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Education | Contact Information | Research Interests | Research Activities | Research Publications | Honors & Awards
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1960.
Department of Geological Sciences
225 Mitchell Hall, CB#3315
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3315
email: dennison@email.unc.edu
telephone: (919) 218-5770
fax: (919) 966-4519
- Stratigraphy: outcrop and subsurface stratigraphic and sedimentologic studies of Paleozoic rocks.
- Structural geology: structure of the central and southern Appalachian Mountains.
- Geomorphology: drainage development of eastern North America.
Regional research on the complex marine facies of the Catskill Delta and the hydrocarbon-bearing Devonian black shales investigates how Paleozoic sea-level variations affected stratigraphc patterns and hydrocarbon accumulations. A 600 km long stratigraphic cross section of the Devonian based on 36 plane-tabled measured sections extends along the Allegheny Front outcrop belt from Cumberland Gap, TN to Lockhaven, PA.
Studies of Devonian ash beds as time markers in the Appalachian basin and linking of depositional history to a numerical chronology.
Mississippian paleoseismites associated with the modern Giles County seismic zone (Va and WV)
Development of the New River drainage northward across the Appalachian region (NC, VA, WV)
Origin of the trench valley structural and geomorphic lineaments in the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains and extending into the adjacent Piedmont and Valley and Ridge provinces. (GA, NC, TN)
Geomorphic development of annular drainage patterns around Stone Mountain, GA and nearby inselbergs as an indicator of major climatic patterns in the Cenozoic, relating geomorphology of hard rock terrain to global sea-level history and the "Vail curve"
Selected
Research Publications
Dennison, J. M., Bambach, R. K., Dorobek, S. L., Filer, J. K., and Shell, J. A., 1992, Silurian and Devonian unconformities in southwestern Virginia: Geologic field guides to North Carolina and Virginia; Department of Geology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Geologic Guidebook No. 1, p. 79-105. (Guidebook for sale by North Carolina Geological Survey).
Meyer, S. C., Textoris, D. A. and Dennison, J. M., 1992, Lithofacies of Silurian Keefer Sandstone, east-central Appalachian basin, USA: Sedimentary Geology, v. 76, p. 187-206.
Filer, J. K., Dennison, J. M., and Warne, A. G., 1996, Devonian and Mississippian strata near Norton, Virginia: Virginia Division of Mineral Resources Publication 145, 2 sheets.
Dennison, J. M., editor, 1996, Field guide to Devonian hydrocarbon stratigraphy of southeastern West Virginia and adjacent Virginia: Charleston, West Virginia, Appalachian Geological Society, 160 p. (Field trip for Eastern Section of American Association of Petroleum Geologists meeting)
Diecchio, R. J. and Dennison, J. M., 1996, Silurian stratigraphy of central and northern Virginia and adjacent West Virginia, in T. W. Broadhead, editor, Sedimentary Environments of Silurian Taconia: Pre-Conference Field Trip of Second International Symposium on the Silurian System, July 22 - August 3, 1996: University of Tennessee Studies in Geology 26, p. 107-127.
Dennison, J. M., Linn, F. M., and Textoris, D. A., 1997, Late Silurian buildups related to syntectonic sedimentation across flexure in Virginia and West Virginia: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 29, no. 3, p. 13.
Dennison, J. M., Filer, J. K., and Drake, R. A., 1997, Rejection of underthrust repetition in Chattanooga Shale at Hagan, Virginia: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs v. 29, no. 3, p. 12.
Dennison, J. M., Filer, J. K., Cavallo, L. J., Drake, R. A., and Middleton, J. D., 1997, Subsurface to surface: Use of outcrop gamma-ray logs to interpret structurally complex exposures of Appalachian Devonian strata: AAPG Bulletin, v. 81, no. 11, p. 1549.
Dennison, J. M., Stewart, K. G., Roth, E. A., Alcott, A. E., Lowe, A. L., and Vlahovic, G., 1997, Post-orogenic linear fracture systems in the Great Smoky-Blue Ridge region of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 29, no. 3, p. 13.
Dennison, J. M., and Stewart, K. G., editors, 1998, Geologic field guide to extensional structures along the Allegheny Front in Virginia and West Virginia near the Giles County seismic zone, 101 p. (Field trip for Southeastern Section of Geological Society of America meeting; published as West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey Open-file Report 9805.)
Stewart, K. G. and Dennison, J. M., 1998, Evidence for late Mississippian paleoseismicity of the Giles County seismic zone in West Virginia and Virginia: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 30, no. 7, p. A-399
Dennison, J. M. and Filer, J. K, 1999, Reference Devonian stratigraphic cross section projected across sedimentary strike of south-central Appalachian basin - accomplishments and problems: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 31, no. 3, p. A-13.
Dennison, J. M., 1999, Geomorphology of Stone Mountain Georgia, in Whitney, J. A., Dennison, J. M., and Gore, P. J. W., Geology and geomorphology of Stone Mountain, Georgia: Field Trip Guidebook, Southeastern Section, Geological Society of America, p. 1-32.
Obligado, A. A., Over, D. J., and Dennison, J. M., 2000, Upper Devonian (Famennian) conodonts and biostratigraphy of the Chattanooga Shale at Hagan Tunnel, Virginia: Northeastern Section Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 32, no. 1, p. A-62.
Dennison, J. M., 2000, Geomorphology at Stone Mountain, Georgia records major Cenozoic climate changes in North America: 31st International Geological Congress, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Abstracts ((published as CD Rom)
Fellow Geological Society of America
Fellow American Association for Advancement of Science
I. C. White Memorial Award at Eastern Section of American Association of Petroleum Geologists for lifetime geologic contributions in the Appalachian region (1993).
Who's Who in the World (1996)
Outstanding Educator Award from Eastern Section of American Association of Petroleum Geologists (1997)
John Dennison Retirement Celebration: Southeastern Section Geological Society of America, March 25,1999, Athens, Georgia: symposium with 15 invited papers (with abstracts published in Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 31, no. 3).
Retired from full-time teaching at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on June 30, 1999; now teach half-time until June 2002, and am continuing my research activities.
