Research

Nick Eyles holds a Ph.D (East Anglia) and D.Sc. (Leicester) and is Professor of Geology at the University of Toronto where he has taught for 30 years. His prime research interest is in glacial sedimentology and has many years experience with field work at modern glaciers and ice sheets from Antarctica to the Arctic. He has worked at the universities of Leicester, Newcastle upon Tyne and East Anglia in Great Britain, at Memorial University in Newfoundland and has been at Toronto since 1981 when he was awarded a prestigious NSERC University Research Fellowship. He has authored more than 150 publications in leading scientific journals on ice age geology and environmental geology and has worked with the International Ocean Drilling Program on board the drillship Resolution. Recent sabbaticals have been held in Brazil and Australia.

Nick has edited books on glacial geology (‘Glacial Geology: An Introduction for Engineers and Earth Scientists’ published by Pergamon), co-edited a book on paleoclimate (‘Earth’s Glacial Record’ published by Cambridge University Press) and urban geology (‘Environmental Geology of Urban Areas’) published by the Geological Association of Canada.

Nick is well known for his public outreach activities and the ‘Rocks’ series of books published by Fitzhenry and Whiteside such as ‘Toronto Rocks’ (1998 with L. Clinton), ‘Ontario Rocks’ (2002) and ‘Canada Rocks: The Geologic Journey’ (2007) with Andrew Miall (Toronto Star ‘Science Book of the Year’). ‘Canadian Shield – The Rocks that Made Canada’ appeared in early 2011; ‘Road Rocks - Geological Wonders of Ontario’ will be published summer 2012.

He was on the road with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for seven months in 2009-10 as host of Geologic Journey –World a five part ‘Nature of Things’ series with David Suzuki. ‘Tectonic Europe’, ‘Along the African Rift’, ‘Pacific Rim West’, ‘Pacific Rim: The Americas’ and ‘Asia: Collision Zone’ aired in late October 2010. The series has been one of the most watched CBC documentaries to date: a re-airing of ‘Pacific Rim West’ in the wake of the March 2011 Tohoku Earthquake in Japan had more than 1 million viewers. The series was nominated for 3 Gemini awards.

Consult the CBC web site and UTSC blog for full details and how you can contribute to it.

Nick has just been awarded the 2012 Geosciences in the Media Award from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists currently the world's largest professional geological society with over 30,000 members. The award is presented for notable journalistic achievement in any medium, which contributes to public understanding of geology, energy resources or the technology of oil and gas exploration. The award will be presented at the Annual Convention in Long Beach California in April 2012.

When not looking at rocks in the field or writing about their history, he is an avid adventure motorcyclist (with a BMW 1200GS) and hockey player.

Current Research Projects

I am very interested in the relationship between ancient glacial climates and tectonics and currently working with graduate students such as Shannon Carto (Ph.D) in the eastern USA (‘Squantum Tillite’ of the Boston Basin) testing the rock record against the Snowball Earth hypothesis (SEH) which posits that Earth froze entirely on at least three (some say four) occasions 750-590 million years ago. SEH overstates the case for dramatic freezing and downplays sedimentologic evidence for regional ‘wet-based’ glaciation driven by tectonics. Our work is based on detailed analysis of sedimentary facies and the broader plate tectonic setting of glaciation and is rooted in long experience working in modern glacial environments.

I continue to work with local communities on the impact on urban waterfronts by urban sediments and contaminants (mostly metals and road salt) focusing on lagoons along the Lake Ontario waterfront (e.g., Frenchman’s Bay). Several papers with Dr. Mandy Meriano have identified the very large volumes of salt that reach these lagoons and these findings have received widespread media interest.

Over the years I have conducted a wide variety of geophysical cruises on lakes in Canada and with Michael Doughty am currently publishing a series of papers on the extensive record of ongoing faulting and tectonic activity in Lake Timiskaming. I have access to a full range of geophysical equipment and a 26 foot research boat.

Louise Daurio (M.Sc) has recently completed work on rock glaciers recently discovered in Ubehebe volcanic crater in Death Valley, California. This has implications for understanding similar forms on Mars.

Lisa Tutty (Ph.D) has been working successfully on using geophysical methods (sidescan sonar, magnetic, sub bottom sonar) to map fish habitat in the Great Lakes.

Tom Meulendyk (Research Associate) and I are working on the application of ground penetrating radar to understand the deep subsurface structure of Holocene sand dunes in Ontario.

