Evey Gannaway Dalton
(she/her)
Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, and Tectonics | Price Campus
Assistant Professor
Contact Information
Office Location: Reeves 263Phone: 435-613-5017
Email: evey.gannawaydalton@usu.edu
Educational Background
Biography
I am a broadly trained sedimentologist and stratigrapher with expertise in both carbonate and siliciclastic rocks, sedimentary basin analysis, and salt tectonics. I have a BS (2009) from The University of the South and a MS (2014) and PhD (2019) from UTEP.
Teaching Interests
I teach courses ranging from introductory geoscience, natural disasters, dinosaurs, and US national parks, as well as my area of expertise – sedimentology, stratigraphy, and Earth’s history. My teaching philosophy emphasizes the interconnectedness of Earth's systems with humanity as a unifying them of scientific inquiry, while also modeling a learning mindset for my students with respect to the geosciences and the broader world. Throughout, I approach all of my courses with a passion for instilling not just an appreciation of the Earth sciences, but also an application of its importance both personally and globally.
Research Interests
My research examines the intimate relationship between tectonics and sedimentation with particular interest in how the sedimentary record can reveal hidden or “missing” processes in the realm of salt tectonics. Often these processes are otherwise hidden by erosion, burial, deformation, diagenesis, etc., so I use outcrop-based sedimentologic, stratigraphic, structural, and geochemical analyses of the sedimentary growth strata adjacent to salt bodies to interpret their geologic evolution. As part of the Salt-Sediment Interaction Research Consortium (S-SIRC), I explore a range of salt-related features, including megaflaps, salt shoulders, allocthonous salt breakout, carbonate caprock, and intrasalt inclusions, in field areas such as the Paradox Basin (UT/CO), Flinders Ranges (South Australia), and Pyrenees (Spain).
Additionally, I investigate the tectonostratigraphic record of the North Horn Formation in Utah with collaborators from the Prehistoric Museum at USU Eastern and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Despite spanning the end-Mesozoic mass extinction, the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary is not well-defined here, an issue we seek to resolve with various stratigraphic and geochemical methods. This work supports broader efforts to constrain the temporal occurrence and duration of North Horn fossils, understand Utah terrestrial ecosystems before, during, and after the mass extinction event, and fill a spatial gap with regional correlations elsewhere in western North America.
Awards
Departmental Teacher of the Year, 2024
USU Department of Geosciences
Publications | Books
An asterisk (*) at the end of a publication indicates that it has not been peer-reviewed.
Publications | Journal Articles
Academic Journal
- Gannaway Dalton, C.E, (2022). Interpreting the nature of the Aulet and Adons diapirs from sedimentologic and stratigraphic analysis of flanking minibasin strata, Spanish Pyrenees, Catalunya. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 92:3, 167-209. doi: 10.2110/jsr.2021.179
- Gannaway Dalton, C.E, (2020). Sedimentologic, stratigraphic, and structural evolution of minibasins and a megaflap formed during passive salt diapirism: the Neoproterozoic Witchelina diapir, Willouran Ranges, South Australia. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 90:2, 165-199. doi: 10.2110/jsr.2020.9
- Gannaway Dalton, C.E, (2019). Structural and Stratigraphic Evolution of the Sinbad Valley Salt Wall, NE Paradox Basin, SW Colorado. Geosphere, 16:1, 297-328. doi: 10.1130/GES02089.1
- Gannaway Dalton, C.E, (2019). Origin of the Neoproterozoic Rim Dolomite as Lateral Carbonate Caprock, Patawarta Salt Sheet, Flinders Ranges, South Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 67:6, 815-832. doi: 10.1080/0812009.2019.15588695
- Gannaway Dalton, C.E, (2019). A review of allochthonous salt tectonics in the Flinders and Willouran ranges, South Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 67:6, 787-813. doi: 10.1080/08120099.2018.1553063
An asterisk (*) at the end of a publication indicates that it has not been peer-reviewed.
Publications | Other
An asterisk (*) at the end of a publication indicates that it has not been peer-reviewed.