Jeffrey Trop

Educational Background

• Ph.D., Purdue University
• M.S., Purdue University
• B.S., University of Rochester

Research Interests

• Tectonics and sedimentation of forearc, fold-thrust, and strike-slip orogens
• Physical sedimentology and petrology of clastic deposystems, including detrital geochronologic studies to evaluate sediment provenance.
• Application of field, sedimentologic, geochronologic, paleontologic, petrologic, geochemical, and paleomagnetic data to the evolution of sedimentary basins and the tectonic development of the North American Cordillera - emphases in Mesozoic-Cenozoic forearc, intra-arc, strike-slip, and retroarc foreland basins in southern Alaska, including twelve field seasons in the Alaska Range, Wrangell-St. Elias Range, and Talkeetna Mountains
• Physical sedimentology and stratigraphy of sedimentary strata in Alaska, Arizona, and Pennsylvania, including recent studies on fossil eurypterid-bearing Silurian carbonates in Pennsylvania and fossil fish-bearing Devonian fluvial strata in north-central Pennsylvania.
• Mars-Earth analog studies of alpine escarpments prone to mass-wasting, including integrated geomorphic-geophysical studies in Alaska and New Zealand.

Courses

• GEOL 107 - Global Change - Past and Present
• GEOL 204 - Evolution of the Earth
• GEOL 309 Sedimentology and Stratigraphy
• GEOL 317 - Paleontology
• Foundation Seminar - Sixth Extinction (Environmental Residential College)
• Travel Field Geology Courses - (Field Geology of Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah)

Selected Publications

([ ] indicates graduation year of Bucknell University student co-author)

REFERRED MANUSCRIPT

Goedert, J., Broussard, D., Trop, J.M., Daeschler, E., Amiot, R., Fourel, F., Olive, S., Vinçon-Laugier, A., Lécuyer, C., 2024, Oxygen and sulfur stable isotope ratios of Late Devonian vertebrates trace the relative salinity of their aquatic environments: Geological Society of America Bulletin, https://doi.org/10.1130/B37631.1

Brueseke, M., Morter, B.K., Benowitz, J.A., Trop, J.M., Mertzman, S.A., Kirby, C., Davis, K., 2023, What lies beneath the ice? Using geochemistry and geochronology of modern river cobbles to better decipher the evolution of a glaciated volcanic arc (Wrangell Arc, Alaska): Volcanica, v. 6: 0Ś16.

Caruthers, A.H., Marroquín, S.M., Gröcke, D.R., Golding, M., Aberhan, M., Them, T.R., II, Trabucho-Alexandre, J.P., Veenma, Y.P., Owens, J.D., McRoberts, C.A., Friedman, R.M., Trop, J.M., Szűcs, D., Pálfy, J., Rioux, M., Trabucho-Alexandre, J.P., and Gill, B.C., 2022, New evidence for a long Rhaetian from a Panthalassan succession (Wrangell Mountains, Alaska) and regional differences in carbon cycle perturbations at the Triassic-Jurassic transition: Earth and Planetary Sciences Letters, v. 577. 

Trop, J.M., Benowitz, J.A., Kirby, C., and Brueseke, M., 2022, Geochronology of the Wrangell Arc: spatial-temporal evolution of slab edge magmatism along a flat-slab subduction-transform transition, Alaska-Yukon: Geosphere, https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02417.1. 

Fouke, W., Trop, J.M., and Sivaguru, M., 2021, Changes in coral skeleton growth recorded by density band stratigraphy, crystalline structure, and hiatuses: Frontiers in Marine Science-Coral Reef Research.

Jacob, R.W., Trop, J.M., and Kochel, R.C., 2021, Subsurface architecture of alpine icy debris fans: integration of ground-penetrating radar and surface observations in Alaska and New Zealand: Journal of Geomorphology, v. 375.

REFEREED ABSTRACTS

Trop, J.M., Broussard, D., Hasiotis, S.T., Pfeifer, L., and Zippi, 2025, Integrated sedimentological, paleontological, and geochemical data from Upper Devonian strata, north-central Pennsylvania (U.S.A): implications for reconstructing paleoenvironments that hosted the fin-to-limb transformation: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs.

Hasiotis, S.T., Trop, J.M., and Broussard, D., 2025, Extraordinary trace fossils from the Upper Devonian (Famennian) Catskill Formation, north-central Pennsylvania: Implications for interpreting evolution, paleoenvironment, paleohydrology, and paleoclimate: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs.

English, G., Sentz, C., Chamberlain, E., and Trop, J.M., 2024, Morphological analysis of main and chute channel discharge, scroll spacing, and migration rates along the Kantishna River, Alaska: American Geophysical Union. EOS, American Geophysical Union Transactions.

Sentz, C., English, G., Chamberlain, E., and Trop, J.M., 2024, Evaluating scroll bar formation: sedimentological characterization of main and chute channel-scroll ridges along the Kantishna River, Alaska: EOS, American Geophysical Union Transactions.