I am using SRTM data to map onset zones of ice streams within the Laurentide Ice Sheet with reference to the streamlined (drumlinized) bedrock surfaces eroded under fast flowing ice.

I am actively collaborating with the research group of Myrna and Andre Simpson at UTSC in understanding the geochemical evolution of glacial sediments, and the use of organic matter in fingerprinting their origins.

-If you are interested in graduate work please contact Nick directly by email. Remember to plan ahead by 12 months as the deadlines for applications for postgraduate scholarships (NSERC, U of T etc) must be submitted in your last undergraduate year.

Selected Publications.

Eyles, N. Meriano, M. and P. Chow-Fraser,P. (2012d). Impacts of European settlement (1840-present) in a Great Lake watershed and lagoon: Frenchman’s Bay, Lake Ontario, Canada. Environmental Earth Sciences 67, in press

Eyles, N. and Meulendyk, T. (2012c). Ground penetrating radar stratigraphy and depositional model for evolving Late Holocene dunes on the Lake Huron coast, Ontario. Journal of Great Lakes Research 38, 708-719

Eyles, N. (2012b). Glacially-cut rock drumlins and megagrooves of the Niagara Escarpment, Ontario, Canada cut below the Saginaw-Huron Ice Stream. Quaternary Science Reviews 55, 34-49.

Carto, S. and Eyles, N. (2012a). Sedimentology of the Neoproterozoic (c. 580 Ma) Squantum ‘Tillite’, Boston Basin USA: mass flow deposition in a non-glacial deep water arc basin. Sedimentary Geology 269, 1-14.

Tutty, L. and Eyles, N. 2012. Mapping lake trout habitat in a Great Lake ecosystem using sidescan sonar: Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, Canada. In prep

Eyles, N. 2012g Drumlinized carbonate bedrock of Anticosti Island, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada: footprint of the Laurentian Channel Ice Stream. Boreas submitted.

Eyles, N. 2012f. Glacially-cut rock drumlins and megagrooves of the Niagara Escarpment, Ontario, Canada; the ‘onset zone’ of the Saginaw-Huron Ice Stream. Quaternary Science Reviews submitted

Eyles, N. and Daurio, L. 2012e. Relict periglacial landforms in Ubehebe volcanic crater, Death Valley, California, USA. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes submitted

Eyles, N. and Meulendyk, T. 2012d Two phase growth model for Great Lake aeolian dunes identified by ground penetrating radar. Sedimentary Geology submitted

Eyles, N., Meriano, M. and Chow-Fraser, P.2012c. 170 years of environmental change in a Lake Ontario watershed and lagoon. Environmental Earth Sciences in press

Carto, S. and Eyles, N. 2012b. Sedimentology of the Neoproterozoic (c. 580 Ma) Squantum ‘Tillite’, Boston Basin USA: mass flow deposition in a non-glacial deep water arc basin. Sedimentary Geology in press

Carto, S. and Eyles, N. 2012a. Modern volcano-sedimentary analogs for Neoproterozoic volcanic back arc basins during the Gaskiers glaciation (c. 580 Ma). Sedimentary Geology In press

Doughty, M., Eyles, N. and Eyles, C.H. 2012. Seismic reflection profiling of active neotectonic faults in glacial and postglacial sediment in Lake Timiskaming, Timiskaming Graben, Ontario/Quebec, Canada. Sedimentology in revision

Eyles, N., Eyles, C.H. and Menzies, J. 2011a. End moraine construction by submarginal incremental till deposition below the Laurentide Ice Sheet, Southern Ontario, Canada. Boreas 40, 92-104.

Meriano, M., Howard, K. and Eyles, N. 2011. The role of midsummer urban aquifer recharge in storm flow generation using isotopic and chemical hydrograph separation techniques. Journal of Hydrology 396, 82-93.

Eyles, N. and Doughty, M. 2010c. Ongoing neotectonic activity in the Timiskaming-Kipawa area of Ontario and Quebec. Geoscience Canada 37, 97-104.

Doughty, M., Eyles, N. and Daurio, L. 2010b. Earthquake-triggered slumps (1935 Timiskaming M6.2) in Lake Kipawa, Western Quebec Seismic Zone, Canada. Sedimentary Geology 228, 113-118.

