Education / Degree
Ph.D., University of Missouri, 1995
Research interest (Short)
Primary interests involve the tectonic and climatic geomorphology and active tectonics.
Other interests are plate tectonics, structural geology, paleogeography, biogeography,
and organic evolution. Present research involves landscape evolution of the Mississippi
Valley and surrounding region, documentation of prehistoric earthquakes in the central
US and Central America, and the effects of volcanic hotspots on moving crustal plates.
Courses taught
Quaternary Geology ESCI 7202
An overview of the processes operating during Quaternary that gave rise to the characteristics
of Quaternary geologic materials and Quaternary landforms. Emphasis is on Quaternary
climatic instability and its signature on geologic processes globally.
Tectonics ESCI 7311
Current thinking with respect to movement of the Earth’s lithosphere. Ideas discussed
include: plate motions and the processes driving them; regional deformational styles
associated with different types of plate margins; lithospheric stress regimes; and
changes in tectonic style through geologic time.
Structural Geology ESCI 3512
Basic principles and analytical methods of structural geology. The focus of the course
is the geometric description of structures and current ideas as to the processes that
produce a given structural style. These topics are addressed at map scale, outcrop
scale, and micro-scale.
Recent Publications
Cox, R.T., 2009, Ouachita, Appalachian, and Ancestral Rockies deformations recorded in mesoscale
structures on the foreland Ozark plateau: Tectonophysics, 10.1016/j.tecto.2009.05.005.
Seifert, C.S., Cox, R.T., Forman, S.L., Foti, T.L., Wasklewicz, T.A., and McColgan, A.T., 2009. Relict nebkhas
(pimple mounds) record prolonged late Holocene drought in the forested region of south-central
United States. Quaternary Research, 71: 329-339.
Cox, R.T., Lumsden, D.N., Gough, K., Lloyd, R.V., and Talnagi, J., 2008, Investigation of late
Quaternary fault block uplift along the Motagua/Swan Islands fault system: Implications
for seismic/tsunami hazard for the Bay of Honduras: Tectonophysics, 457: 30–41, doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2008.05.014.
Garrote, J., Garzón Heydt, G., and Cox, R.T., 2008,Multi-stream order analyses in basin asymmetry: a tool to discriminate the
influence of neotectonics in fluvial landscape development (Madrid Basin, Central
Spain): In P.G. Silva, F.A. Audemard, and A.E. Mather, eds., Impact of Active Tectonics and
Uplift on Fluvial Landscapes and Drainage Development: Geomorphology, doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2007.07.023,
15 p.
Cox, R.T., Hill, A.A., Larsen, D., Holzer, T., Forman, S.L., Noce, T., Gardner, C., Morat,
J., 2007, Seismotectonic implications of sand blows in the southern Mississippi Embayment:
Engineering Geology, 89: 278-299.
Van Arsdale, R.B., and Cox, R.T., 2007, The Mississippi River’s curious origins: Scientific American, January, p.
76-82B.
Cox, R.T., Cherryhomes, J., Harris, J.B., Larsen, D., Van Arsdale, R.B., and Forman, S.L.,
2006, Paleoseismology of the southeastern Reelfoot rift in western Tennessee, U.S.A.
and implications for intraplate fault zone evolution: Tectonics, v. 25, TC3019, doi:10.1029/2005TC001829,
17 p.
Garrote, J., Cox, R.T., Swann, C., and Ellis, M., 2006, Tectonic geomorphology of the eastern Mississippi
Embayment in northern Mississippi: Geological Society of America Bulletin, 118: 1160-1170.
Cox, R. T., Larsen, D., Forman, S.L., Woods, J., Morat, J., and Galluzzi, J., 2004, Preliminary
assessment of sand blows in the southern Mississippi Embayment: Bulletin of the Seismological
Society of America, 94: 1125-1142.
Facebook 
YouTube 
Twitter