Research/Publications

Our research interests are centered on gaining new understanding of the progression and mechanisms of environmental and climate change in the past 250,000 years of Earth's history. Investigations are often collaborative, bridging multiple disciplines, and combine field interpretations and analytical measurements, with geophysical modeling. This approach underscores the importance of translating site-specific geomorphic or stratigraphic observations or measurements to regional and global contexts on various time scales. We see an endless horizon of exciting and significance science, much, if not all collaborative with students and colleagues from many continents.

The accurate and precise measuring of geologic time is a critical component in the earth sciences. A long-standing research focus is the development and application of luminescence geochronology to decipher the timing of late Quaternary (past 250 ka) climatic and environmental events, such as paleoearthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, lake level oscillations, fluvial degradation and aggradation, eolian deposition, burial of paleosurfaces, droughts and periods of human habitation. Analytical approaches employed include recent advances in optically stimulated luminescence using small aliquots of quartz and single grain dating. Recent research is tapping deeper trapped electrons in quartz and feldspar using the thermally-transferred signal which extend dating possibilities to 1 to 2 million years. The research horizons from the vantage point of luminescence physics is broad and deep, with recent collaborations on understanding the source of charge with triboluminescence and electron storage potential for synthetic silica nano-compounds for solar cells.

---

Publications since 2005

Booth, R. K., Jackson, S. T., Forman, S. L., Bettis, E. A. III, Kreig, J., Wright, D. K., and Kutzbach, J.E., 2005. Severe Centennial-Scale Drought in Continental North America 4200 years ago. Holocene 15(3), 321-328.

Argyilan, E. P., Forman, S. L., Johnston, J. and Wilcox, D., 2005. Optically stimulated luminescence dating of late Holocene raised strandline sequences adjacent to southern Lake Superior, Upper Peninsula, Michigan USA. Quaternary Research 63, 122-135.

French, H. M., Demitroff, M., and Forman, S. L., 2005. Late Pleistocene periglacial landscapes in the new Jersey Pine Barrens (Latitude 39º N), eastern USA. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 16, 173-186.

Marin, L. Forman, S. L., Valdez, A. and Bunch F. 2005. 20th Century dune movements Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Colorado and relation to drought variability. Geomorphology 70, 163-183.

Forman, S. L., Marín, L., Pierson, J., Gómez, J., Miller, G. H., and Webb, R. S., 2005. Deciphering eolian depositional records from western Nebraska: Potential landscape response to megadroughts in the past 1500 years. Holocene 15(7), 973-981.

Duffield, W., Riggs, N. Kaufman, D., Champion, D, Fenton, C., Forman, S., McIntosh, W., Hereford, R., and Plescia, J., 2006. Multiple constraints on the age of a Pleistocene lava dam across the Little Colorado River at Grand Falls, Arizona. The Geological Society of America Bulletin 118(3/4), 421-429.

Andreev, A., Forman, S.L., Ingolfsson, O, and Manley, W., 2006. Middle Weichselian environments on western Yamal Peninsula, Kara Sea based on pollen records. Quaternary Research 65, 275-281.

Forman, S. L., Spaeth, M., Marín, L., Pierson, J. and Gómez, J., 2006. Episodic late Holocene dune movements on the sand sheet area, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, San Luis Valley, Colorado. Quaternary Research 66, 97-108.

Cox, R. T., Cherryhomess, J., Harris, J. B., Larsen, D. Van Arsdale, R.B. and Forman, S. L., 2006. Paleoseismology of the southeastern Reelfoot rift in western Tennessee, USA and implications for intraplate fault zone evolution. Tectonics 25 (3), Art. No. TC3019.

Möller, P. Ingólfsson, O., Lubinski, D. J., Forman, S.L., Seidenkrantz, M-S., Bolshiyanov, D. Y., Lokrantz, H., Antonov, O., Pavlov, M., Ljung, K., Zeeberg, J. J. and Andreev, A., 2006. Severnaya Zemlya, arctic Russia: a nucleation area for Kara Sea ice sheets during the Middle to Late Quaternary. Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 2894-2936.

Holliday, V. T., Huckell, B. B., Mayer, J. H., Forman, S. L. and McFadden, L., 2006. Geoarchaeology of the Boca Negra wash area, Albuquerque Basin, New Mexico. Geoarchaeology 21(8), 765-802.

Wagner, B., Melles, M., Doran, F., Kenig, F., Forman, S. L., Pireau, R. and Allen, P., Glacial and postglacial sedimentation in the Fryxell basin,Taylor Valley, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology 241(2), 320-337.

