Joe Mason

Associate Professor of Geography

Education:

Ph. D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1995

Courses taught

Geography 120 Global Physical Environments
Geology/Geography 320 Geomorphology
Geography 329 Landforms and Landscapes of North America
Geography 525 Soil Geomorphology
Geography 527 The Quaternary Period

Full c.v.

Research Areas

Eolian and hillslope geomorphology, loess stratigraphy/sedimentology, soils and paleosols, Quaternary landscape evolution, Quaternary paleoenvironments of the Great Plains, GIS applications in geomorphology

Current research

Dunefield Records of Late Quaternary Climatic Change (project description)

Resolving the Enigma of Late Quaternary Loess on the Great Plains (project description)

Sand Hills Biocomplexity Project

The Nebraska Sand Hills, largest dune field in North America, now grass-covered and stable, but active within the past 1000 years. This region is the focus of the Sand Hills Biocomplexity Project (http://sandhills-biocomplexity.unl.edu/

Dust effects on soils

Soils on the central Great Plains have "grown" upward through dust deposition over the past 10,000 years

Graduate Students

Aaron Feggestad, Effects of disturbance and drought on the Holocene vegetation dynamics of the Central Great Plains, using stable carbon isotopes (M.S., completed 2005)

Paul Hanson (Univ. of Nebraska), Fluvial terraces and colluvial record of climate change, eastern Wyoming (M.S.), The application of optical dating methods to late Quaternary alluvial environments in the western United States (Ph.D., completed 2005)

Xiaodong Miao, Holocene loess record of paleoclimate, central Great Plains (Ph.D., completed, 2005)

Corey Werner, The importance of complex response and sediment supply to the timing of dune activity in the central High Plains (Ph.D., completed, 2007)

Ty Sabin, Holocene evolution of the Niobrara River, Nebraska (Ph.D., in progress)

Recent Publications

Full publication list

Mason , J.A., Swinehart, J.B., Lu, H.Y., Miao, X.D., Cha, P., Zhou, Y.L. In press. Limited change in dune mobility in response to a large change in wind power in semi-arid northern China since the 1970s. Geomorphology.

Zhou, Y. L., Lu H. Y., Mason J.A., Miao, X. D., Swinehart, J., Goble R. In press. Optically stimulated luminescence dating of aeolian sand in the Otindag dune field and Holocene climate change", Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences.

Loope, D.B., Seiler, W.M., Mason, J.A., Chan, M.A. In press. Wind scour of Navajo Sandstone at the Wave (Central Colorado Plateau, U.S.A). Journal of Geology.

Johnson, W.C., Willey, K.L., Mason, J.A., and May, D.W. 2007. Stratigraphy and environmental reconstruction at the Middle Wisconsinan Gilman Canyon Formation type locaity, Buzzards Roost, southwestern Nebraska, USA. Quaternary Research 67: 474-486.

Mason, J.A., Joeckel, R.M., and Bettis, E.A., III. 2007. Middle to Late Pleistocene loess record in eastern Nebraska, U.S.A., and implications for the unique nature of Oxygen Isotope Stage 2. Quaternary Science Reviews 26: 773-792.

Jacobs, P.M., and Mason, J.A. 2007. Late-Quaternary climate change, loess sedimentation, and soil profile development in the central Great Plains: A pedosedimentary model. Geological Society of America Bulletin 119: 462-475.

Miao, X.D., Mason, J.A., Johnson, W.C., and Wang, H. 2007. High-resolution proxy record of Holocene climate from a loess section in Southwestern Nebraska, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 245: 368-381.

Miao, X.D., Mason, J.A., Swinehart, J.B., Loope, D.B., Hanson, P.R., Goble, R.J., and Liu, X.D. 2007. A 10,000-yr record of dune activity, dust storms, and severe drought in the central Great Plains, U.S.A. Geology 35: 119-122.

Sridhar, V., Loope, D.B., Swinehart, J.B., Mason, J.A., Oglesby, R, J., and Rowe, C.M. 2006. Large wind shift on the Great Plains during the Medieval Warm Period, Science 313: 345 – 347, DOI: 10.1126/science.1128941

Miao, X.D., Wang, X.L., and Mason, J.A. 2006. Isolation of the syndepositional magnetic susceptibility signals from loessic paleosols of China. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 27: 684-690

Hanson, P. R., Mason, J. A., and Goble, R.J. 2006. Terrace formation along the non-glaciated Laramie Range, Wyoming. Geomorphology 26:12-25.

Lu, H.Y., Miao, X.D., Zhou, Y.L., Mason, J.A., Swinehart, J., Zhang, J.F., Zhou, L.P., Yi, S.W. 2005. Late Quaternary aeolian activity in the Mu Us and Otindag dunefields (north China) and lagged response to insolation forcing. Geophysical Research Letters 32: L21716, doi:10.1029/2005GL024560.

Balco, G., Stone, J.O.H., and Mason, J.A. 2005. Numerical ages for Plio-Pleistocene glacial sediment sequences by 26Al/10Be dating of quartz in buried paleosols. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 232: 179-191.

Miao, X.-D., J. A. Mason, R.J. Goble, and P.R.Hanson. 2005. Loess record of dry climate and eolian activity in the early to mid-Holocene, central Great Plains, North America. The Holocene 15:339-346.

Loope, D.B., Mason, J.A., Bao, H., Kettler, R.M., and Zanner, C.W. 2005. Inputs of tephra and sulfuric acid to an ancient Great Plains playa (Oligocene of Nebraska, USA). Sedimentology 52: 123-139.

Jacobs, P. M., and Mason, J.A. 2005. Dust aggradation, carbon sequestration, and the origin of thick A horizons in Mollisols of the Great Plains. Geoderma 125: 95-106.

Hanson, P.R., J. A. Mason, and R.J. Goble. 2004. Episodic late Quaternary slope wash deposition as recorded in colluvial aprons, southeastern Wyoming. Quaternary Science Reviews 23:1835-1846.

Goble, R. J., J. A. Mason, D. B. Loope, and J. B. Swinehart. 2004. Optically stimulated luminescence and radiocarbon ages of stacked paleosols and dune sands in the Nebraska Sand Hills, USA. Quaternary Science Reviews 23:1173-1182.

Mason, J. A., J. B. Swinehart, R. J. Goble, and D. B. Loope. 2004. Late Holocene dune activity linked to hydrological drought, Nebraska Sand Hills, USA. The Holocene 14: 209-217.

 

 

Contact Information

University of Wisconsin
Department of Geography
207 Science Hall
550 North Park Street

Phone (608) 262-6316
mason@geography.wisc.edu