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David R. Marchant

Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies

Office: Stone 144
Phone: 617.353.3236
E-mail: marchant@bu.edu
David’s Homepage

Educational Background

Ph.D. 1994 University of Edinburgh, UK
M.S. 1990 University of Maine
B.S. 1984 Tufts University

Research

David Marchant’s interests are captured under the broad umbrella of surface processes. Recent projects have focused on mapping and modeling landform evolution within dynamic and rapidly changing landscapes, including those in glaciated and periglacial regions. Dave’s research combines field-based studies in sedimentology and geomorphology, buttressed by chronological control from cosmogenic-nuclide analyses, Ar/Ar analyses, and numerical process models, to determine the style and rate of landscape change in a variety of tectonic and climate settings. Ongoing projects explore buried ice in Antarctica as an analog for buried ice on Mars, and as an archive for long-term climate change on Earth; the sedimentology of wet- and cold-based glacial deposits in the Transantarctic Mountains; the mid Miocene climate optimum/transition in Antarctica and its role on sea-level and global climate change; and, the evolution and demise of tundra from continental Antarctica. Click here for more information. Graduate students conduct extensive fieldwork in Antarctica.

Climate and Earth History research group
Surface Processes research group

Teaching

• The Dynamic Earth (ES 101)
• Earth Surface Processes (ES 333)
• Ice-Age Systems (ES 534)

Recent Students

• Jen Lamp; PhD (current); Cold-desert permafrost and periglacial processes: Implications for climate change on Earth and Mars.
• Sean Mackay; PhD (current); Numerical Modeling Approaches to Quantifying Microclimate Zonation and Stability in the Antarctic Dry Valleys: Implications for Terrestrial and Planetary Climate Change
• Christine Harrington; MA (2009); Numerical modeling of the hydrology of a subglacial bedrock channel
• Douglas Kowalewski; PhD (2009); Numerical Modelling of Soil Vapor in Antarctica: Implications for Climate Reconstructions and Preservation of Buried Glacier Ice
• Kate Swanger; PhD (2009); Glacial and Periglacial Geomorphology of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica: Microclimatic Infulences on Cold-Desert Landforms
• Adam Lewis; PhD (2005); Periglacial Geomorphology and Rates of Landscape Evolution in the Western Dry Valleys Region of Antarctica
• Erika Miller; MA (2002); Sedimentation in a former glacial lake along the southern margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, Concord, Massachusetts
  
• Jane Willenbring; MA (2002); The glacial history of Vernier Valley, Antarctica: implications for Plio-Pleistocene paleoclimate and ice sheet stability
  
• Eric Moore; MA (2002); Age and paleoclimate significance of modern and relict rock glaciers in upper Beacon Valley, Antarctica
  

Selected Publications (*= student)

2010

• *Swanger, K.M., Marchant, D.R., Kowalewski, D.E., and Head, J.W. 2010. Viscous flow lobes in central Taylor Valley, Antarctica: Origin as remnant buried glacial ice. Geomorphology 120, 174-185. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2010.03.024
• *Shean, D.E. and Marchant, D.R. 2010. Seismic and GPR surveys of Mullins Glacier, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica: Ice thickness, internal structure and implications for surface ridge formation. Journal of Glaciology 56(195), 48-64.
• Marchant, D.R. and Head, J.W. 2010. Geologic analogies between the surface of Mars and the McMurdo Dry Valleys: microclimate-related geomorphic features and evidence for climate change. In: Life in Antarctic Deserts and Other Cold Dry Environments: Astrobiological Analogues. Peter T. Doran, W. Berry Lyons and Diane M. McKnight, Editors. Cambridge University Press Astrobiology Series. Pages 9- 78. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. ISBN 978-0521889193
• Fassett, C.I., Dickson, J.L., Head, J.W., Levy, J.S., and Marchant, D.R. 2010. Supraglacial and proglacial valleys on Amazonian Mars. Icarus 208, 86-100. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2010.02.021.
• Head J.W., Marchant, D.R., Dickson, J.L., Kress, A.M., and Baker, D.M. 2010. Northern mid-latitude glaciation in the late Amazonian Period of Mars: Criteria for the recognition of debris-covered glacier and valley glacier landsystem deposits. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 294, 306-320. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2009.06.041.
• Dickson, J.L., Head, J.W., and Marchant, D.R. 2010. Kilometer-thick ice accumulation and glaciation in the Northern mid-latitudes of Mars: Evidence for crater-filling events in the late Amazonian at the Phlegra Montes. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 294, 332-342. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2009.08.031.
• Baker, D.M.H., Head, J.M., and Marchant, D.R. 2010. Flow patterns of lobate debris aprons and lineated valley fill North of Ismeniae Fossae, Mars: Evidence for extensive mid-latitude glaciation in the late Amazonian. Icarus 207, 186-209. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2009.11.017.
• Levy, J.S., Marchant, D.R., and Head, J.W. 2010. Thermal contraction crack polygons on Mars: A synthesis from HiRISE, Phoenix and terrestrial analog studies. Icarus 206, 229-252. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2009.09.005.

