John Gosse
Professor; Killiam Professor

- Website
- CV (PDF-500 KB)
- Google Scholar
Email: john.gosse@Dal.Ca
Phone: +1 902 494 2358
Fax: +1 902 494 6889
Mailing Address:
1459 Oxford Street
PO BOX 15000
Halifax NS B3H 4R2
CANADA
- Tectonic processes
- Earth surface processes
- Geochronology
Office:
Life Sciences Centre
4th floor Ocean Wing
Rm. 4617
Current Research
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.
For research interests and related papers:
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.
Education
- Ph.D., Lehigh University, Alpine glacial chronologies
- B.Sc.,Memorial University, Glacial geology in Labrador
Teaching
- Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Natural Disasters ERTH 1060
- Quaternary Sedimentary Environments ERTH 3302
- Advanced Field School ERTH 4002
- Geochronology and Thermochronology ERTH 6400
Research Opportunities
- 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.