Ocean Drilling Research at Great Australian Bight Subject of LU Science Hall Lecture

University of South Florida paleo-oceanographer Albert Hine will discuss his research with the Ocean Drilling Program along the continental margins of southern Australia in a Lawrence University Science Hall Colloquium.

Hine, associate dean of research at USF’s College of Marine Science, presents “Big Waves, Extreme Aridity, Strange Reefs and Poisonous Gas All Seen in the Cool-Water Carbonate Sediments of the Great Australian Bight” Wednesday, March 29 at 4:15 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102. The event is free and open to the public.

Hine will discuss the findings of ocean drilling conducted on carbonate rocks deposits such as limestone and dolostone in the Great Australian Bight, the largest area in the world for these types of sediments. Observations from this drilling expedition provide clues to how carbonate systems respond to climate change and may shed light on the environmental conditions represented by the sedimentary bedrock of the upper Midwest.

A specialist in coastal geology and the geologic processes of shallow marine sedimentary environments, Hine has conducted scientific ocean drilling research around the world. In addition to his work as co-chief scientist at the Great Australian Bight drilling, Hine has studied the geologic history of margin environments off the coasts of Iceland, Bermuda, the Bahamas, western Canada as well as the Nicaraguan Rise in the Caribbean Sea and the Marion Plateau in the Coral Sea.

Hine joined the USF College of Marine Science faculty in 1979. He earned his bachelor’s degree in geology from Dartmouth College and his Ph.D. in geology at the University of South Carolina.