Xu, Y.P., Simpson. A., Eyles, N., Simpson, M.J. 2010a Sources and molecular composition of cryoconite organic matter from the Athabasca Glacier, Canadian Rocky Mountains. Organic Geochemistry 41, 177-186.

Eyles, N. and Meriano, M. 2010. Road impacted sediment and water in a Lake Ontario watershed and lagoon, City of Pickering, Ontario, Canada: an example of urban basin analysis. Sedimentary Geology 224, 15-28.

Xu, Y.P., Simpson. A., Eyles, N., Simpson, M.J. 2009c Biomarker record of organic matter inputs into Northwest Atlantic sediments during Marine Isotope Stages 11 and 12. Applied Geochemistry 24, 1934-1940.

Meriano, M., Eyles, N. and Howard, K.W.F. 2009b Hydrogeological impacts of road salt from Canada’s busiest highway on a Lake Ontario watershed and lagoon (Frenchman’s Bay), City of Pickering. Journal of Contaminant Hydrology 107, 66-81.

Meriano, M. and Eyles, N. 2009a Quantitative assessment of the hydraulic role of subglaciofluvial interbeds in promoting deposition of deformation till (NorthernTill, Ontario). Quaternary Science Reviews 28, 608-620.

James, N.P., Eyles, C.H., Eyles, N., Hiatt, E., and Kyser, T.K. 2009. Oceanographic significance of a cold-water carbonate environment: glaciomarine sediments of the Pleistocene Yakataga Formation, Middleton Island, Alaska. Sedimentology 56, 367-397.

Couch, A. and Eyles, N. 2008b. Sedimentary record of glacial Lake Mackenzie, Northwest Territories, Canada: implications for Arctic freshwater routing. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 268, 26-38.

Eyles, N. and Meulendyk, T. 2008a Ground penetrating radar study of a Pleistocene ice-scoured glaciolacustrine sequence boundary. Boreas 37, 226-233.

Eyles, N. 2008. Glacioepochs and the supercontinent cycle after ~3.0 Ga: tectonic boundary conditions for global cooling. Palaeogeography, Palaeoecology, Palaeoclimatology 258, 89-129.

Seilheimer, T.S., Wei, A., Chow-Fraser, P. and Eyles, N. 2007c. Impact of urbanization on the water quality, fish habitat and fish community of a Lake Ontario marsh, Frenchman’s Bay. Urban Ecosystems 10, 299-319.

Eyles, N. and Januszczak, N. 2007b. Syntectonic submarine mass flows of the Neoproterozoic Otavi Group, Namibia: where is the evidence of global glaciation? Basin Research 19, 179-188

Eyles, C.H., Eyles, N. and Grey, K. 2007a. Palaeoclimate implications from deep drilling of Neoproterozoic strata in the Officer Basin and Adelaide Rift Complex of Australia: a marine record of wet-based glaciers. Palaeogeography, Palaeoecology, Palaeoclimatology 248, 291-312

Kerr. M. and Eyles, N. 2007. Origin of drumlins on the floor of Lake Ontario and in Upper New York State. Sedimentary Geology 193, 7-20.

Refereed book contributions

Eyles, N. and Lazorek, M. (2012b). Canada’s environment: The challenges of change. In: Clague, J et al. (Eds.). Geology of Canada: 4 Billion years and Counting. Geological Association of Canada, in press

Eyles, N. and S. Carto. (2012a). The Squantum ‘Tillite’, Boston Basin, USA. In: E. Arnaud, M. Halverson and G. Shields (Eds). A New Global Synthesis on Neoproterozoic ice ages. Geological Society of London Memoir 30, pp. 475-80.

Eyles, N. and S. Carto. (2012). The Gaskiers Formation of Eastern Newfoundland, Canada. In: E. Arnaud, M. Halverson and G. Shields (Eds). A New Global Synthesis on Neoproterozoic ice ages. Geological Society of London Memoir 30, pp. 468-473.

Eyles, C.H. and Eyles, N. (2010). In: Glacial Facies 4: N.P. James and G. Dalrymple (Eds.) Facies Models Geological Association of Canada, pp.73-104.

Eyles, N. (2009). Ravines, lagoons, cliffs and spits: the ups and downs of Lake Ontario. In: W. Reeves and C. Palassio (Eds.). Toronto’s Water: From Lake Iroquois to Lost Rivers. Coach House Books, Toronto. pp. 34-41.