Sean Patrick Long
Associate Professor
School of the Environment
Washington State University
Contact information:
Office: 1155 Webster
Phone: (509) 335-8868
Email: [email protected]
Mailing address:
School of the Environment
Washington State University
PO Box 642812
Pullman WA 99164-2812
Research interests:
My research focuses on understanding the structural evolution of contractional and extensional mountain belts, including the Himalayas, the Andes, the North American Cordillera, and the Basin and Range Province. I integrate mapping-based field data with a diverse suite of quantitative datasets, including geochronology, thermochronometry, metamorphic temperatures and pressures, microstructural analyses, regional tectonic reconstructions, and balanced cross sections. Much of my recent research involves field-based evaluations of the predictions of models for the dynamics of mountain belts. Please see my research page for more details.
View profile on Google Scholar
View profile on ResearchGate
New Stuff! (updated November, 2023)
Welcome new PhD advisee Aurora Rosenberger, who started at WSU in Fall, 2023!
Congratulations to Nolan Blackford, who completed his PhD at WSU in Spring, 2023! Nolan just landed a new job as a research geologist at the Arizona Geological Survey!
Welcome new PhD advisees Adelie Ionescu and Andrea Richardson, who started at WSU in Fall, 2022!
Newly funded NSF Tectonics grant (2022-2025) with Matthew Kohn (Boise State University)! "How do ultrahigh pressure metamorphic sheets form and exhume? A case study from the Tso Morari complex, India"
Congratulations to Russell Di Fiori (WSU PhD 2020), who published four geologic maps from his PhD research at the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology in 2022!
Congratulations to Jesslyn Starnes (WSU PhD 2021) who landed a new job as a data scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, in 2022!
Congratulations to Nolan Blackford, who published the first paper of his PhD research in Geosphere in 2022!
New publications from Cordilleran and Basin and Range research:
Long, S.P., 2023, Westward underthrusting of thick North American crust: the dominant thickening process that built the Cordilleran orogenic plateau: Geology: published online 9-20-23, doi: 10.1130/G51339.1. click here for pdf
Long, S.P., Lee, J., and Blackford, N.R., 2023, Extreme ductile thinning of Cambrian marbles in the Northern Snake Range metamorphic core complex, Nevada, USA: implications for extension magnitude and structural evolution: Journal of Structural Geology, v. 173, 104912, 25 p., doi: 10.1016/j.jsg.2023. click here for pdf
Long, S.P., Barba, W.K., McKay, M.P., and Soignard, E., 2023, Thermal architecture of the Salmon River suture zone, Idaho, USA: Implications for the structural evolution of a ductile accretionary complex during arc-continent collision: Geosphere, v. 19, no. 4, p. 1103-1127, doi: 10.1130/GES02621.1. click here for pdf
Calle, A.Z., Horton, B.K., Garcia, R., Anderson, R.B., Stockli, D.F., Flaig, P.P., and Long, S.P., 2023, Sediment dispersal and basin evolution during contrasting tectonic regimes along the western Gondwanan margin in the central Andes: Journal of South American Earth Sciences, v. 125, 104286, 19 p., doi: 10.1016/j.jsames.2023.104286. click here for pdf
Fetrow, A.C., Snell, K.E., Di Fiori, R.V., Long, S.P., and Bonde, J.W., 2022, How hot is too hot? Disentangling signals of primary deposition from diagenesis in mid-Cretaceous terrestrial carbonate stable isotope records: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, v. 37, e2022PA004517, 25 p., doi: 10.1029/2022PA004517. click here for pdf
Di Fiori, R.V., and Long, S.P., 2022, Geologic map of the southern Diamond Mountains, Eureka and White Pine Counties, Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Open-File Report 2022-04, 1:24,000-scale, 1 plate, 10 p. click here for map click here for text
