Bruce Railsback
Professor, Department of Geology, University of Georgia
Area of specialization: Sedimentary Petrology and Geochemistry

Research Interests:

Petrography and Geochemistry of Stalagmites as a source of information about past climate change has been the main area of my recent research.  My work has combined the petrography of stalagmites (the distribution of spelean carbonate minerals, non-carbonate detrital minerals, crystal fabrics, layering, and critical surfaces) with geochemistry (C and O stable isotope analysis and trace-element geochemistry) to understand stalagmites as records of past climate.  Much of this work has been done in collaboration with Dr. George A. Brook of the UGA Geography Department, and it has focused on stalagmites from southern Africa, the southwestern United States, China, India, and Belize.  This work has been supported by NOAA and NSF and was the subject of M.S. thesis work by Margaret Rafter and Hillary Sletten.  More recent collaboration has been with Juan Ramon Vidal-Romani and his colleagues at the University of La Coruna in northwestern Spain and with Fuyuan LIang of Western Illinois University.  That work has focused on stalagmites from northwestern Spain, and it has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology.  In addition, M.S. student James Baldini's thesis focused on relationships between drip rates and speleothem morphologies, and Joe Elkins's Ph.D. work investigated ways to extract more meaningful carbon isotopic compositions from speleothems.

Railsback, L. Bruce, Fuyuan Liang, Juan Ramon Vidal Romani, Aurora Grandal d'Anglade, Marcos Vaqueiro Rodriguez, Luisa Santos Fidalgo, Daniel Fernandez Mosquera, Hai Cheng, and R. Lawrence Edwards, A stalagmite record of Holocene long-term climate change and shorter-term environmental shifts from the Serra do Courel of northwestern Spain: in revision (as of February 2011) for Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.

Brook, George A., Scott, Louis, Railsback, L. Bruce, and Goddard, Ethan A., 2010, A 35 ka pollen and isotope record of environmental change along the southern margin of the Kalahari from a stalagmite and animal dung deposits in Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa: Journal of Arid Environments, v. 74, p. 870-884.

James W. Webster, George A. Brook, L. Bruce Railsback, Hai Cheng, R. Lawrence Edwards, Clark Alexander, and Philip P. Reeder, 2007, Stalagmite evidence from Belize indicating significant droughts at the time of Preclassic Abandonment, the Maya Hiatus, and the Classic Maya Collapse: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.v. 250, p. 1-17.

Brook, George A., Ellwood, Brooks B., Railsback, L. Bruce, and Cowart, J.B., 2006, A 164 ka record of environmental change in the American Southwest from a Carlsbad Cavern speleothem: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeo-ecology, v. 237, p. 483-507.

Elkins, Joe T., and Railsback, L. Bruce, 2006, Evaluation of the effect of oven roasting at 340ÁC, bleach, 30% H2O2, and distilled/deionized water on the d13C value of speleothem carbonate: Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, v. 68, p. 137-143.

Baldini, J.U.L., F. McDermott, F., Baker, A., Baldini, L.M., Mattey, D.P. and Railsback, L. Bruce, 2005, Biomass effects on stalagmite growth and isotope ratios: A 20th century analogue from Wiltshire, England: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 240, p. 486-494.

Sheen, Shaw-wen, Brook, George A., Railsback, L. Bruce, and Thill, Jean-Claude, 2003, Stalagmite annual layer thickness as a proxy for ENSO and rainfall: Evidence from Drotsky's Cave, Botswana, in Desertification in the Third Millennium (eds. A.S. Alsharhan, W.W. Wood, A. Goudie, K.W. Glennie and E.M. Abdellatif), A.A. Balkema, p. 27-44.

Railsback, L. Bruce, Dabous, Adel A., Osmond, J.K., and Fleisher, C.J., 2002, Petrographic and geochemical screening of speleothems for U-series dating: an example from recrystallized speleothems from Wadi Sannur Cavern, Egypt: Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, v. 64, p. 108-116.

Railsback, L. Bruce, Brook, G.A., and Webster, J.W., 1999, Petrology and paleoenvironmental significance of detrital sand and silt in a stalagmite from Drotsky's Cave, Botswana: Physical Geography, v. 20, p. 331-347.

Brook, George A., Rafter, M.A., Railsback, L. Bruce, Sheen, Shaw-Wen, and Lundberg, Joyce, 1999, A high-resolution proxy record of rainfall and ENSO since A.D. 1550 from layering in stalagmites from Anjohibe Cave, Madagascar: The Holocene, v. 9, p. 695-705.

Railsback, L. Bruce, Sheen, Shaw-Wen, Rafter, Margaret A., Brook, George A. and Kelloes, Catherine, 1997, Replacement of aragonite by aragonite in carbonate diagenesis: Criteria for its recognition in speleothems from Botswana and Madagascar: Speleochronos, No. 8, p. 3-11.

Rafter, Margaret A., and Railsback, L. Bruce, 1996, Analysis of two Republic of Madagascar speleothems as potential records of climate: Geological Society of America Abstracts w. Programs, v. 28 p. A307.

Brook, G.A., Railsback, L.B., Cooke, J., Chen, J., and Culp, R.A., 1995, Precipitation data from annual growth layers in speleothems: some preliminary results from Drotsky's Cave in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana: Studia Carsologica, v. 6, p. 65-80.

Railsback, L. Bruce, Brook, George A., Chen, Jian, Kalin, Robert, and Fleisher, Christopher J., 1994, Environmental controls on the petrology of a Late Holocene speleothem from Botswana with annual layers of aragonite and calcite: Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. A64, p. 147-155.

