About me:

I am interested in tectonic processes, interrogated through the lens of the sedimentary record. My research is usually field based, and complemented by a variety of analytical methods including U-Th-Pb geochronology, Lu-Hf and trace element geochemistry, stable isotopic analysis (O and H), and (U-Th)/He thermochronology. I like to take a quantitative approach to geologic questions, which has led me down a fun path of developing and applying quantitative sediment provenance methods, building on my Ph.D. research (check out GitHub here!).

I continue to work closely with the Arizona LaserChron Center at the University of Arizona. I maintain community involvement by engaging in LA-ICP-MS geochronology-geochemistry workshops, short courses, town halls, and by continuing to develop and maintaining data reduction-visualization-interpretation-archiving software for the LaserChron Center (AgeCalcML). Check out the lab here!

If you are interested in working with me as a student or as a collaborator please don’t hesitate to contact me! — I’m always interested in pursuing new avenues of science.

News

August 2023 Short course registration for GSA 2023 is open! Link here. Friday and Saturday courses include: Methods and Geological Applications in Geo-Thermo-Petro-Chronology parts I & II (T505 and T517) and Quantitative Analysis, Visualization, and Modeling of Detrital Geochronology Data (T512).

May 2023 Invited talk: “Regional tectonic events produce anomalies in global records of zircon oxygen and hafnium data: A cautionary tale” for Stanford University’s Sedimentary Geochemistry and Paleoenvironments Project (SPG).

May 2023 Invited talk: “Global compilations of hafnium and oxygen data in zircon: A biased view into Earth’s deep past” at the University of Colorado Boulder.

January 2023 ISU colloquium talk: “Weird rocks in the central Andean hinterland: Records of crustal thickening, surface uplift, and paleoclimate”

January 2023 Invited talk: “Quantitative approaches to detrital zircon geochronology and geochemistry: Methods and example applications to a global data compilation” at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.

January 2023 Off to northern India for field work with ISU MS student Maria Reinoso!

November 2022 Invited talk: “Global compilations of zircon geochemistry: A biased view into Earth’s deep past” at the Rocky Mountain Section, Society for Sedimentary Geology.

September 2022 Invited talk: “Hinterland basin records of crustal thickening, surface uplift, and paleoclimate in the northern Central Andes” at the University of British Columbia.

September 2022 Invited talk: “Global records of hafnium isotopes in zircon shed light on Earth’s deep past” at the University of Texas, San Antonio.

July 2022 Off to Peru for field work with ISU MS student Robbie Manta and undergraduate student Cassie Kenyon!

June 2022 Invited talk: “Global records of hafnium isotopes in zircon shed light on Earth’s deep past”, Virtual Seminars in Precambrian Geology (Link to VS-PG here!), June, 2022. Link to recorded talk

May 2022 New publication! Pecha, M.E., Blum, M.D., Gehrels, G.E., Sundell, K.E., Karlstrom, K.E., Gonzales, D.A., and Mahoney, J.B. (2022), “Linking the Gulf of Mexico and Coast Mountains batholith during the Late Paleocene: Insights from Hf isotopes in detrital zircons”, GSA Spec. Pub. Link to publication

April 2022 New publication! Göğüş, O.H., Sundell, K.E., Uluocak, E.S., Saylor, J.E., Çetiner, U. (2022), “Rapid, axisymmetric surface uplift and crustal flow in Central Andes controlled by lithospheric instability”, Scientific Reports. Link to publication

February 2022 New publication! Sundell, K.E. and Macdonald, F.A. (2022). “The tectonic context of hafnium isotopes in zircon”, Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Link to publication

January 2022 New publication! Sundell, K.E., George, S.W., Carrapa, B., Gehrels, G.E., Ducea, M.N., Saylor, J.E. and Pepper, M. (2022). “Crustal Thickening of the Northern Central Andean Plateau Inferred from Trace Elements in Zircon”, Geophysical Research Letters, p.e2021GL096443, doi.org/10.1029/2021GL096443. Link to publication

December 2021 Conference talk: “Latest Neoproterozoic Hafnium Isotope Excursion Records the Assembly of Gondwana”, AGU, Fall Meeting, New Orleans, LA.