2009

• Levy, J.S., Head, J.W., and Marchant, D.R. 2009. Concentric Crater Fill in Utopia Planitia: History and Interaction Between Glacial “Brain Terrain” and Periglacial Mantle Processes. Icarus 202, 462-476.doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2009.02.018.
• Levy, J.S., Head, J.W., and Marchant, D.R. 2009. Cold and Dry Processes in the Martian Arctic: Geomorphic Observations at the Phoenix Landing Site and Comparisons with Terrestrial Cold Desert Landforms. Geophysical Research Letters36, L21203. doi:10.1029/2009GL040634.
• Morgan, G.A., Head, J.W., and Marchant, D.R. 2009. Lineated Valley Fill (LVF) and Lobate Debris Aprons (LDA) of the Northern Dichotomy Boundary, Mars: Constraints on the Extent, Age and Episodicity of Amazonian Glacial Events. Icarus 202, 22-38. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2009.02.017.
• Levy, J.S., Head, J.W., and Marchant, D.R. 2009. Thermal Contraction Crack Polygons on Mars: Classification, Distribution, and Climate Implications from HiRISE Observations. Journal of Geophysical Research 114, E01007, doi:10.1029/2008JE003273.
• Levy, J.S., Head, J.W., Marchant, D.R., Dickson, J.L., and Morgan, G.A. 2009. Geologically recent gully-polygon relationships on Mars: Insights from the Antarctic Dry Valleys on the roles of permafrost, microclimates, and water sources for surface flow. Icarus 201, 113-126. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2008.12.043

