My science consists of trying to use mathematical and physics to better understand the history of the earth and includes tectonic problems from the thermal properties of the oceanic lithosphere to the subsidence patterns of the Michigan Basin and from simple passive margins to the effects of extra terrestrial impact. Superimposed on this problem is an abiding need to understand and delineate the magnitude and timing of eustatic (global) sea-level change through time at time scales from 200 million years to as short as 10 thousand years (first to fifth order). This also often brings me into the realm of quantifying the timing and periodicity of climatic cyclicity, which I have studied in rocks from the last million years to rocks as old as Cambrian (530 m.y.). My passion is to quantify geologic problems with an honesty that includes an honest assessment of the uncertainty involved in that quantification.

Educational Background

PhD: Columbia University (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory) (geology) May 1986. (Advisor: W.C. Pitman III
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu

MS: University of Rhode Island (Graduate School of Oceanography) (oceanography) December 1978. (Advisor G. Ross Heath)
http://www.gso.uri.edu

BA: Colby College, Waterville, Maine (mathematics, magna cum laude) June 1975.
http://www.colby.edu

Research Specializations

Have spreading rates changed over the past 160 million years? What is the relationship between depth and age of ocean lithosphere?  Is there a discernable impact due to dynamic tectonics? Are there discernable differences between ocean basins? Have ridge volume changed with time? How has this impacted global sea level? How has this impacted the chemistry of the oceans and atmosphere?  Climatic implications?
Application of geophysical principles to understand the processes behind the sedimentary record. Has sea-level changed on a global basis?  If so, by how much,when? What are the physical responses to lithosphere due to thermal and mechanicalloading? What thermal and mechanical loads have been applied to the lithosphere? How much and when? How do continental interior basins form?  Why do they subside?
What are the driving forces behind the earth's climate record? Are they stochastic, chaotic or periodic? Is there an orbital signal? Have the driving forces changed over geologic time?

Ongoing Projects

Estimating the effects of ocean volume change on sea level over the last 160 Ma:  This is a collaborative project with Dr. Chris Scotese. (link to: http://www.scotese.com/research.htm).  This will include paleo-reconstructions by Dr. Scotese, generating new seafloor age vs. depth curves, sediment thickness and density (for unloading and for space considerations, and volume through time analyses of mid-ocean ridges, LIPS (large igneous provinces), orogenesis and passive margin formation. An introduction to the problem was given at at WMU Geosciences Department seminar in 2002 and is reproduced, with minor modifications at this link (link to power point document, attached).

Estimating third-order sea-level change from backstripping of passive margin and coastal plain boreholes. In conjunction with Dr. Kenneth Miller. (http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~kgm/coastalplain/).

Courses Taught

GEOS 322 - Ocean Systems
GEOS 650/502 - QuantitativeStratigraphy
GEOS 560 - Introduction to Geophysics

Selected Publications [5]

1. 2004, Miller, Kenneth G.; Sugarman, Peter J.; Browning, James V.; Kominz, Michelle A.; Olsson, Richard K.; Feigenson, Mark D.; Hernandez, John C., Upper Cretaceous sequences and sea-level history, New Jersey coastal plain. Geological Society of America Bulletin, v.116, p. 368-393.


2. 2001, Kominz, Michelle A., and Stephen F. Pekar, Oligocene Eustasy From Two-Dimensional, Sequence Stratigraphic Backstripping, Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 113, p. 291-304


3. 1999, Yang, Wan, Kominz, Michelle A., Testing periodicity of cyclic sequences, Cisco Group (Virgilian and Wolfcampian), Texas : Journal of Sedimentary Research, Section B, p. 1209-1231.


4. 1996 Kominz, M.A., Whither Cyclostratigraphy? Testing the Gamma Method on Upper Pleistocene Deep-Sea Sediments: North Atlantic Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 609, Paleoceanography. v. 11, p. 481-504.


5. 1995 Kominz, M.A., Thermally subsiding basins and the effect of sediments with application to the Cambro-Ordovician Great Basin sequence, western U. S. , Basin Research, v. 7, p. 221-233.