Baldwin, J. N., Witter, R. C., Vaughn, J. D., Harris, J. B., Sexton, J. L., Lake, M., Forman, S. L., and Barron, A. D., 2006. Geological characterization of the Idalia Hill Fault Zone and its structural association with the Commerce Geophysical Lineament, Idalia, Missouri. The Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 96(6), 2281-2303.

Anikovich, M. V., Sinitsyn, A. A., Hoffecker, J. F., Holliday, V. T., Popov, V. V., Lisitsyn, S. N., Forman, S. L., Levkovskaya, G. M., Pospelova, G. A., Kuz’mina, I. E., Burova, N. D., Goldberg, P. Macphail, R.I., Giaccio, B. and Praslov, N. D., 2007. Early Upper Paleolithic in Eastern Europe and Implications for the Dispersal of Modern Humans. Science 315, 223-226.

Forman, S. L., Pierson, J., Gomez, Brigham-Grette, J. and Nowaczyk, N. R., 2007. Luminescence geochronology for sediments from Lake El’gygytgyn, northeast Siberia, Russia: Constraining the timing of paleoenvironmental events for the past 200 ka. Journal of Paleolimnology 37, 77-88.

French, H., Demitroff, M., Forman, S. L., and Newell, W., 2007. Late-Pleistocene permafrost events in southern New Jersey, Eastern USA. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 18, 49-59.

Cox, R.T., Hill, A.A., Larsen, D, Holzer, T., Forman, S.L, Noce, T., Gardner, C. and Morat, J., 2007. Seismotectonic implications of sand blows in the Southern Mississippi Embayment. Engineering Geology 89(3-4), 278-299.

Wright, D., Forman, S. L., Pierson, J., Gomez, and J. Tattersfield, P., 2007. Stratigraphic and geochronologic context of human habitation along the Galana River, Kenya. Geoarchaeology 22 (7), 709-728.

Forman, S. L., Marín, L., van der veen, K., Temper, K. and Csatho, B., 2007. Little Ice Age and neoglacial landforms at the Inland Ice Margin, Insunguata sermia, west Greenland. Boreas 36, 341-351.

Tripaldi, A. and Forman, S. L., 2007. Geomorphology and chronology of Late Quaternary dune fields of western Argentina. Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology 252(2), 300-320.

Briner, J. P., Axford, Y. Forman, S. L., Miller, G. H. and Wolfe, A. P., 2007. Multiple generations of interglacial lake sediment preserved beneath the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Geology 35(10), 887-890.

Holliday, V.T. Hoffecker, J. F., Goldberg, P., Macphail, R. I., Forman, S. L., Anikovich, M. and Sinitsyn, A, 2007.Geoarchaeology of the Kostenki-Borshchevo sites, Don River Valley, Russia. Geoarchaeology 22(2), 181-228.

Scholz1, C. A., Johnson, T. C. Cohen, A. S., King, J., Peck, J., Overpeck, J.T., Talbot, M. R., Brown E. T., Kalindekafe, L., Amoako, P. Y.O., Lyons, R.P., Shanahan, T.M., Castaneda, I. S., Heil, C. W., Forman, S. L., McHargue, L. R., Beunin, K.R., Gomez, J., and Pierson, J., 2007. East African megadroughts between 135-75 kyr ago and implications for early human history. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (42), 16416-16421.

Madsen, D. B., Haizhou, M., Rhode, D., Brantingham, P. J., and Forman, S. L., 2008. Age constraints on the Late Pleistocene evolution of Qinghai Lake, Tibetan Plateau. Quaternary Research 69, 316-325.

Schaetzl, R. J. and Forman, S. L., 2008. OSL ages on glaciofluvial sediment in northern Lower Michigan constrain expansion of the Laurentide ice sheet. Quaternary Research 70, 81-90.

Forman, S.L., Sagintayev, Z., Sultan, M., Smith, S., Becker, R. Kendall, M. and Marin, L. 2008. The migration of parabolic dunes and wetland formation at Cape Cod National Sea Shore, MA: Landscape response to a legacy of environmental disturbance. Holocene 18(5), 765-774.

Forman, S.L., Marín, L., Gomez, J. and Pierson J., 2008. Late Quaternary eolian sand depositional record for southwestern Kansas: Landscape sensitivity to droughts. Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology 265, 107-120.

Waters, M. R., Forman, S. L., Stafford, T.S. and Foss, J. 2008. Geoarchaeological investigations at the Topper and Big Pine Tree Sites, Allendale County, Central Savannah River, South Carolina. Journal of Archaeological Sciences 36, 1300-1311.

Forman, S. L., Nordt, L., Gomez, J. and Pierson, J., 2009. Late Holocene dune migration on the south Texas sand sheet. Geomorphology 108, 159-170.

