Photo of Craig Glenn.

Craig Glenn

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Craig Glenn’s Contact Information

Education

Four-part image of Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary Earth.

1. Phosphorites “feed the world” as our planet’s only non-renewable resource of agricultural P. P-Giants only formed at special episodes of earth history, two of the most important being the Late Cretaceous and the Eocene. (Click the image for a complete version.)
Image of ground water flow into bay.

2. Relatively cold and fresh ground waters (blues) leak their dissolved loads from beaches and distinct submarine springs throughout the Hawaiian Islands. (Click on the image to see a complete version.)

Image of ground water flow into bay.

3. Oblique “birds-eye” view of major nutrient plumes exiting the coast at Kaloko-Honokohau National Park and Honokohau Small-Boat Harbor. (Click on the image to see a complete 1.1 MB JPG.)

Image of ground water flow into bay.

4. Infrared spectrometry of Kiholo Bay, W. Hawaii. SSTs ca. 22°C (purple) – 26°C (light green). (Click on the image to see a complete 1.2 MB JPG.)

Image of ground water flow into bay.

5. Kiholo Bay, Ground View. (Click on the image to see a complete version.)

Research

Craig Glenn splits his research life between (1) modern and ancient paleoproductivity and marine authigenic mineral formation (phosphorites, glauconites, organic-rich shales etc.), and (2) studying environmental processes of modern subterranean/submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) in coastal zones.

Paleoproductivity and Marine Authigenesis

One venue of Craig’s research is directed at the evolutionary paleoceanography and the shifting of the locus of major upwelling systems and associated global phosphogenesis from Late Cretaceous (Middle East) through the Eocene (NW Africa).

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD)

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) represents the end result of the subterranean transfer of water from the land to sea (figure 2). Nutrients, organics, metals, and other dissolved materials are added to coastal waters in this way. Our research (PDF 11 x 17 poster) uses a combination of aerial thermal infrared thermometry and land- and ocean-based ground truthing approaches to quantify and model the response and environmental impacts of these processes in Hawaii’s Coastal Zone.

Our imagery has very high spatial and thermal resolutions (0.5 m, 0.5°C) which capture the positions of groundwater outflow and its mixing with normal seawater in extraordinary detail. Our research is also directed at modeling discharge flow rates, and examining the high volumes of nutrients that SGD contributes to the coastal ocean (figure 3).

In mid-2007 our group mapped >100 km of the coastal zone along most of West Hawaii (figure 3 inset). The new image from Kiholo Bay at the lower right (figure 4; 1.2MB JPG), shows one tremendous SGD plume exiting a shallow lagoon; many smaller plumes also occur. The SGD waters there are again chilly cold and nutrient-laden. Sea turtles love it, and so do we!

Synergies

Craig is UH’s “resident sedimentologist,” and serves as an editor for Special Publications for Deep-Sea Research II, the International Association of Sedimentologists (IAS), and the Society for Sedimentary Geology [see cover art (PDF) and a Book Review (PDF) for Special Publication Number 66: Marine Authigenesis: From Global to Microbial ].

Craig spent a year as a Research Fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, participated in the Ocean Drilling Program off the Great Barrier Reef, and has mapped the sea floor by submersible activities beneath the Peruvian Upwelling Zone. He is a member of the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM), the International Association of Sedimentologists, the American Geophysical Union, has participated in five UNESCO-IUGS International Geological Correlation Programs, and is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. He is also Co-Chair and founder of the SEPM Research Group on Marine Authigenesis, FRiends Of Marine AuthiGEsis (FROMAGE), which currently sports nearly 300 international scientific members.

Publications List

Craig Glenn’s list of published work is available as a web page and as a PDF.

Teaching

Craig teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses. His regular courses include:

His students have access his EndNote bibliographies culled for his courses and research in Paleoceanography (>12,000 references), Chemical Sediments (>5,000 references) and Carbonate Sedimentology and Geochemistry (>13,000 references).  To receive these files on CD contact Craig directly. 

Other useful soft-rock links can be found at Web Resources for FROMAGErs.

Personal Interests

These are two of my favorite things…

 

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