October 2021 Invited talk at University of Idaho “Refining geochemical proxies of crustal thickness: Case studies of the Tibetan Plateau and Central Andes”

October 2021 GSA short course: “Quantitative Analysis, Visualization, and Modeling of Detrital Geochronology Data” Instructors: Joel Saylor, Kurt Sundell, Sam Johnstone, and Glenn Sharman.

October 2021 GSA short course: “Methods and Geological Applications in Geo-Thermo-Petro-Chronology Parts I and II” Instructors: George Gehrels, Kurt Sundell, Sarah George; Mauricio Ibanez; Peter Reiners; Allen Schaen.

October 2021 MS student Jon Lever presents his first poster: “Tightening the belt: New age and provenance constraints on Proterozoic strata in east-central Idaho,” GSA Annual Meeting, Portland, OR.

October 2021 Conference talk: “Two-stage crustal growth of the northern Central Andean Plateau”, GSA Annual Meeting, Portland, OR.

July 2021 Off to Bolivia for field work!

June 2021 New Publication! Sundell, K. E., Laskowski, A. K., Kapp, P. A., Ducea, M. N., and Chapman, J. B., (2021), “Jurassic to Neogene Quantitative Crustal Thickness Estimates in Southern Tibet”, GSA Today. Link to publication

May 2021 New Publication! Burke, W.B., Laskowski, A.K., Orme, D.A., Sundell, K.E., Taylor, M.H., Guo, X., and Ding, L., (2021), “Record of Crustal Thickening and Synconvergent Extension from the Dajiamang Tso Rift, Southern Tibet”, MDPI Geosciences. Link to publication

April 2021 Excited to welcome new MS graduate student, Jon Lever to ISU Geosciences!

March 2021 New Publication! Sundell, K.E., and Saylor, J.E. (2021). “Two-dimensional Quantitative Comparison of Density Distributions in Detrital Geochronology and Geochemistry”, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. Link to publication

March 2021 Excited to join Idaho State University Department of Geosciences as an Assistant Professor starting August 2021!

February 2021 New Publication! Saylor, J.E., and Sundell, K.E. (2021). “Tracking Proterozoic–Triassic sediment routing to western Laurentia via bivariate non-negative matrix factorization of detrital provenance data”, Journal of the Geological Society. Link to publication

January 2021 New Publication! Heizler, M., Karlstrom, K.E., Albonico, M., Hereford, R., Beard, S., Cather, S., Crossey, L., and Sundell, K.E. (2021). “Detrital sanidine 40Ar/39Ar dating confirms < 2 Ma age 1 of Crooked Ridge paleoriver and deep denudation of the southwestern Colorado Plateau”, Geosphere. Link to publication

January 2021 New Publication! Thomas, W.A., Gehrels, G.E., Sundell, K.E., and Romero, M.C. (2021). “Detrital-zircon analyses, provenance, and late Paleozoic sediment dispersal in the context of tectonic evolution of the Ouachita orogen”, Geosphere. Link to publication

January 2021 New Publication! Caylor, E. A., Carrapa, B., Sundell, K., DeCelles, P. G., and Smith, J. M. (2021). “Age and deposition of the Fort Crittenden Formation: A window into Late Cretaceous Laramide and Cenozoic tectonics in southeastern Arizona”, GSA Bulletin. Link to publication

December 2020 Conference oral presentation at AGU Annual Meeting: “Jurassic to Neogene quantitative crustal thickness estimates in southern Tibet from recalibrated Sr/Y and La/Yb trace element geochemical proxies”, Kurt E. Sundell, K.E., Laskowski, A.K., Kapp, P., Ducea, M.N. Link to recorded video

October 2020 Short course on detrital geochronology at GSA Annual Meeting: “Detrital and Petrochronologic Applications of U-Pb Geochronology and Lu-Hf and Trace/REE Geochemistry by Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma–Mass Spectrometry.” Instructors: George Gehrels, Kurt Sundell, and Sarah George. Link to short course materials

