Current Post: Professor of Environmental Earth Science

Room Number: 1.45

Telephone: 01603 593759 (+44 1603 593759)

Fax: 01603 591327 (+44 1603 591327)

Email: j.alexander@uea.ac.uk

Publications: EPrints Digital Repository

Posts of Special Responsibility:

• Joint Sector Head - Earth Sciences
• Course Director, BSc/MSci Environmental Earth Sciences

Sediment erosion, transport and deposition in extreme events (particularly high magnitude floods, submarine gravity currents); sedimentary bedforms and structures; tectonic and climatic controls on sediment distribution; geological record of environmental change.
 

Biography

The sedimentary processes and products of extreme events fascinate me. How is sediment eroded, transported and deposited in floods and sub-aqueous flows? What controls how sediments accumulate over long periods of time and how can understanding modern events help interpretation of the rock record? Over the years I have studied sedimentary processes and products in rivers, lakes and seas of North America, Australia and Europe, and also undertaken a wide range of laboratory experiments to understand processes (see Environmental Sedimentary Fluid Dynamics Laboratory web site). After obtaining a BSc in Geology from Bristol University and a PhD in Sedimentology from Leeds University, I became a lecturer in Geology at the University of Wales, Cardiff. There, over a period of 10 years, I honed my teaching skills, developed a new sedimentology laboratory and research group and widened my interests from controls on fluvial sedimentary architecture into deep marine sedimentary processes. In 1996, I took up this post at UEA and in June 2009 appointed to a Chair in Environmental Earth Science.
 

Significant Publications

• Alexander, J., Barclay, J., Sušnik, J., Loughlin, S.C., Herd, R.A., Darnell, A. & Crosweller, S. 2010. Sediment-charged flash floods on Montserrat: The influence of synchronous tephra fall and varying extent of vegetation damage. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 194, 127–138. doi:10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2010.05.002
• Fielding, C.R., Allen, J.P., Alexander J. & Gibling, M.R. 2009. A facies model for fluvial systems in the seasonal tropics: modern and ancient examples. Geology, 37(7), 623-626. DOI: 10.1130/G25727A.1
• Macdonald, R.G., Alexander, J., Bacon, J.C. and Cooker, M.J. 2009. Flow patterns, sedimentation and deposit architecture under a hydraulic jump on a non-eroding bed: defining hydraulic-jump unit bars. Sedimentology 56, 1346-1367. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-3091.2008.01037.x
• Alexander, J., McLelland, S., Gray, T., Vincent, C.E., Leeder, M.R. & Ellett, S. 2008. Laboratory sustained turbidity currents form elongate ridges at channel mouths. Sedimentology 55, 845–868. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3091.2007.00923
• Gray, T.E, Alexander, J. & Leeder, M.R. 2005. Quantifying velocity and turbulence structure in depositing sustained turbidity currents across breaks in slope. Sedimentology, 52, 467-488.
• Alexander, J., Bridge, J.S., Cheel, R. & LeClair, S. 2001. Bedforms and associated sedimentary structures formed under supercritical water flows over aggrading sand beds. Sedimentology, 48, 133-152. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-3091.2001.00357.x
• Mulder, T & Alexander, J. 2001a. The physical character of subaqueous sedimentary density currents and their deposits. Sedimentology, 48, 269-299. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-3091.2001.00360.x
• Alexander, J., Bridge, J.S., Gawthorpe, R.L., Leeder, M.R. & Collier, R.E.Ll. Holocene meander belt evolution in an extensional basin, SW Montana USA. Journal of Sedimentary Research 64 B, 542-559.