Craig Fulthorpe Research Scientist Ph.D., M.S., Northwestern University (1988, 1979); B.S., University of Leeds (1975) Telephone 512-471-0459 email: craig   Craig's CV

Craig seeks to better understand the origins of the sequence stratigraphic record by evaluating the relative roles of local geological processes and global sea level (eustasy) in creating depositional geometries. Though sequence stratigraphy has gained general acceptance as an interpretive tool, the theory that sequences are globally synchronous and caused by eustatic cycles has proved difficult to confirm, partly because both sequence architecture and timing are influenced by local controls (e.g., rates of subsidence and sediment supply, isostasy, compaction, and current activity) in addition to eustasy. Craig's projects have focused on passive margins in different parts of the world: offshore New Jersey, the northeast Gulf of Mexico, the North West Shelf of Australia, and the Canterbury Basin offshore New Zealand. He has also extended his work to active margins, analyzing the sequence stratigraphy of forearc basins off northern California and on the Pacific margin of Nicaragua. His New Jersey and California projects were components of STRATAFORM, a broad sea-level and stratigraphic initiative funded by the Office of Naval Research. His work offshore New Jersey also involved the integration of data from ODP Legs 150 and 174A. He is lead proponent of IODP drilling proposals to calibrate the seismic interpretations from both the New Zealand and Australian projects. IODP drilling of the Canterbury Basin, New Zealand (ISAS Preliminary Proposal (in PDF Format): "Global and local controls on continental margin depositional cyclicity: Canterbury Basin, eastern South Island, New Zealand."), has been tentatively scheduled for ~2008.

Research Projects
Effects of Eustatic and Tectonic Forcing on the Development of Forearc Basin Sequence Stratigraphy

Global and Local Controls on Depositional Cyclicity: The Canterbury Basin, New Zealand

Sequence Stratigraphic Geometries and Neogene Evolution of the Middle Atlantic Continental Margin

Sequence Stratigraphy of the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico: An Integrated Seismic, Well Log and Biostratigraphic Approach

STRATAFORM High-resolution Multichannel Seismic Reflection Survey, Eel River Basin California

Student Involvement

Craig's UTIG Contributions (Publications)

Recent Publications
Fulthorpe, C.S. and Austin, J.A., Jr., submitted, Assessing the significance of along-strike variations of clinoformal geometries on the middle to upper Miocene prograding continental margin off New Jersey, Basin Research.

Ferrín, A., Browne, G., Naish, T., García-Gil, S., Fulthorpe, C.S., Vilas, F., submitted, Seismic stratigraphy and gas-related acoustic facies in the Canterbury outer shelf and upper slope (SE New Zealand), Geo-Marine Letters.

Mountain, G.S., Burger, R.L., Delius, H., Fulthorpe, C.S., Austin, J.A., Jr., Goldberg, D.S., Steckler, M.S., McHugh, C.M., Miller, K.G., Monteverde, D.H., Orange, D.L., and Pratson, L.F., 2007, The long-term stratigraphic record on continental margins, in Nittrouer, C.A., Austin, J.A., Jr., Field, M.E., Kravitz, J.H., Syvitski, J.P.M., and Wiberg, P.L., eds., Continental Margin Sedimentation: From Sediment Transport to Sequence Stratigraphy: International Association of Sedimentologists Special Publication No. 37, p. 381-458.

Pratson, L.F., Nittrouer, C.A., Wiberg, P.L., Steckler, M.S., Swenson, J.B., Cacchione, D.A., Karson, J.A., Murray, A.B., Wolinsky, M.A., Gerber, T.P., Mullenbach, B.L., Spinelli, G.A., Fulthorpe, C.S., O'Grady, D.B., Parker, G., Driscoll, N.W., Burger, R.L., Paola, C., Orange, D.L., Field, M.E., Friedrichs, C.T., and Fedele, J.J., 2007, Seascape evolution on clastic continental margins, in Nittrouer, C.A., Austin, J.A., Jr., Field, M.E., Kravitz, J.H., Syvitski, J.P.M., and Wiberg, P.L., eds., Continental Margin Sedimentation: From Sediment Transport to Sequence Stratigraphy: International Association of Sedimentologists Special Publication No. 37, p. 339-380.