October 2020 Short course on detrital geochronology at GSA Annual Meeting: “Quantitative Analysis, Visualization, and Modeling of Detrital Geochronology Data.” Instructors: Joel Saylor, Glenn Sharman, Samuel Johnstone, and Kurt Sundell. Link to short course materials

Aug 2020 Recently funded joint NSF GEO-NERC project! “Collaborative Research: Impact of the Plio-Pleistocene Transition on Provenance and Sediment Routing from the Himalaya to the Deep-Sea Bengal Fan” with PI: Mike Blum (University of Kansas) and co-PIs: Jamie Gleason (University of Michigan), Yani Najman (Lancaster University), Devon Orme (Montana State University), and Kurt Sundell (University of Arizona). Link to abstract

July 2020 New Publication! Sundell, K.E., Gehrels, G.E., Pecha, M.E. (2020), “Rapid U‐Pb Geochronology by Laser Ablation Multi‐collector ICP‐MS”, Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research. Link to publication

July 2020 New Publication! Sayor, J.E., Rudolph, K.W., Sundell, K.E., van Wijk, W. (2020), “Laramide orogenesis driven by Late Cretaceous weakening of the North American lithosphere”, Journal of Geophysical Research - Solid Earth. Link to publication

July 2020 New Publication! Karlstrom, K., Jacobson, C., Sundell, K.E., Eyster, A., Blakey, R., Ingersoll, R., Mulder, J., Young, R., Beard, S., Holland, M., Shuster, D., Carmen, W., Crossey, L. (2020), “Evaluating the Shinumo-Sespe drainage connection: Arguments against the "old" (70-17 Ma) Grand Canyon models for Colorado Plateau drainage evolution”, Geosphere. Link to publication

April 2020 New Publication! Thomas, W.A., Gehrels, G.E., Sundell, K.E., Greb, S.F., Finzel, E.S., Clark, R.J., Malone, D.H., Hampton, B.A., and Romero, M.C. (2020), “Detrital zircons and sediment dispersal in the eastern Midcontinent of North America.” Geosphere, v. 16, no. X, p. 1– 27, https://doi .org /10.1130 /GES02152.1. Link to publication

December 2019 Conference oral presentation Sundell, K.E., Ducea, M., Carrapa, B., Saylor, J.E. (2019), “Crustal growth of the Cenozoic Central Andes from zircon trace and rare Earth element concentrations.” American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA. Link to presentation

September 2019 Short course on detrital geochronology at GSA Annual Meeting: “Detrital Zircon Geochronology: Best Practices for U-Pb Data Acquisition, Reduction, Analysis, and Archiving.” Course instructors George Gehrels & Kurt Sundell. Link to Short Course Materials

September 2019 Conference Invited talk: Sundell, K.E., Blum, M., Gehrels, G., Pecha, M., Pettit, B. (2019). “Application of rapid U-Pb acquisition (3 s/analysis) to combat lithofacies bias in detrital zircon age distributions: Example from the Book Cliffs, UT.” GSA Annual meeting, Phoenix, AZ. Link to presentation

September 2019 Conference poster presentation: Sundell, K.E., Gehrels, G., Pecha, M. (2019). “Collecting large-n U-Pb detrital geochronology data via rapid acquisition (300–1,200 analyses/h) laser ablation multicollector ICP-MS.” GSA Annual meeting, Phoenix, AZ. Link to Poster

July—August 2019 Off to the field, again! — Southern Tibet with Andrew Laskowski from Montana State University.

June 2019 Off to the field! — Bolivian Altiplano and Western Cordillera with Joel Saylor from University of British Columbia.

