B. Brandon Curry

Phone: 217-244-5787 • Fax: 217-244-2785
E-mail: curry@isgs.uiuc.edu

Major Research Interests

• Glacial stratigraphy and environmental geology
• Paleohydrology, Paleolimnology, ostracodes
• History and paleoenvironments of deglacial successions

Current Research Projects

• Geologic mapping of the Hampshire, Marengo South, Big Rock, and West Chicago quadrangles
• Paleohydrology, paleovegetation, and paleoclimate during the last transition from glacial to interglacial in northeastern Illinois
• Leading the 2008 Friends of the Pleistocene excursion, May 17-18. Tentative theme: "Deglacial lakes, torrents, charismatic megafauna, and cosmic dust"
• Geology-for-planning, Kane County
• Ice-walled lake deposits; age and environments
• Understanding the deposits and landforms associated with the Kankakee Torrent

Selected Publications

Recent Maps

Curry, B.B., 2007. Surficial Geology of Elgin Quadrangle, Cook and Kane Counties, Illinois. Illinois State Geological Survey, Illinois Geological Quadrangle Map, IGQ - Elgin -SG. 1:24,000. Three sheets. (This link also provides access to bedrock topography, drift thickness, and data point location maps for the Elgin Quadrangle).

Curry, B.B., 2005. Surficial Geology of Crystal Lake Quadrangle, Kane and McHenry Counties, Illinois. Illinois State Geological Survey, Illinois Geological Quadrangel map, IGQ - Crystal Lake - SG. 1:24,000. Three sheets. (This link also provides access to bedrock topography, and data point location maps for the Crystal Lake Quadrangle).

Recent Presentations (posters)

Curry, B.B., 2006. Subtle ice-walled lake terraces identified and mapped with shaded relief maps of 2-ft DEMs from aerial photography or LIDAR. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 38(7): 164. (Warning: 33M PDF file)

Journal Publications

Nelson, D.M., F.S. Hu, E.C. Grimm, B.B. Curry, and J.E. Slate, 2006, The influence of aridity and fire on Holocene prairie communities in the eastern Prairie Penninsula, Ecology 87: 2523-2536.

Curry, B.B. and C.H. Yansa, 2004 (published in 2006), Evidence of stagnation of the Harvard sublobe (Lake Michigan lobe) in northeastern Illinois, USA, from 24,000 to 17,600 BP and subsequent tundra-like ice-marginal paleoenvironments from 17,600 to 15,700 BP. Géographie physique et Quaternaire 58: 305-321.

Curry, B.B. and D.A. Grimley, 2006, Provenance, age and environment of mid-Wisconsin Episode slackwater lake sediment in the St. Louis Metro East area. Quaternary Research 65: 108-122.

Zhou, J., C. Lundstrom, B. Fouke, S. Panno, K. Hackley and B. Curry, 2005. Geochemistry of speleothems records from southern Illinois: development of (234U/238U) as a proxy for paleoprecipitation. Chemical Geology 221: 1-20

Panno, S.V., B.B. Curry, H. Wang, K.C. Hackley, and C-L. Liu, in press, Climate change in southern Illinois, USA, based on the age and δ ¹³C of organic matter in cave sediments: Quaternary Research 64: 301-313.

Web Site

Forester, R.M., A.J. Smith, D.F. Palmer, and B.B. Curry, 2006. North American Non-Marine Ostracode Database "NANODe", Version 1, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA.

Recent Grant Awards

Grimm, E.C., B.B. Curry, and J.W. Williams, 09/2006 to 09/2008, "Collaborative Research: A Late-Glacial Model System for Studying Fine-Scale Vegetational Responses to Abrupt Climate Chgange" funded by the Ecology program of the National Science Foundation Program. Amount: $500,000.

Ordering information for Illinois State Geological Survey Publications.