2008

• *Lewis, A.R., Marchant, D.R., Ashworth, A.C., Hedenas, L., Hemming, S.R., Johnson, J.V., Leng, M.J., Machlus, M.L., Newton, A.E., Raine, J.I., Willenbring, J.K., Williams, M., and Wolfe, A.P. 2008. Mid-Miocene cooling and the extinction of tundra in continental Antarctica. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105, (31) 10676-10689, doi 10.1073 pnas.0802501105
• Kadish, S.J., Head, J.W., Parsons, R.L., and Marchant, D.R. 2008. The Ascraeus Mons fan-shaped deposit: Volocano-ice interactions and the climatic implications of cold-based tropical mountain glaciation. Icarus 197, 84-109. doi: 0.1016/j.icarus.2008.03.019.
• Head, J.W., Marchant, D.R., and Kreslavsky, M.A. 2008. Formation of gullies on Mars: link to recent climate history and insolation microenvironments implicate surface water flow origin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi 10.1073 pnas.0803760105.
• Fastook, J.L., Head, J.W., Marchant, D.R., and Forget, F. 2008. Tropical Mountain Glaciers on Mars: Altitude-Dependence of Ice Accumulation, Accumulation Conditions, Formation Times, Glacier Dynamics, and Implications for Planetary Spin-Axis/Orbital History. Icarus 198(2) 305-317. 10.1016/j.icarus.2008.08.008
• Dickson, J.L., Head, J.W., and Marchant, D.R. 2008. Late Amazonian Glaciation at the Dichotomy Boundary on Mars: Evidence for Glacial Thickness Maxima and Multiple Glacial Phases. Geology 36, 411-414.
• Kadish, S.J., Head, J.W., Barlow, N.G., and Marchant, D.R. 2008. Martian pedestal craters: Marginal sublimation pits implicate a climate-related formation mechanism. Geophysical Research Letters, 35, L16104, doi:10.1029/2008GL034990.
• Williams, M. Siveter, D.J., Ashworth, A.C., Wilby, P.R., Horne, D.J., *Lewis, A.R., and Marchant, D.R. 2008. Exceptionally preserved lacustrine ostracods from the middle Miocene of Antarctica: implications for high-latitude paleoenvironment at 77°S. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0396
• Bao, H., Barnes, J.D., Sharp, Z.D., and Marchant, D.R. 2008. Two chloride sources in soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Journal of Geophysical Research 113 (D3) D03301, doi:10.1029/2007JD008703.
• Levy, J.S., Head, J.W., and Marchant, D.R. 2008. The role of thermal contraction crack polygons in cold-desert fluvial systems. Antarctic Science 20(6), 565-579.
• Levy, J.S., Head, J.W., Marchant, D.R., and *Kowalewski, D.E. 2008. Identification of sublimation-type thermal contraction crack polygons at the proposed NASA landing site: implications for substrate properties and climate-driven morphological evolution. Geophysical Research Letters, 35, L04202, doi:10.1029/2007GL032813.
• Krevslavsky, M.A., Head, J.W. III, and Marchant, D.R., 2008. Periods of active permafrost layer formation during the geological history of Mars: implications for circum-polar and mid-latitude surface processes. Planetary and Space Sciences 56, 289-302doi:10.1016/j.pss.2006.02.010.

2007

• *Shean, D.E., Head, J.W., and Marchant, D.R. 2007. Shallow seismic surveys and ice thickness estimates of the Mullins Valley debris-covered glacier, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Antarctic Science 19, 485-496, doi:10.1017/S0954102007000624
• *Lewis, A.R., Marchant, D.R., Ashworth, A.C., Hemming, S.R., and Machlus, M.L. 2007. Major middle Miocene global climate change: evidence from East Antarctica and the Transantarctic Mountains. Geological Society of America Bulletin 119, (11/12), 1449-1461, doi: 10.1130B26134.1
• *Swanger, K.M. and Marchant, D.R. 2007. Sensitivity of ice-cemented Antarctic soils to greenhouse-induced thawing: are terrestrial archives at risk? Earth and Planetary Science Letters 259, 347-359.
• *Shean, D.E., Head, J.W. III, Fastook, J.L., and Marchant, D.R. 2007. Recent glaciation at high elevations on Arsia Mons, Mars: Implications for the formation and evolution of large tropical mountain glaciers. Journal of Geophysical Research, 112, E03004, doi:10.1029/2006JE002761.
• Marchant, D.R. and Head, J.W. 2007. Antarctic Dry Valleys: Microclimate zonation, variable geomorphic processes, and implications for assessing climate change on Mars. Icarus 192(1), 187-222, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2007.06.018
• Bidle, K.D., SangHoon L., Marchant, D.R., and Falkowski, P.G. 2007. Fossil genes and microbes in the oldest ice on Earth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (no. 33), 13455-13460.
• Levy, J.S., Head, J.W., III, and Marchant, D.R., 2007. Lineated Valley Fill and Lobate Debris Apron Stratigraphy in Nilosyrtis Mensae, Mars: Evidence for Phases of Glacial Modification of the Dichotomy Boundary. Journal of Geophysical Research 112, E08004, doi:10.1029/2006JE002852.

A complete list of publications can be viewed here.

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