Di Fiori, R.V., and Long, S.P., 2022, Geologic Map of the southern Fish Creek Range, Eureka and Nye Counties, Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Open-File Report 2022-05, 1:15,000-scale, 1 plate, 9 p. click here for map click here for text
Di Fiori, R.V., and Long, S.P., 2022, Geologic map of the McClure Spring syncline, central Pancake Range, Nye County, Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Open-File Report 2022-03, 1:24,000-scale, 1 plate, 9 p. click here for map click here for text
Di Fiori, R.V., and Long, S.P., 2022, Geologic map of the eastern flank of the northern Cortez Mountains, Eureka County, Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Open-File Report 2022-06, 1:24,000-scale, 1 sheet, 7 p. click here for map click here for text
Long, S.P., Lee, J., and Blackford, N.R., 2022, The low-angle breakaway system for the Northern Snake Range décollement in the Schell Creek and Duck Creek Ranges, eastern Nevada, U.S.A.: implications for displacement magnitude: Geosphere, v. 18, no. 4, p. 1194-1222, doi: 10.1130/GES02482.1. click here for pdflong_etal_2023_jsg_marble_wash_thinning.pdf
Blackford, N.R., Long, S.P., Stout, A.J., Rodgers, D.W., Cooper, C.M., Kramer, K., Di Fiori, R.V., and Soignard, E., 2022, Late Cretaceous upper-crustal thermal structure of the Sevier hinterland: implications for the geodynamics of the Nevadaplano: Geosphere: v. 18, no. 1, p. 183-210, doi: 10.1130/GES02386.1. click here for pdf
New publications from Himalayan research:
Long, S.P., and Robinson, D.M., 2021, Construction of the Lesser Himalayan-Subhimalayan thrust belt: the primary driver of thickening, exhumation, and high elevations in the Himalayan orogen since the middle Miocene: Geology, v. 49, no. 11, p. 1283-1288, doi: 10.1130/G48967.1. click here for pdf
New publications from Andean research:
Anderson, R.B., Long, S.P., Horton, B.K., and Soignard, E., 2021, Late Paleozoic Gondwanide deformation in the central Andes: Insights from RSCM thermometry and thermal modeling, southern Bolivia: Gondwana Research, v. 94, p. 222-242, doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2021.03.002. click here for pdf
School of the Environment
Washington State University
Contact information:
Office: 1155 Webster
Phone: (509) 335-8868
Email: [email protected]
Mailing address:
School of the Environment
Washington State University
PO Box 642812
Pullman WA 99164-2812
Research interests:
My research focuses on understanding the structural evolution of contractional and extensional mountain belts, including the Himalayas, the Andes, the North American Cordillera, and the Basin and Range Province. I integrate mapping-based field data with a diverse suite of quantitative datasets, including geochronology, thermochronometry, metamorphic temperatures and pressures, microstructural analyses, regional tectonic reconstructions, and balanced cross sections. Much of my recent research involves field-based evaluations of the predictions of models for the dynamics of mountain belts. Please see my research page for more details.
View profile on Google Scholar
View profile on ResearchGate
New Stuff! (updated November, 2023)
Welcome new PhD advisee Aurora Rosenberger, who started at WSU in Fall, 2023!
Congratulations to Nolan Blackford, who completed his PhD at WSU in Spring, 2023! Nolan just landed a new job as a research geologist at the Arizona Geological Survey!
Welcome new PhD advisees Adelie Ionescu and Andrea Richardson, who started at WSU in Fall, 2022!
Newly funded NSF Tectonics grant (2022-2025) with Matthew Kohn (Boise State University)! "How do ultrahigh pressure metamorphic sheets form and exhume? A case study from the Tso Morari complex, India"
Congratulations to Russell Di Fiori (WSU PhD 2020), who published four geologic maps from his PhD research at the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology in 2022!
Congratulations to Jesslyn Starnes (WSU PhD 2021) who landed a new job as a data scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, in 2022!
