Website: http://people.uwm.edu/jisbell/
Education
PhD, The Ohio State University
MS, Northern Illinois University
BA, Augustana College
PostDoc, Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University
Research Interests
Dr. Isbell is a clastic sedimentologist and sequence stratigrapher who works with glacial, glaciomarine, fluvial, deltaic, shallow marine and glacially influenced deep marine sediment and sedimentary rocks deposited in foreland, rift, piggyback, and cratonic basins. He currently works on rock exposures in Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, South Africa, the Falkland Islands, the Russian Far East (Siberia), the western United States, the Appalachian Mountains, and in Wisconsin. His work focuses on understanding environmental changes that occurred during critical intervals in Earth History. These include (1) the late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA), (2) the ensuing Permian-Triassic greenhouse (359 to 199 million years ago) and (3) the transition from the Cretaceous to the Tertiary prior to and following the end-Cretaceous extinction event (145 to 55 million years ago).
Teaching Areas
Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, Physical Sedimentology, Historical Geology, Petrology of Clastic Sedimentary Rocks, Conducted Field Trips in Sedimentary Geology,Sequence Stratigraphy
Other Activities
Associate Editor, PALAIOS
Delegate, The Gondwana Subcommission
Chief Scientist, 2003-04 Beardmore Remote Research Camp, Antarctica
Participant and Field Leader of 14 Research expeditions to Antarctica
Selected Publications
Vesely, F. F., Rodrigues, M. C., da Rosa, E. L., Amato, J. A., Trzaskos, B., Isbell, J. L., & Fedorchuk, N. D. (2018).
Recurrent emplacement of non-glacial diamictite during the late Paleozoic ice age. Geology.
Moxness, L. D., Isbell, J. L., Pauls, K. N., Limarino, C. O., & Schencman, J. (2018).
Sedimentology of the Mid-Carboniferous fill of the Olta Paleovalley, eastern Paganzo Basin, Argentina: Implications for glaciation and controls on diachronous deglaciation in western Gondwana during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age. Journal of South American Earth Sciences,
84, 127-148.
Elliot, D. H., Fanning, C. M., Isbell, J. L., & Hulett, S. R. (2017).
The Permo-Triassic Gondwana sequence, central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica: zircon geochronology, provenance, and basin evolution. GeoSphere,
13(1), 155-178.
Fedorchuk, N. D., Dornbos, S. Q., Corsetti, F. A., Isbell, J. L., Petryshyn, V. A., Bowles, J., & Wilmeth, D. T. (2016).
Early non-marine life: Evaluating the biogenicity of Mesoproterozoic fluvial-lacustrine stromatolites. Precambrian Research,
275, 105-118.
Isbell, J. L., Biakov, A. V., Verdernikov, I., Davydov, V. I., Gulbranson, E. L., & Fedorchuk, N. D. (2016).
Permian diamictites in Northeastern Asia: their significance concerning the bipolarity of the late Paleozoic ice age. Earth Science Reviews,
154, 279-300.
Davydov, V. I., Biakov, A. V., Isbell, J. L., Crowley, J., & Verdernikov, I. L. (2016).
Middle Permian U-Pb zircon ages of the “glacial” deposits of the Atkan Formation, Ayan-Yuryakh anticlinorium, Magadan province, NE Russia: Their significance for global climatic interpretations. Gondwana Research,
38, 74-85.
Miller, M. F., Knepprath, N. E., Cantrill, D. J., Francis, J. E., & Isbell, J. L. (2016).
Highly productive polar forests from the Permian of Antarctica. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology,
441, 292-304.