Trop, J.M., Gillis, R., Donaghy, E., Kuyl, L., Ragnacci, C., and Zippi, P., 2024, New geochronologic and sedimentological constraints on the Paleogene record of forearc basin development, Matanuska Valley-Talkeetna Mountains, southern Alaska: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs.

Broussard, D., Daeschler, T., Trop, J.M., 2018, Detrital chronostratigraphic constraints on upper Devonian tetrapod and fish assemblages in Catskill Formation sites of north-central Pennsylvania: reconstructing Late Devonian ecosystems and environments, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Northeastern Section.

Trop, J.M., Benowitz, J., Brueseke, M.E., Davis, K.N., Berkelhammer, S.E., Morter, B.E., Layer, P.W., Weber, M., Fitzgerald, V.T., Keast, R.T., and Moretti, B. [’18], 2017, Investigating the lost arc: geologic constraints on ~29 million years of continuous magmatism along an arc-transform junction, Wrangell arc, Alaska: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Cordillera Section Meeting, vol. 49, no. 4.

Bliss, B. [‘19], Trop, J.M., Benowitz, J.A., 2017, Paleozoic magmatism in the Wrangellia Terrane Constrained by U-Pb geochronology of modern river detrital zircons, Wrangell Mountains, Alaskan Cordillera: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Annual Meeting.

Koepp, D. [‘18], Trop, J.M., Benowitz, J.A., Layer, P.W., Zippi, P., Brueseke, M.E., 2017, Mid-Cretaceous volcanism and fluvial-lacustrine sedimentation in the Alaska Range Suture Zone: Implications for the accretionary history of the Wrangellia composite terrane: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Annual Meeting.

Kochel, R.C, Trop, J.M., Jacob, R.W., 2017, Critical lifelines for alpine glaciers decoupled from icecaps: mass flow contribution from icy debris fans in Alaska and New Zealand: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Annual Meeting.

REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES (PUBLISHED OR ACCEPTED)

Brueseke, M. E., Benowitz, J.A., Trop, J.M., Davis, K.D., Berkelhammer, P.W., Layer, P.W., and Morter, B.K., 2019, The Alaska Wrangell Arc: ~30 Ma of subduction‐related magmatism along a still active arc‐transform junction: Terra Nova, v. 31, p. 59-66.

Jacob, R.W., Trop, J.M., Kochel, R.C., 2018, GPR to image subsurface characteristics of icy debris fans in New Zealand and Alaska: Journal of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics, special issue focused on GPR, v. 23, p. 423-436.

Broussard, D., Trop, J.M., Benowitz, J.A., Daeschler, E., Chamberlain, J., and Chamberlain, R., 2018, Depositional setting, taphonomy and geochronology of new fossil sites in the Catskill Formation (Upper Devonian) of northern Pennsylvania, USA, including a new early tetrapod fossil: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 511, p. 168-187.

Kochel, R.C., Trop, J.M., and Jacob, R.W., 2018, Geomorphology of icy debris fans: Delivery of ice and sediment to valley glaciers decoupled from icecaps: Geosphere, v. 14, doi:10.1130/GES016221.

Stephens, A., Trop, J.M., Ridgway, K.D., 2018, Detrital zircon record of Mesozoic collisional forearc basin dynamics in south-central Alaska: the tectonic transition from an oceanic to continental arc system: Tectonics, doi10.1002/2017TC004825.

Finzel, E., Ridgway, K.D., Trop, J.M., 2015, Provenance of the Cook Inlet forearc basin, southern Alaska: investigating the effects of Cenozoic spreading-ridge and flat-slab subduction on sediment transport along convergent margins: Geosphere, v. 11, no 3, doiL10.1130/GES0129.1.

Vrazo, M., Trop, J.M, Brett, C.E., 2014, A new eurypterid lagerstatte from the Upper Silurian of Pennsylvania: Palaios, v. 29, p. 431-448.

Sunderlin, D., Trop, J.M., Idleman, B.D., Brannick, A., White, J.G., and Grande, L., 2014, Paleoenvironment and paleoecology of a late Paleocene high-latitude terrestrial succession, Arkose Ridge Formation at Box Canyon, southern Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 401, p. 57-80.

Kortyna, C.['11], Donaghy, E.['12], Trop, J.M., and Idleman, B., 2013, Provenance signature of a forearc basin modified by spreading ridge subduction: detrital zircon geochronology and detrital modes from the Paleogene Arkose Ridge Formation, southern Alaska: Basin Research, v. 25, p. 1-25, DOI: 10.1111/bre.12033.

Trop, J.M., Snyder, D., Hart, W.K., and Idleman, B.D., 2012, Miocene basin development and volcanism along a strike-slip to flat-slab subduction transition: stratigraphy, geochemistry, and geochronology of the central Wrangell volcanic belt, Yakutat-North America collision zone: Geosphere, v. 8; no. 4; p. 805-834.