Phillip A. Armstrong
 

Professor of Geology

 

Dept. of Geological Sciences

California State University, Fullerton

800 N. State College Blvd.

Fullerton, CA 92834

 

parmstrong@fullerton.edu

Office: MH 341b

Lab: MH 210

Office: (657) 278-3169

Lab: (657) 278-7183

fax: (657) 278-7266

 

                                                Yellowstone NP, July, 2007

 

Research

Colleagues often ask me what kind of geologist I am.  Guess you’d have to say I’m a structural geologist that focuses on the processes and products of the vertical motion of crustal rocks and Earth’s surface at time scales of thousands to millions of years.  This research involves both the uplift of rocks, the exhumation of once deeply buried rocks, and basin development.  These rocks are generally, but not always, in mountain belt settings such as the Wasatch Mountains in Utah, the mountains of southern California, or the huge mountains of Alaska.  My students and I use basic field methods, low-temperature thermochronometry, landform analysis, and geophysics to evaluate uplift and/or exhumation events.  To see more specific information on research, go to my research page.

  

 

Teaching

As with my research, my teaching seems to be very diverse.  I teach several courses including Geologic Field Techniques, Introduction to Geophysics, Structural Geology, Summer Field Geology, Geology of National Parks (a General Education course), Quaternary Tectonics, and various other graduate-level courses and special topics.  All of these courses, with the exception of the National Parks course, have numerous field trips and extensive field and related lab projects.  We’re lucky here in southern California because we have what I like to call “Geologic Disneyland” in our backyard – the opportunities for field work in our courses is incredible.  My co-workers and I seem bent on wearing out our field vehicles getting to field sites.  To see some specific information on courses I teach, go to my teaching page.

 

 

Some Recent papers:

Armstrong, P.A., Owen, L., A., Perez, R.A., and Finkel, R.C, 2009, Timing and controls on late Quaternary landscape development along the eastern Sierra El Mayor range front in northern Baja,California, Mexico, Geomorphology, doi: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2009.08.005. Downloadable reprint)

Davis, M. G., D. S. Chapman, T. M. Van Wagoner, and P. A. Armstrong, 2007, Thermal conductivity anisotropy of metasedimentary and igneous rocks, J. Geophys. Res., 112, B05216, doi:10.1029/2006JB004755. (Downloadable reprint)

Taylor, A., Armstrong, P.A., and Knott, J.R., 2006, Geomorphology And Geochronology Of The San Juan Creek Terraces: Implications For Quaternary Uplift Of The Santa Ana Mountain Foothills, Orange County, California; South Coast Geological Society 2006 Field Trip Guidebook, p. 135-156.

Armstrong,P.A., 2005, Thermochronometers in Sedimentary Basins, in Thermochronology: Techniques, Interpretations, and Applications. P.W.Reiners, T.A.Ehlers (eds.). Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, 58, 499-525. (Downloadable reprint)

Armstrong, P.A., Taylor, A.R. and Ehlers, T.A., 2004, Is the Wasatch fault footwall (Utah, USA) segmented over million year time scales? Geology, V. 32, p. 385 - 388. (Downloadable reprint)

Armstrong, P.A., Ehlers, T.A., Chapman, D.S., Farley, K.A., and Kamp, P.J.J., 2003, Exhumation of the Central Wasatch Mountains, 1: Patterns and timing deduced from Low-temperature Thermochronometry data, Journal of Geophysical Research, V. 108, 2172, doi:10.1029/2001JB001708. (Downloadable reprint)

Ehlers, T.A., Willett, S.D., Armstrong, P.A., and Chapman, D.S., 2003, Exhumation of the Central Wasatch Mountains, 2: Thermo-kinematics of exhumation, erosion, and thermochronometer interpretation, Journal of Geophysical Research, V. 108, 2173, doi:10.1029/2001JB001723.  (Downloadable reprint)

 

last updated 9/15/10