Congratulations to Nolan Blackford, who published the first paper of his PhD research in Geosphere in 2022!
New publications from Cordilleran and Basin and Range research:
Long, S.P., 2023, Westward underthrusting of thick North American crust: the dominant thickening process that built the Cordilleran orogenic plateau: Geology: published online 9-20-23, doi: 10.1130/G51339.1. click here for pdf
Long, S.P., Lee, J., and Blackford, N.R., 2023, Extreme ductile thinning of Cambrian marbles in the Northern Snake Range metamorphic core complex, Nevada, USA: implications for extension magnitude and structural evolution: Journal of Structural Geology, v. 173, 104912, 25 p., doi: 10.1016/j.jsg.2023. click here for pdf
Long, S.P., Barba, W.K., McKay, M.P., and Soignard, E., 2023, Thermal architecture of the Salmon River suture zone, Idaho, USA: Implications for the structural evolution of a ductile accretionary complex during arc-continent collision: Geosphere, v. 19, no. 4, p. 1103-1127, doi: 10.1130/GES02621.1. click here for pdf
Calle, A.Z., Horton, B.K., Garcia, R., Anderson, R.B., Stockli, D.F., Flaig, P.P., and Long, S.P., 2023, Sediment dispersal and basin evolution during contrasting tectonic regimes along the western Gondwanan margin in the central Andes: Journal of South American Earth Sciences, v. 125, 104286, 19 p., doi: 10.1016/j.jsames.2023.104286. click here for pdf
Fetrow, A.C., Snell, K.E., Di Fiori, R.V., Long, S.P., and Bonde, J.W., 2022, How hot is too hot? Disentangling signals of primary deposition from diagenesis in mid-Cretaceous terrestrial carbonate stable isotope records: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, v. 37, e2022PA004517, 25 p., doi: 10.1029/2022PA004517. click here for pdf
Di Fiori, R.V., and Long, S.P., 2022, Geologic map of the southern Diamond Mountains, Eureka and White Pine Counties, Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Open-File Report 2022-04, 1:24,000-scale, 1 plate, 10 p. click here for map click here for text
Di Fiori, R.V., and Long, S.P., 2022, Geologic Map of the southern Fish Creek Range, Eureka and Nye Counties, Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Open-File Report 2022-05, 1:15,000-scale, 1 plate, 9 p. click here for map click here for text
Di Fiori, R.V., and Long, S.P., 2022, Geologic map of the McClure Spring syncline, central Pancake Range, Nye County, Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Open-File Report 2022-03, 1:24,000-scale, 1 plate, 9 p. click here for map click here for text
Di Fiori, R.V., and Long, S.P., 2022, Geologic map of the eastern flank of the northern Cortez Mountains, Eureka County, Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Open-File Report 2022-06, 1:24,000-scale, 1 sheet, 7 p. click here for map click here for text
Long, S.P., Lee, J., and Blackford, N.R., 2022, The low-angle breakaway system for the Northern Snake Range décollement in the Schell Creek and Duck Creek Ranges, eastern Nevada, U.S.A.: implications for displacement magnitude: Geosphere, v. 18, no. 4, p. 1194-1222, doi: 10.1130/GES02482.1. click here for pdflong_etal_2023_jsg_marble_wash_thinning.pdf
Blackford, N.R., Long, S.P., Stout, A.J., Rodgers, D.W., Cooper, C.M., Kramer, K., Di Fiori, R.V., and Soignard, E., 2022, Late Cretaceous upper-crustal thermal structure of the Sevier hinterland: implications for the geodynamics of the Nevadaplano: Geosphere: v. 18, no. 1, p. 183-210, doi: 10.1130/GES02386.1. click here for pdf
New publications from Himalayan research:
Long, S.P., and Robinson, D.M., 2021, Construction of the Lesser Himalayan-Subhimalayan thrust belt: the primary driver of thickening, exhumation, and high elevations in the Himalayan orogen since the middle Miocene: Geology, v. 49, no. 11, p. 1283-1288, doi: 10.1130/G48967.1. click here for pdf
New publications from Andean research:
