John Gosse

Ph.D. (Alpine glacial chronologies), Lehigh University, 1994
B.Sc. (Glacial geology in Labrador), Memorial University, 1989

ERTH 1060: Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Natural Disasters
ERTH 3302: Quaternary Sedimentary Environments
ERTH 4002: Advanced Field School
ERTH 6400: Geochronology and Thermochronology

John is a geochronologist and geomorphologist who specializes in the application of terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides (isotopes produced in rocks exposed to cosmic rays) to solve questions regarding: slip rates of faults in Tibet, USA, and southern central Andes; glacial history of Canada; rates of erosion and exhumation by landslides, streams, and glaciers; geoarcheology; and the influences of climate change, particularly the Pliocene-Quaternary change) on landscape change. Current field areas include Ellesmere, Devon, and Baffin Islands and the western Canadian Arctic archipelago, and southern South America.

1. Cosmogenic isotopes
Gosse, J.  (2012)  Dating techniques for surfaces and Quaternary sediments.  Ed. C. Busby.  “Recent advances in Tectonics of Sedimentary Basins”, eds. C. Busby and A. Azor Perez,  John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 13: 9781405194655.  p. 63-79.

Hidy, A., Gosse, J.C, Pederson, J., Mattern, P., Finkel, R. (2010).  A constrained Monte Carlo approach to modeling exposure ages from profiles of cosmogenic nuclides: an example from Lees Ferry, AZ.  Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems.  11.  Q0AA10, doi:10.1029/2010GC003084


2. Landscape evolution
Hidy, A. J., Gosse, J. C., Blum, M. D., & Gibling, M. R. (2014). Glacial–interglacial variation in denudation rates from interior Texas, USA, established with cosmogenic nuclides. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 390, 209-221.

Pederson, J. L., Cragun, W.S., Hidy, A.J., Rittenour, T.M., Gosse, J.C.  (2013) Colorado River chronostratigraphy at Lee’s Ferry, Arizona, and the Colorado Plateau bull’s-eye of incision.  Geology. 41 (4), 427-430.

Creason, C. G., Gosse, J. C. and Young, M. D. (2012) Rift flank uplift and landscapeevolution  of  Hall  Peninsula,  Baffin  Island:  an  exhumation  model  based  on  low-temperature thermochronology. Activity Report 2012 AR12-08 1-15. Canada Nunavut Geoscience Office Annual Report.

3. Pliocene Arctic Canada
Davies, N. S., Gosse, J. C., & Rybczynski, N. (2014). Cross-Bedded Woody Debris From A Pliocene Forested River System In the High Arctic: Beaufort Formation, Meighen Island, Canada. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 84(1), 19-25.

Rybczynski, N., Gosse, J. C., Harington, C. R., Wogelius, R. A., Hidy, A. J. and Buckley, M. (2013) Mid-Pliocene warm-period deposits in the High Arctic yield insight into camel evolution. Nature Communications. 4. 1550.


4. Active tectonics
Murphy, M. A., Taylor, M. H., Gosse, J., Silver, C. R. P., Whipp, D. M., & Beaumont, C. (2014). Limit of strain partitioning in the Himalaya marked by large earthquakes in western Nepal. Nature Geoscience, 7(1), 38-42.

Gold, R. D., dePolo, C., Briggs, R., Crone, A. and Gosse, J. C. (2013) Late Quaternary slip-rate variations  along  the  Warm  Springs  Valley  fault  system,  northern  Walker  Lane,  California-Nevada border. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.  103 (1), 542-558.


5. Glacial dynamics
Margreth, A., Dyke, A.S., Gosse, J.C., Telka, A.M. (accepted) Neoglacial ice expansion and Late Holocene cold-based ice cap dynamics on Cumberland Peninsula, Baffin Island, Arctic Canada, Quaternary Science Reviews.

Hidy, A. J., Gosse, J. C., Froese, D. G., Bond, J. D., Rood, D. (2013) A Latest Pliocene age for the earliest and most extensive Cordilleran Ice Sheet in northwestern Canada. Quat Sci Rev  61, 77-84.

• Project 1. PhD, Summer 2018, Funding expected for tuition, fees, stipend, and research costs. Risk of earthquake - and landslide-generated displacement waves in eastern and Arctic Canada. Initiating in summer of 2018 with full funding expected, the PhD project will utilize cosmogenic isotope exposure dating, field mapping (Newfoundland, Labrador, Baffin Island), and numerical modelling to establish the risk of displacement waves for selected coastal communities.
  Co-supervisor Dr. M. Nedimović.