French, H. M., Demitroff , M., Streletskiy, M. D., Forman, S. L., Gozdzik J., Konishchev V. N., Rogov, V. V., and Lebedeva-Verba, M. P., 2009. Evidence for Late-Pleistocene Permafrost in the Pine Barrens, Southern New Jersey, USA, Earth’s Cryosphere 3, 17-28.

Seifert, C.S., Cox, R.T., Foti, T.L., Forman, S.L., Wasklewicz, T.A., and McColgan, A.T., 2009. Relict nebkhas (pimple mounds) record extreme late Holocene drought in the south-central United States. Quaternary Research 71, 329-339.

Forman, S.L., Pierson, J. and Gomez, J., 2010. Glacial Lake Quincy, An Illinoian deglacial sequence in central Indiana. Quaternary Research 73(2), 374-384.

Benedetti. M. M., Haws, Funk, C.A., Daniels, J.M., Hesp. P.A., Bicho, N. F., Minckle, T.A., Ellwood,B. B., and Forman, S. L., 2010. Late Pleistocene raised beaches of coastal Estremadura, central Portugal. Quaternary Science Reviews 28(27-28), 3428-3447.

Rhodes, D., Haizhou, M., Madsen, D.B., P. Brantingham J., Forman, S.L. and Olsen, J. E., 2010. Paleoenvironmental and archaeological investigations at Qinghai Lake, western China: Geomorphic and chronometric evidence of lake level history. Quaternary International 219, 29-44

Argyilan, E. P., Forman, S. L., and Thompson, T.A., 2010. Variability of Lake Michigan water level during the past 1000 years reconstructed through optical dating of coastal strandplain: Holocene 20 (5), 723-731.

Palyvos N., Pavlopoulos K., Froussou E., Kranis H., Pustovoytov K., Forman, S.L., Minos-Minopoulos D., 2010. Paleoseismological investigation of the oblique-normal Ekkara ground rupture zone accompanying the M 6.7-7.0 earthquake on 30 April 1954 in Thessaly, Greece: Archaeological and geochronological constraints on ground rupture recurrence . Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth 115, B06301

Milana, J. P., Forman, S.L. and Kröhling, D. 2010. The largest wind ripples on Earth: Reply. Geology 38(9), 219-220.

Bright, J., Kaufman, D. S., Mead, J.I., Forman, S.L., Esser, R. P. and Pigati, J. S., 2010. Comparative dating of a fossiliferous, Bison-bearing, late-Pleistocene deposit, San Clémente de Térapa, Sonora, México. Quaternary Geochronology 5(6), 631-643.

Tripaldi, A., Ciccioli, P.L. Alonso, S., and Forman, S.L., 2010. Petrography and geochemistry of late Quaternary dune fields of western Argentina: Provenance of aeolian materials in southern South America. Aeolian Research, 2(1), 33-48.

Cox, R.T., Gordon, J., Forman, S L. Brezina, T., Negrau, M., Hill, A., Gardner, C. and Machin, S., 2010. Paleoseismic sand blows in north Louisiana and south Arkansas. Seismological Research Letters, 81 (6), 1032-1047.

Haws, J.A., Benedetti, M.M., Funk, C.L., Bicho, N.F., Daniels, J.M., Hesp, P.A., Minckley, T. A., Forman, S. L., Jeraj, M., Gibaja, J. F., and Hockett, B. S., 2010. Coastal Wetlands and the Neanderthal Settlement of Portuguese Estremadura. Geoarchaeology 25(6), 709-744.

Waters, M.R. Forman, S. L. Jennings, T. A., Nordt, L. C., Driese, S. G., Feinberg, J. M., Keene, J. L., Halligan, J., Lindquist, A., Pierson, J., Hallmark, C. T., Collins, M. B. and Wiederhold, J. E., 2011. The Buttermilk Creek Complex and the Origins of Clovis at the Debra L. Friedkin Site, Texas. Science 331(6024), 1599-1603.

Wright, D., Forman, S. L., Waters, M. and Ravesloot, J., 2011. Holocene eolian activity as a proxy for broad-scale landscape change on the Gila River Indian Community, Arizona. Quaternary Research 76 (1), 10-21.

Wright, D. and Forman, S. L., 2011. Holocene occupation of the Mount Porr strand plain in southern Lake Turkana, Kenya. Nyame Akuma 76, 47-62.

Blumer, B. E., Arbogst, A. F. and Forman, S.L., 2011. The OSL chronology of eolian sand deposition in a perched dune field along the northwestern shore of Lower Michigan. Quaternary Research 77, 445-455.

Lovis, W. A., G. Monaghan, W., Arbogast, A. F. and Forman, S.L., 2011. Differential temporal and spatial preservation of archaeological aites in a Great Lakes (USA) coastal zone. American Antiquity 77(3), 591-608.