June 2019 New Publication! Sundell, K., Saylor, J. E., & Pecha, M. (2019). “Provenance and recycling of detrital zircons from Cenozoic Altiplano strata and the crustal evolution of western South America from combined U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotopic analysis.” In Horton, K.B. and Folguera, A., Andean Tectonics: Amsterdam, Elsevier, pp.363-397, doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-816009-1.00014-9. Link to publication

May 2019 New Publication! Thomas, W. A., Gehrels, G. E., Lawton, T. F., Satterfield, J. I., Romero, M. C., & Sundell, K. E. (2019). “Detrital zircons and sediment dispersal from the Coahuila terrane of northern Mexico into the Marathon foreland of the southern Midcontinent.” Geosphere. Link to Publication

May 2019 New Publication! Smith, Tyson M., Kurt E. Sundell, Shelby N. Johnston, Carlos N. Guilherme Andrade, Ross A. Andrea, Jordan N. Dickinson, Yiduo A. Liu, Michael Andrew Murphy, Tom J. Lapen, and Joel E. Saylor. “Drainage reorganization and Laramide tectonics in north‐central New Mexico and downstream effects in the Gulf of Mexico.” Basin Research (2019). Link to Publication

May 2019 Conference oral presentation: “From raw data to database: How Sparrow fits into the Arizona LaserChron Center with AgeCalcML” at the EarthCube Geochronology Workshop in Madison, WI.

April 2019 New Publication! Saylor, J. E., K. E. Sundell, and G. R. Sharman. “Characterizing sediment sources by non-negative matrix factorization of detrital geochronological data.” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 512 (2019): 46-58. Link to publication

March 2019 New Publication! Sundell, Kurt E., Joel E. Saylor, Thomas J. Lapen, and Brian K. Horton. “Implications of variable late Cenozoic surface uplift across the Peruvian central Andes.” Scientific Reports 9, no. 1 (2019): 4877. Link to publication

February 2019 Invited talk: Sundell, K.E., Saylor, J.E., Thomas, J., Styron, R.H., Horton, B.K., Villarreal, D., Usnayo, P., Cárdenas, J. “New insights into the Cenozoic Altiplano stratigraphy of southern Peru through application of novel detrital zircon data visualization and quantitative interpretation methods” at Northern Arizona University.

February 2019 Presented new Arizona LaserChron Center cyberinfrastructure developments at the EarthCube Geochronology Workshop in Madison, WI.

December 2018 Conference Invited talk: Sundell, K.E., Saylor, J.E., Pecha, M. (2018), “Documenting sediment recycling during Andean mountain building using combined U-Pb geochronology and Lu-Hf geochemistry of detrital zircons from Peruvian Altiplano strata,” American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting, Washington D.C.

December 2018 Conference presentation: Saylor, J.E., Sundell, K.E., Perez, N., Karsky, N., Lapen, T.J., Cárdenas, J. (2018), “Sedimentary response to exhumation of the central Andean retro-arc foreland during flat slab subduction,” American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting, Washington D.C.

December 2018 Conference oral presentation: Sundell, K.E., Saylor, J. E., Lapen, T.J., Villarreal, D., Styron, R., H., Usnayo, P., Cárdenas, J. (2018), “Paleogene foreland basin formation and Neogene surface uplift in the Peruvian central Andes,” American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting, Washington D.C.

November 2018 Session chair GSA Annual Meeting, “Recent Advances and Future Directions in Paleoaltimetry and Paleoclimate,” (2018) Conveners: Jackson, L., Sundell, K.E., Ingalls, M.

November 2018 Short course on detrital geochronology at GSA Annual Meeting: “Detrital Zircon Geochronology: Best Practices, Current Challenges, Future Opportunities.” (George Gehrels and Kurt Sundell).

November 2018 Sundell, K.E., Saylor, J.E., Horton, B.K., Lapen, T.J. (2018), “Variable late Cenozoic surface uplift across the Peruvian central Andes documents multiple uplift mechanisms,” GSA Annual meeting, Indianapolis, IN.

November 2018 Conference presentation co-author to Gehrels, G., McLelland, W., Thomas, W., Sundell, K.E. (2018), “Detrital zircon constraints on North American tectonism and sediment dispersal during Paleozoic time,” GSA Annual meeting, Indianapolis, IN.

