Education / Degree
Ph.D., University of Missouri, 1995
Research interest (Short)
Primary interests involve the tectonic and climatic geomorphology and active tectonics. Other interests are plate tectonics, structural geology, paleogeography, biogeography, and organic evolution. Present research involves landscape evolution of the Mississippi Valley and surrounding region, documentation of prehistoric earthquakes in the central US and Central America, and the effects of volcanic hotspots on moving crustal plates.
Courses taught
Quaternary Geology ESCI 7202
An overview of the processes operating during Quaternary that gave rise to the characteristics of Quaternary geologic materials and Quaternary landforms. Emphasis is on Quaternary climatic instability and its signature on geologic processes globally.
Tectonics ESCI 7311
Current thinking with respect to movement of the Earth’s lithosphere. Ideas discussed include: plate motions and the processes driving them; regional deformational styles associated with different types of plate margins; lithospheric stress regimes; and changes in tectonic style through geologic time.
Structural Geology ESCI 3512
Basic principles and analytical methods of structural geology. The focus of the course is the geometric description of structures and current ideas as to the processes that produce a given structural style. These topics are addressed at map scale, outcrop scale, and micro-scale.
Recent Publications
Garrote, J., Garzón Heydt, G., and Cox, R.T., Stream order influence in drainage basin asymmetry: relationship with fluvial terraces and neotectonics on the Madrid Basin (central Spain): in press, Geomorphology.
Cox, R.T., Hill, A.A., Larsen, D., Holzer, T., Forman, S.L., Noce, T., Gardner, C., Morat, J., 2007, Seismotectonic implications of sand blows in the southern Mississippi Embayment: Engineering Geology, 89: 278-299.
Van Arsdale, R.B., and Cox, R.T., 2007, The Mississippi River’s curious origins: Scientific American, January, p. 76-82B.
Cox, R.T., Cherryhomes, J., Harris, J.B., Larsen, D., Van Arsdale, R.B., and Forman, S.L., 2006, Paleoseismology of the southeastern Reelfoot rift in western Tennessee, U.S.A. and implications for intraplate fault zone evolution: Tectonics, v. 25, TC3019, doi:10.1029/2005TC001829, 17 p.
Garrote, J., Cox, R.T., Swann, C., and Ellis, M., 2006, Tectonic geomorphology of the eastern Mississippi Embayment in northern Mississippi: Geological Society of America Bulletin, 118: 1160-1170.
Cox, R. T., Larsen, D., Forman, S.L., Woods, J., Morat, J., and Galluzzi, J., 2004, Preliminary assessment of sand blows in the southern Mississippi Embayment: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 94: 1125-1142.