Londono, A. C., Forman, S. L., Eichler, T. and Pierson, J., 2012. Episodic eolian deposition in the past ca. 50,000 years in the Alto Ilo dune field, southern Peru. Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology 346-347, 12-24.

Brown, N., Forman, S. L., 2012. Evaluating a SAR TT-OSL protocol for dating fine-grained quartz within Late Pleistocene loess deposits in the Missouri and Mississippi river valleys, United States. Quaternary Geochronology 12, 87-97.

Ahr, S. N., Nordt, L. and Forman, S. L., 2013. Soil genesis, optical dating, and geoarchaeological evaluation of two upland Alfisol pedons within the Tertiary Gulf Coastal Plain. Geoderma 192, 211-236.

Shanahan, T. M., Peck, J.A., Mckay, N., Heil, Jr, C. W., King, J., Forman, S.L. Hoffman, D., Overpeck, J. T., and Scholz, C., 2013. Age models for long lacustrine sediment records using multiple dating approaches - an example from Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana. Quaternary Geochronology 15, 47-60.

Johnston, J.W., Argyilan, E. P., Thompson, T.A., Baedke, S. J., Lepper, K. Wilcox. D. A. and Forman, S.L., 2013. A Sault-outlet-referenced mid- to late-Holocene paleohydrograph for Lake Superior constructed from strandplains of beach ridges. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 49, 1263-1279.

Meier, H. A., Nordt L. C., Forman, S. L., and Driese, S.G., 2013. Late Quaternary alluvial history of the middle Owl Creek drainage basin in central Texas: A record of geomorphic response to environmental change. Quaternary International 306. 24-41.

Tripaldi, A. Zárate, M.A., Forman, S.L., Badger, T. and Doyle. M.E., 2013. Drought episode in the western Pampas (Argentina, South America) during the early-mid 20th century: geological evidence, climatic pattern and paleoclimatic inferences. Holocene 23, 1729-1744.

Meier, H. A., Driese, S. G., Nordt, L. C., Forman, S.L. and Dworkin, S. I., 2013. Interpretation of Lake Quaternary climate and landscape variability based upon paleosol macro-and micromorphology, and stable isotopes of soil organic matter, Owl Creek, central Texas, Catena 114, .157-168.

Hoffecker, J. F., Holliday V. T., Stepanchuk, V. N., Brugère, A., Forman, S.L., Goldberg, P., Tubolzev, O., and Pisarev, I., 2014. Geoarchaeological and bioarchaeological studies at Mira, an early Upper Paleolithic site in the Lower Dnepr Valley, Ukraine. Geoarchaeology 29, 61-77.

Schaetzl, R. L., Forman, S.L., Attig, J., 2014. Optical ages on loess derived from outwash surfaces constrain Chippewa Lobe glacial history, Wisconsin, USA. Quaternary Research 81(2), 318-329.

Yang, S., Forman, S.L., Song, Y. Pierson, J., and Mazzocco J., Shi, Z. and Fang, X., 2014. Evaluating OSL-SAR protocols for dating quartz grains from the loess in Ili Basin, Central Asia. Quaternary Geochronology 20, 78-88.

Wright, D.K., Thompson, J., Mackay, A. Welling, M., Forman, S. L., Price, G. Cohen, A. Greaves, A. and Gomani-Chindebvu, E., 2014. Renewed geoarchaeological investigations of Mwanganda’s Village (Elephant Site), Karongo, Malawi. Geoarchaeology 29(2), 98-120.

Waitukaitus, S., Lee, V. Pierson, J. Forman, S.L., and Jaeger, H. M., 2014. Size-dependent, same-material tribicharging in insulating grains. Physical Review Letters.

Forman, S.L., Tripaldi, A. Ciccioli, P.L., 2014. Sand sheet deposition in the San Luis paleodune field, western Argentina as an indicator of a semi-arid environment through the Holocene. Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology 411, 122-135,

Forman, S.L., Wright, D.W and Blozsies, C., 2014. Variations in Lake Turkana water levels in the past 9000 years near Mt. Porr, Kenya and potential linkages to variability in the East African Monsoon. Quaternary Science Reviews 97, 81-101.

Vargas, G., Klinger, Y., Rockwell, T. Forman, S.L., Rebolledo, S., Lacassin, R., and Armijo, R., (in press) Potential for a large earthquake rupture of the West Andean Thrust in Santiago, Chile. Geology.

Bloszies, C., Forman, S.L. (in press) Potential controls of equatorial sea surface temperatures on historic water level variability for Lake Turkana, Kenya. Journal of Hydrology.