June 2018 New Publication! Sundell, K. E., Saylor, J. E., Lapen, T. J., Styron, R. H., Villarreal, D., Usnayo, P., & Cárdenas, J. (2018). “Peruvian Altiplano stratigraphy highlights along‐strike variability in foreland basin evolution of the Cenozoic central Andes.” Tectonics. Link to publication

April 2018 Conference oral presentation: Sundell, K., Saylor, J., Lapen, T., & Horton, B. “Geodynamic drivers of surface uplift, foreland basin formation, and Miocene aridity in the Peruvian central Andes.” In European Geophysical Union Annual Meeting, Vienna, Austria General Assembly Conference Abstracts (Vol. 20, p. 12045)

April 2018 Conference poster presentation: Saylor, J., & Sundell, K. “Source contributions from quantitative mixture modeling of detrital geochronology age spectra.” In European Geophysical Union Annual Meeting, Vienna, Austria, General Assembly Conference Abstracts (Vol. 20, p. 11524).

January 2018 Started as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with George Gehrels at the University of Arizona.

November 2017 Successfully defended doctoral dissertation at the University of Houston. Big thanks to committee chair Joel Saylor, and committee members Tom Lapen, Peter Copeland, Alex Robinson, and John Bershaw! Link to Dissertation

October 2017 GSA short course on “U-Th-Pb Geochronology, Lu-Hf and O Isotope Geochemistry, and Trace/REE Geochemistry,” taught by George Gehrels, John Valley, Jay Chapman, Kurt Sundell.

October 2017 New Publication! Saylor, J.E., Jordan, J.C., Sundell, K.E., Wang, X., Wang, S. and Deng, T., 2018. Topographic growth of the Jishi Shan and its impact on basin and hydrology evolution, NE Tibetan Plateau. Basin Research, 30(3), pp.544-563, doi.org/10.1111/bre.12264. Link to publication

July 2017 New Publication! Sundell, K. E., and J. E. Saylor (2017), “Unmixing detrital geochronology age distributions,” Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 18, doi:10.1002/2016GC006774. Link to publication

April 2017 1st place oral presentation University of Houston 32nd Annual Student Research Day.

December 2016 Conference poster presentation: Sundell, K., E., Saylor, J. E., Lapen, T.J., Villarreal, D., Styron, R., H., Usnayo, P., Cárdenas, J. (2016), “Paleoenvironmental change in the Peruvian central Andes recorded by stable isotopes in volcanic glass and modern water: Implications for late Miocene uplift and aridification,” American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting, San Francisco.

September 2016 Conference oral presentation: Sundell, K.E., Saylor, J. E., Jadamec, M., Lapen, T.J., Styron, R.H., Cárdenas, J. (2016), “Paleogene uplift and geodynamics of the Peruvian central Andes inferred from sediment provenance, detrital geochronology, and flexural modeling of Altiplano stratigraphy,” GSA Annual Meeting in Denver, Session 203, T221.

December 2016 New Publication! Bershaw, J., Saylor, J. E., Garzione, C. N., Leier, A., Sundell, K. E. (2016) “Stable Isotope Variations (δ18O and δD) in Modern Waters Across the Andean Plateau,” Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Link to publication

December 2016 Session Convener, AGU Fall Meeting, “Emerging Trends, Novel Applications, and Applied Studies in Detrital Geochronology,” Conveners: Sundell, K.E., Anfinson, O.A., Laskowski, A.K.

July - August 2016 Field work in southern Peru.

January 2016 New Publication! Saylor, J. E., & Sundell, K. E. (2016). “Quantifying comparison of large detrital geochronology data sets.” Geosphere, GES01237-1. Link to Publication

December 2015 Session Convener, AGU Fall Meeting, “Novel High-Resolution Approaches to Deciphering Source-to-Sink Linkages between Tectonic Hinterland and Basin Evolution,” Conveners: Pujols, E., Lopez, J.L. Sundell, K.E.

