Dennis R. Kolata

Quaternary Geology Staff Page

Illinois State Geological Survey
274 Natural Resources Building
615 E. Peabody Drive
Champaign, IL 61820

Phone: 217- 244-2189
E-mail: kolata@isgs.illinois.edu

Research Interests

• Tectonic history of the Midcontinent U.S.
• Structural and Stratigraphic framework of the Illinois Basin
• Early Paleozoic sedimentary processes in eastern North America
• Ordovician and Silurian explosive volcanism in the Iapetus region (North and South America and Europe): tectonic and event-stratigraphic implications
• Evolution and paleobiology of lower Paleozoic echinoderms, particularly cornute and mitrate carpoids

Current Projects

• Tectonomagmatic and Event-Stratigraphic Significance of Ordovician and Silurian K-bentonite beds in North and South America and Europe - a cooperative project with Warren D. Huff (University of Cincinnati) and Stig M. Bergström (Ohio State University).
• Nature and regional significance of unconformities in the Middle Ordovician succession of the Midcontinent U.S. - a cooperative project with Warren D. Huff (University of Cincinnati) and Stig M. Bergström (Ohio State University).
• Outcrop and Subsurface Mapping of the Middle Ordovician Platteville, Decorah, and Galena Carbonate Rocks of Northern Illinois.

Selected Publications

Kolata, D.R., T.J. Frest, and R.H. Mapes, 1991, The youngest carpoid: occurrence, affinities and life mode of a Pennsylvanian mitrate from Oklahoma: Journal of Paleontology, v. 65, no. 5, p. 844-855

Kolata, D.R., Huff, W.D., Bergström, S.M., 1996, Ordovician K-bentonites of eastern North America: Geological Society of America Special Paper 313, 84 p.

Kolata, D.R., and Hildenbrand, T.G., 1997, Structural Underpinnings and Neotectonics of the Southern Illinois Basin: An Overview, In Hildenbrand, T.G. and Kolata, D.R., eds., Investigations of the Illinois Basin Earthquake Region: Seismological Research Letters, v. 68, no. 4, p. 499-510.

Kolata, D.R., and Nelson, W.J., 1997, Role of the Reelfoot Rift-Rough Greek Graben in the evolution of the Illinois Basin, in Ojakangas, R.W., Dickas, A.B., and Green, J.C., eds., Middle Proterozoic to Cambrian rifting, central North America: Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America Special Paper 312, p. 287-298.

Kolata, D.R., Huff, W.D., Bergström, S.M., 1998, Nature and regional significance of unconformities associated with the Middle Ordovician Hagan K-bentonite complex in the North American midcontinent: Geological Society of America Bulletins, v. 110, no. 6, p. 723-739.

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