Steven A. Kuehl

Education

• B.A., Lafayette College, 1979
• M.S., North Carolina State University, 1982
• Ph.D., North Carolina State University, 1985

About

Primary research in my Sediment Geochronology and Seabed Processes group centers on sediment dispersal and the accumulation of fine-grained sediments in continental margin environments. We study the environmental record preserved in marine sedimentary sequences to provide insight into continental margin evolution, human and natural changes, paleoclimate, and paleoseismicity. The formation of marine sedimentary strata rarely results from the simple settling of sedimentary material to the seafloor, but rather from the complex interaction of physical, chemical, and biological processes operating in the marine environment. These processes, such as resuspension and biological mixing, impart characteristic signatures to the sediment and control the burial and preservation of important sedimentary components such as organic carbon and anthropogenic materials. We are investigating the characteristics of recent sedimentary strata on spatial scales ranging from less than a mm to 100's of meters and on temporal scales from seconds to 1,000's of years in a variety of continental margin environments. Our studies are conducted in environmental settings around the world from the Chesapeake Bay, to tectonically active margins such as the North Island of New Zealand and Prince William Sound, Alaska, to sensitive river deltas such as the Amazon in Brazil, Ganges Brahmaputra in Bangladesh, and Ayeyarwady in Myanmar.