August 2015 Attended the University of Michigan's Mountain Ranges and High Plateaus, Summer Course at Camp Davis Rocky Mountain Field Station, Jackson, WY.

October 2015 New Publication! Copeland, P., Bertrand, G., France-Lanord, C., Sundell, K. E. (2015) “40Ar/39Ar ages of muscovites from modern Himalayan rivers: Himalayan evolution and the relative contribution of tectonics and climate,” Geosphere. Link to publication

June - July 2015 Field work in southern Peru.

April 2015 1st place oral presentation University of Houston 30th Annual Student Research Day

January 2015 New Publication! Styron, R., M. Taylor, and K. Sundell (2015), “Accelerated extension of Tibet linked to the northward underthrusting of Indian crust, Nature Geoscience.” Link to publication

May - July 2014 Field work in southern Peru.

April 2014 1st place poster presentation University of Houston 29th Annual Student Research Day.

September 2013 New Publication! Sundell, K. E., M. H. Taylor, R. H. Styron, D. F. Stockli, P. Kapp, C. Hager, D. Liu, and L. Ding (2013), “Evidence for constriction and Pliocene acceleration of east-west extension in the North Lunggar rift region of west-central Tibet,” Tectonics. Link to publication

July 2013 New Publication! Styron, R. H., M. H. Taylor, K. E. Sundell, D. F. Stockli, J. A. Oalmann, A. Möller, A. T. McCallister, D. Liu, and L. Ding (2013), “Miocene initiation and acceleration of extension in the South Lunggar rift, western Tibet: Evolution of an active detachment system from structural mapping and (U-Th)/He thermochronology,” Tectonics. Link to publication

August 2013 Accepted to University of Houston Ph.D. program in Geology with Joel Saylor.

August 2011 Accepted position with Schlumberger WesternGeco in Houston, TX.

August 2011 Master's thesis in Geology at the University of Kansas defended with honors: “Thermochronometric analysis of the North Lunggar Rift: Implications for the timing of extension initiation and structural style of deformation in southern Tibet.” Link to Thesis

April 2011 Poster presentation: Sundell, K., Taylor, M., Stockli, D., Styron, R., Kapp, P., Liu, D., Ding, L. (2011), “Low-temperature thermochronology of the North Lunggar Rift, west-central Tibet.” 2011 Annual AAPG SEG Spring Break Student Expo Norman, OK.

December 2010 Conference poster presentation: Taylor, M., Styron, R. Stockli, D., Sundell, K., Ding, L., “Preliminary Structural and thermochronological Observations from the South Lunggar Rift, Western Tibet,” American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract T43C-2243.

November 2010 Conference poster presentation: Styron, R., Taylor, M., Sundell, K., Stockli, D., Liu, D., Ding, L. (2010), “The South Lunggar Rift: A juvenile detachment in western Tibet?” GSA Abstracts with Programs Vol. 42, No. 5.

November 2010 Conference oral presentation: Sundell, K., Taylor, M., Stockli, D., Styron, R., Kapp, P., Liu, D., Ding, L., (2010), “Low-temperature thermochronology of the North Lunggar Rift, west-central Tibet,” GSA Abstracts with Programs Vol. 42, No. 5.

August 2010 Conference poster presentation: Sundell, K., Taylor, M., Stockli, D., Styron, R., Kapp, P., Liu, D., Ding, L. (2010), “Low-temperature thermochronology of the Lunggar Shan extensional system, west-central Tibet.” Thermo2010 12th International Conference on Thermochronology, Abstract.

April 2010 Conference oral presentation: undell, K., Taylor, M., Stockli, D., Kapp, P., Styron, R., Liu, D., Ding, L (2010), “Low-temperature thermochronology of the North Lunggar Rift, western Tibet,” G-Hawker Student Symposium, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.

December 2009 Conference poster presentation: Sundell, K., Taylor, M., Kapp, P., Stockli, D., Styron, R. (2009), “A field test of the rolling hinge model: Example from the Lunggar extensional system,” AGU Abstract, p. 2112.

October—November 2009 Field campaign in southern Tibet.

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