abor Volcanics in the lower Siang Valley, NE India; significance for Gondwana-related break-up models. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 50, 105-115 doi: 110.1016/j.jseaes.2012.1001.1007.
Baxter, A.T., Aitchison, J.C., Zyabrev, S.V., Ali, J.R., (2011). Upper Jurassic radiolarians from the Naga Ophiolite, Nagaland, northeast India. Gondwana Research 20, 638-644.
Aitchison, J.C., Xia, X., Baxter, A.T., Ali, J.R., (2011). Detrital zircon U-Pb ages along the Yarlung-Tsangpo suture zone, Tibet: Implications for oblique convergence and collision between India and Asia. Gondwana Research 20, 691-709.
Baxter, A.T., Aitchison, J.C., Ali, J.R., Zyabrev, S.V., (2010). Early Cretaceous radiolarians from the Spongtang massif, Ladakh, NW India: implications for Neo-Tethyan evolution. Journal of the Geological Society, London 167, 511–517.
Baxter, A.T., Aitchison, J.C., Zyabrev, S.V., (2009). Radiolarian age constraints on Mesotethyan ocean evolution and their implications for development of the Bangong-Nujiang suture, Tibet. Journal of the Geological Society, London 166, 689-694.