Diagenesis of Carbonate Rocks was my original area of interest. Some recent research involves whether geochemical methods can identify subtle surfaces of subaerial exposure in limestone sequences where conventional stratigraphy indicates only sustained subtidal marine deposition.  Some of this work was the subject of Jen Diaz's, Mike Jordan's, and Bethany Theiling's M.S. thesis work.  I'm also interested in regional studies of diagenesis, like Ed Hood's M.S. thesis work, and in the mass transport problems that need to be answered at the basinal scale of diagenesis.

Railsback. L. Bruce, Layou, Karen M., Heim, Noel A., Holland, Steven M., Trogdon, M.L., Jarrett, M.B., Izsak, Gabriel M., Bulger, Daniel E., Wysong, Eric J., Trubee, Kenton S., Fiser, Julie M., Cox, Julia E., and Crowe, Douglas E., in press, Geochemical evidence for meteoric diagenesis and cryptic surfaces of subaerial exposure in subtidal carbonates from the Upper Ordovician of the Nashville Dome, central Tennessee, U.S.A., in Ketzer, Marcelo, and Morad, Sadoon, eds., Linking Diagenesis to Sequence Stratigraphy of Sedimentary Rocks: International Association of Sedimentologists Special Publication.

Theiling, Bethany P., Railsback, L. Bruce, Holland, Steven M., and Crowe, Douglas E., 2007, Heterogeneity in geochemical expression of subaerial exposure in limestones, and its implications for sampling to detect exposure surfaces: Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 77, p. 159-169.

Railsback, L. Bruce, Holland, Steven M., Hunter, Daniel E., Jordan, E. Michael, Diaz, Jennifer R., and Crowe, Douglas E., 2003, Controls on geochemical expression of subaerial exposure in Ordovician limestones from the Nashville Dome, Tennessee, U.S.A.: Journal of Sedimentary Research., v. 73, p. 790-805.

Railsback, L. Bruce, and Hood, Edward C., 2001, A survey of multi-stage diagenesis and dolomitization of Jurassic limestones along a regional shelf-to-basin transect in the Ziz Valley, Central High Atlas Mountains, Morocco: Sedimentary Geology, v. 139, p. 285-317.

Railsback, L. Bruce, 1999, Patterns in the compositions, properties, and geochemistry of carbonate minerals: Carbonates and Evaporites, v. 14, p. 1-20 (with an on-line appendix listing all known carbonate-bearing minerals). Railsback, L. Bruce, 1993, Contrasting styles of chemical compaction in the Upper Pennsylvanian Dennis Formation in the Midcontinent region, U.S.A.: Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, v. 63, p. 61-72.

Railsback, L. Bruce, 1993, Control of crystal shape and size on formation of twin lamellae in calcite: implications for deep burial diagenetic fabrics in limestones: Carbonates and Evaporites, v. 8, p. 156-162.

Railsback, L. Bruce, 1984, Carbonate diagenetic facies in the Upper Pennsylvanian Dennis Formation in Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas: Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, v. 54, p. 986-999.

Stylolites and Pressure Dissolution were a subject of my research and remain of interest.  My work aimed to collect data that would lead to quantifiable generalizations about stylolites from which sound interpretation can be made, and to conduct simple experiments to understand the limits of the conditions under which pressure solution phenomena occur.

Railsback, L. Bruce, 2003, Stylolites, in Middleton, G.V., ed., Encyclopedia of Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks: Kluwer.

Railsback, L. Bruce, 1998, Evaluation of spacing of stylolites, and its implications for self-organization of pressure dissolution: Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 68, p. 2-7.

Andrews, Lynn M., and Railsback, L. Bruce, 1997, Controls on stylolite development: morphologic, lithologic, and temporal evidence from bedding-parallel and transverse stylolites from the US Appalachians: Journal of Geology, v. 105, p. 59-73.

Railsback, L. Bruce, 1996, Stylolites in limestones that lacked significant primary aragonite: Bulletin de la Societe Geologique de France, t. 167, No. 1, p. 181-183.

Railsback, L. Bruce, and Andrews, Lynn M., 1995, Tectonic stylolites in the "undeformed" Cumberland Plateau of southern Tennessee: Journal of Structural Geology, v. 17, p. 911-915.

Railsback, L. Bruce, 1995, Tectonic stylolites perpendicular to modern stress in the "undeformed" Nashville Dome: evidence for Jurassic-to-recent intraplate tectonic compression: Geol. Soc. Amer. Abstracts w. Programs, v. 27, p. A-217.

Railsback, L. Bruce, 1993, Intergranular pressure dissolution and compaction in a Plio-Pleistocene grainstone buried no more than 30 meters: Shoofly oolite, southwestern Idaho: Carbonates and Evaporites, v. 8, p. 163-169.

Railsback, L. Bruce., 1993, Lithologic controls on morphology of pressure dissolution surfaces (stylolites and dissolution seams) in Paleozoic carbonate rocks from the mideastern United States: Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, v.63 p. 513-522.

Railsback, L. Bruce, 1993, Contrasting styles of chemical compaction in the Upper Pennsylvanian Dennis Formation in the Midcontinent region, U.S.A.: Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, v. 63, p. 61-72.

Railsback, L. Bruce, and Hood, Edward C., 1993, Vertical sutured contacts caused by intergranular pressure dissolution during tectonic compression in Jurassic limestones, High Atlas Mountains, Morocco: Geol. Soc. Amer. Abstracts w. Programs, v. 25, p. A162.

Back to Railsback's main web page