Beverly Z. Saylor

My research examines sedimentary rocks and sediments as records of environmental change and as vessels that contain and react with fluids. I use sedimentary and stratigraphic analysis, mapping, geochemical properties, and relative and absolute dating to investigate how climate, tectonics, volcanism, ocean processes and sea level influence sedimentary basins. Part of my research involves collaborations with paleontologists to determine the age and distribution of fossils in these basins, their paleoecological context and evolutionary history. The processes that control deposition also determine the mechanical behavior of sedimentary layers and the flow and reaction of fluids within their pore spaces. I work to characterize these heterogeneous physical properties in the field and in the subsurface, and I use simple models of these systems in numerical and laboratory experiments to constrain processes of reaction and transport critical to a broad range of environmental problems.