André W. Droxler
Associate Professor

Research:

Carbonate Sedimentology with emphasis on periplatform carbonate ooze; Paleoceanography and paleoclimatology of the Neogene; Shallow carbonate platforms and deep adjacent environments, evolution, and processes

My past and current research programs involve detailed studies of carbonate periplatform sedimentary records and environments. Areas where research has been and is conducted include the Nicaragua Rise and Belize (Caribbean Sea), the Gulf of Mexico, the Bahamas (Northwestern Atlantic Ocean), the Maldives (equatorial Indian Ocean), and the Queensland Plateau/Great Barrier Reef (Southwest Pacific Ocean).

My current students and I are involved in comparative research programs of Holocene, Pleistocene, and Neogene sediments deposited in deep environments surrounding shallow carbonate platforms. We are focusing our studies on:

(1) processes related to recent carbonate sedimentation and

(2) the understanding of variations through time of carbonate mineralogy, micropaleontology and geochemistry in periplatform sediments with direct global and regional implications with respect to paleoceanography, paleoclimatology, and paleoecology.

Another objective of our research is to better understand the Cenozoic, especially Neogene, evolution of modern carbonate platforms by means of bathymetric and high resolution seismic surveys, coring and dredging, as well as drilling. In the past ten years, I have been directly involved with the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) and have participated as sedimentologist at four ODP Legs, Leg 101 in the Bahamas (1985), Leg 115 in the Maldives (1987), Leg 133 in Northeast Australia (1990), and Leg 165 in the Caribbean (1996). With my graduate students, I am working on:

• the Cenozoic evolution of Pedro Channel, a deep basin on the northern Nicaragua Rise

• on the Oligocene and Miocene evolution of carbonate platforms in the Maldive Inner See

• on the Pliocene and Quaternary evolution of the mixed carbonate system of the Belize continental margin. We have also imaged with 24 channel, 2.5D, 3D very high resolution seismic

• on the late Quaternary Southern Bank, a one km-wide in diameter coralgal bank that established itself during the first part of the Last Deglaciation (18-11 ka) on the South Texas shelf edge offshore Corpus Christi

• on the global marine neritic and pelagic carbonate systems during the mid Brunhes within an emphasis on oxygen isotope stage 11

My research programs have been funded so far mostly by the National Science Foundation (Ocean Sciences: Marine Geology and Geophysics), the Petroleum Research Fund, JOI-USSAC, and industrial funds from British Petroleum (London), Elf Aquitaine National Oil Co. (France), TOTAL (France) and US companies as Amoco, Conoco, Exxon Production Research, and Belize Natural Resources.

In addition, I teach several undergraduate and garduate courses in paleoceanography/paleoclimatology, sedimentology, oceanography, marine geology, and supervise a High Resolution Seismic Acquisition Facility.

Selected Publications

Andrew D. Cunningham, André W. Droxler, "Synthetic seismogram generation and seismic facies to core lithology correlation for ODP Sites 998, 1000 and 1001," Proceeding of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results: College Station, TX (Ocean Drilling Program), Leckie, R.M., Sigurdsson, H., Acton, G.D., and Draper, G. (eds.), 165 (2000): 205-217.

Joy M. Roth, André W. Droxler, Koji Kameo, "The Caribbean Carbonate Crash at the middle to late Miocene transition: Linkage to the establishment of the modern global ocean conveyor," Proceeding of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results: College Station, TX (Ocean Drilling Program), Leckie, R.M., Sigurdsson, H., Acton, G.D., and Draper, G. (eds.), 165 (2000): 249-273.

Droxler, A.W. and Farrell, J.W., " Marine Isotope Stage 11 (MIS 11):new insights for a warm future. ," Global and Planetary Change , 24/1 (2000): 1-5.

Droxler, A.W. and Farrell, J.W. (Editors), "A Special Issue of Marine Isotope Stage 11 (MIS 11):new insights for a warm future. Special Issue ," Global and Planetary Change , 24/1 (2000): 1-78.

André W. Droxler, Richard Poore, Llyod Burckle, "Data on Past Climate Warmth May Lead to Better Model of Warm Future," Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, 80, 26 (1999): 289-290.

David S. Duncan, Albert C. Hine, André W. Droxler, "Tectonic controls on carbonate sequence formation in an active strike-slip setting: Serranilla Basin, Northern Nicaragua Rise, Western Caribbean Sea," Marine Geology, 160 (1999): 355-382.

Andrei V. Belopolsky, André W. Droxler, "Uppermost Pleistocene Transgressive Coralgal Reefs on the Edge of the South Texas Shelf: Analogs for Reefal Reservoirs Buried in Siliciclastic Shelves," GCSEPM Foundation 19th Annual Research Conference Advanced Reservoir Characterization, December 5-8, 1999, (1999): 41-50.

Andre W. Droxler, "Documenting the past to model the future: MIS Stage 11," JOI/USSAC Newsletter, 12/1 (1999): 6-7.

C. Elmer Ferro, André W. Droxler, John B. Anderson, David Mucciarone, "Late Quaternary shift of mixed siliciclastic-carbonate environments induced by glacial eustatic sea-level fluctuations in Belize," SEPM Special Publication, Advances in Carbonate Sequence Stratigraphy: Application to Reservoirs, Outcrops and Models, 62 (1999).

Droxler, A.W., Burke, K., Cunningham, A.D., Hine, A.C., Rosencrantz, E., Duncan, D., Hallock, P., and Robinson, E, "Caribbean Constraints on Circulation Between Atlantic and Pacific Oceans Over the Past 40 Million Years. In Tectonic Boundary Conditions for Climate Reconstructions," Edited by Thomas J. Crowley and K. C. Burke. Oxford University Press, New York Oxford, (1998): 160-191. total book pages 285

Pending Publications

Belopolsky, A.V. and Droxler, A.W., "Seismic Expressions of Prograding Carbonate Bank Margins: Middle Miocene Progradation in the Maldives, Indian Ocean," AAPG Atlas on Seismic Carbonate Reservoirs, Eberli and Sarg, Editors., (in press).

Andresen, N., Reijmer, J.J.G., and Droxler, A.W. , "Timing and Distribution of Calci-turbidites around a Deeply Submerged and Seismically Active Carbonate Platform (Pedro Bank, Northern Nicaragua Rise, Caribbean Sea).," International Journal of Earth Science (Geol. Rundschau), (in review).

(Belopolsky, A.V.and Droxler A.W.), "3D Interpretation and PotentialReservoir Implication of a Middle Miocene Progradation Complex in the Maldive Inner Sea (Equatorial Indian Ocean)," AAPG Special Publication on Carbonate Reervoirs and 3D, .

(Belopolsky, A.V. and Droxler, A.W.), Cenozoic Evolution of the Maldive Carbonate System: Seismic Images of the Tectonic and Eustatic Influence on Carbonate Sedimentary Sequences., AAPG.