Anderson, R.B., Long, S.P., Horton, B.K., and Soignard, E., 2021, Late Paleozoic Gondwanide deformation in the central Andes: Insights from RSCM thermometry and thermal modeling, southern Bolivia: Gondwana Research, v. 94, p. 222-242, doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2021.03.002. click here for pdf
Pictures from Fall, 2023 course field trip to the Northern Snake Range, Nevada:
In September, 2023, collaborator Jeffrey Lee and I led 10 WSU graduate and undergraduate students and 6 Colorado School of Mines students on a field trip to the Northern Snake Range metamorphic core complex in Nevada. Here's a picture of our group at the neck of a house-sized dolomite boudin, and a picture of the students standing on the famous Northern Snake Range decollement. |
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Picture from Summer, 2023 field work in Ladakh, India:
In July-August, 2023, I went with WSU PhD student Adelie Ionescu and professor Matt Kohn from Boise State University to perform field work in the Northwestern Indian Himalaya, in the Tso Morari region of Ladakh and further to the southwest in Himachal Pradesh. Here's a picture of Adelie and I, with Cambrian sedimentary rocks of the Tethyan Himalayan sequence behind us.
In July-August, 2023, I went with WSU PhD student Adelie Ionescu and professor Matt Kohn from Boise State University to perform field work in the Northwestern Indian Himalaya, in the Tso Morari region of Ladakh and further to the southwest in Himachal Pradesh. Here's a picture of Adelie and I, with Cambrian sedimentary rocks of the Tethyan Himalayan sequence behind us.
Picture from 2019 GSA annual meeting in Phoenix
In September, 2019, five students from my research group (from left to right: Russell DiFiori, Ryan Anderson, Nolan Blackford, Jesslyn Starnes, and Kimberly Kramer) traveled to the GSA annual meeting in Phoenix to present their research.
In September, 2019, five students from my research group (from left to right: Russell DiFiori, Ryan Anderson, Nolan Blackford, Jesslyn Starnes, and Kimberly Kramer) traveled to the GSA annual meeting in Phoenix to present their research.
Pictures from Summer, 2018 field work in Ladakh, India:
In July-August, 2018, Matt Kohn from BSU, Matt's graduate student Buchanan Kerswell, and I performed field work in the Tso Morari region of Ladakh in northwestern India. Here are a couple of pictures, including me at the second-highest road pass in the world, at the three of us at Tso Morari, a beautiful high-elevation lake. |
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Picture from Fall, 2016 Bhutan field work:
In Fall, 2016, two of my graduate students, Laura Pianowski and Jesslyn Starnes accompanied me, collaborator Stacia Gordon, and collaborator Robert Miller, on a field expedition to Bhutan. This picture shows Laura (left) and Jesslyn (right) in their kiras, the traditional Bhutanese female clothing. Behind them is Bhutan's famous Takstang monastery.
In Fall, 2016, two of my graduate students, Laura Pianowski and Jesslyn Starnes accompanied me, collaborator Stacia Gordon, and collaborator Robert Miller, on a field expedition to Bhutan. This picture shows Laura (left) and Jesslyn (right) in their kiras, the traditional Bhutanese female clothing. Behind them is Bhutan's famous Takstang monastery.
Check out this picture!!!
In March, 2012, while mapping in southeast Bhutan, by chance Nadine McQuarrie (center), Tobgay (right) and myself (left) happened to meet his majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuk, the 5th king of Bhutan, and queen Jetsun Pema. This picture was taken that evening at their camp.
In March, 2012, while mapping in southeast Bhutan, by chance Nadine McQuarrie (center), Tobgay (right) and myself (left) happened to meet his majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuk, the 5th king of Bhutan, and queen Jetsun Pema. This picture was taken that evening at their camp.