Joe Kington - MS Student

About Me

I grew up in Perry County, TN, which happens to be the least densely populated county in Tennessee. I started my undergrad career intending to study engineering, spent awhile as a physics major, and finally recieved my B.S. in Geology from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville. I came to UA with the intention of studying costal sedimentology, but through a turn of events, I wound up working in extensional tectonics instead.

Research

Thesis draft
Thesis draft in journal-ish format (for eaiser reading/printing)

I work with Andy Goodliffe in the Marine Geophysics Group. My study area is in Woodlark Basin, Papua New Guinea. Unfortunately I've never been there, but I'm told it's quite an interesting place!

My current research involves comparing different estimates of crustal and lithospheric extension in order to gain insight into how continental lithosphere behaves during rifting and the transition to seafloor spreading.

Essentially I'm estimating brittle extension from faulting visible in 2D-seismic data and comparing this to estimates of crustal thinning from subsidence and overall extension from Euler pole solutions derived from the seafloor spreading history of the basin.

More details of my research can be found in my 2006 AGU poster (4.5 MB) (stripped down version, formatting, background, etc removed).

At the moment, I'm trying to use topography/bathymetry and gravity data to invert for long-wavelength changes in crustal thickness and lateral variations in density throughout Woodlark Basin in order to better constrain some of my estimations of subsidence and extension. Unfortunately (and unsuprisingly), the gravity anomaly isn't particularly sensitive to changes in the position and makeup of the lower and middle crust, and using topography to model the depth of the moho depends entirely on model of flexure chosen for the lithosphere, so this has proven to be somewhat difficult. However, there is very little tomography data available for the area. Therefore, for the present time, I'm trying various methods of modeling crustal structure in this region using gravity and topography data as constraints.

Conference Presentations

Kington, J. D., Goodliffe, A. M., Chapman, P., 2006. Rift Mechanics in Woodlark Basin--Brittle Extension, Total Extension, Subsidence, and Crustal Volume Balances. Eos Trans. AGU, 87(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract T53A-1569

Mills, H. H., Kington, J. D., Shoffeitt, S., Briggs, J. H., and McMichael, J., C., 2006. Using Natural Tracers to Infer the Geomorphic Evolution of the Eastern Highland Rim, Tennessee. Abstracts with Programs, Geological Society of America. 38; 3; p 27.

Kington, J. D. IV, Harrison, M., Knox, L., and Mills, H., 2005. The Geology of Burgess Falls State Park, Tennessee: Public Education in Geology. Abstracts with Programs, Geological Society of America, 37; 7; p 396.

Krueger, T. C., Ravenel, E. H., Kington, J. D., Fridriksson, T., Reynolds, J., 2005. GSA’s 2004 Student Geoventures Trip to Iceland. Abstracts with Programs, Geological Society of America, 37; 2; p. 9.

Kington, J. D., Stapor, F. W., 2005. Paleotopographic Control on the Location of Transgressive Systems Tract Parasequences; Mississippian (Chesterian) Hartselle Formation, North-Central Tennessee. Abstracts with Programs, Geological Society of America, 37; 2, p. 38.

Other Work

In addition to the research mentioned above, I make visualizations and animations for Geo 101 classes to use on the Geowall, and I'm currently in the process of desiging a geodatabase, loosely based on the ArcMarine data model, and an IMS to serve out geophysical, geologic, and assorted other data for Woodlark Basin.

Also, last summer I was hired to create the department website, so if anything isn't working, or you think the whole thing is an eyesore, I'm the one to blame.

Contact Info

E-mail: jdkingtoniv@bama.ua.edu
Office: Room 201 Bevill, Cubicle "I". However, you're far more likely to find me in the computer lab in Room 266.

Unrelated Tidbits

I promised a friend of mine I'd put some recordings I made awhile back online, so here they are... Be forewarned, these aren't exactly stellar!

Leaving - This should probably be titled "All the way gone", but I like short titles.
"Bouncy" Track - Quick recording of a currently untitled song
Anabelle - Gillian Welch cover. Poor recording, but I'm proud of my harp playing in this one.
Upwards Over the Mountain - Iron & Wine Cover. I just like this song. Hard for me to sing in Em, though...
Echoes - Rather selfish lyrics... I like it anyway, though! I got a bit carried away with the harmonica on this one...
Wounds - Another depressing song. Again, one I like and tend to play a lot, regardless.

UA Department of Geological Sciences | Box 870338 | Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 | Phone: (205)348-5095 | Fax: (205)348-0818