Lucy Edwards
Lucy Edwards is a Scientist Emeritus at the Florence Bascom Geoscience Center.
Lucy E Edwards focuses her research on the stratigraphy of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains. Her specialty is dinoflagellates (a type of algae), and she studies their fossil cysts for what they reveal about the time and environment of deposition and how they came to be preserved in the fossil record. She also specializes in stratigraphic nomenclature and methods of stratigraphic correlation.
Mentorship/Outreach
- Courses taught at George Washington University, Indiana University, University of Kansas, University of Oslo, George Mason University, Türkiye Petrolleri AO.
Professional Experience
1974, 1975 (summers) Biostratigrapher, Exxon Production Research Co., Houston, TX
1977-2018 Research Geologist, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA
2018-present Scientist Emerita, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA
Education and Certifications
B.A. (Honors College), 1972, Geology, University of Oregon
Ph. D., 1977, Geological Sciences, University of California, Riverside
Affiliations and Memberships*
American Association for Advancement of Science (Fellow)
Geological Society of America (Fellow)
North American Micropaleontology Section of the Society for Sedimentary Geology
The Paleontological Society (Fellow)
The Palynological Society
American Geophysical Union
USGS representative to North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 105
Chesapeake Bay impact structure—Development of "brim" sedimentation in a multilayered marine target
The late Eocene Chesapeake Bay impact structure was formed in a multilayered target of seawater underlain sequentially by a sediment layer and a rock layer in a continental-shelf environment. Impact effects in the “brim” (annular trough) surrounding and adjacent to the transient crater, between the transient crater rim and the outer margin, primarily were limited to the target-sediment...
Authors
Henning Dypvik, Gregory Gohn, Lucy E. Edwards, J. Wright Horton, Mercer Parker, Ronald J. Litwin
The significance of dinoflagellates in the Miocene Choptank Formation beneath the Midlothian gravels in the southeastern Virginia Piedmont
The Fall Line (formally "Tidewater Fall Line") separates the more resistant igneous, metamorphic, and consolidated sedimentary rocks of the Piedmont from the typically unconsolidated deposits of the Coastal Plain of Virginia. Widespread but now discontinuous patches of a deeply weathered sand and gravel are found west of the Fall Line, capping the highest hilltops. Near the community of...
Authors
Lucy E. Edwards, Robert E. Weems, Mark W. Carter, David Spears, David S. Powars
A fossiliferous spherule-rich bed at the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary in Mississippi, USA: Implications for the K–Pg mass extinction event in the Mississippi Embayment and Eastern Gulf Coastal Plain
We describe an outcrop of the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary exposed due to construction near New Albany, Union County, Mississippi. It consists of the Owl Creek Formation and overlying Clayton Formation. The Owl Creek Formation is rich in the ammonites Discoscaphites iris and Eubaculites carinatus, which, along with biostratigraphically important dinoflagellate cysts and...
Authors
James D. Witts, Neil H. Landman, Matthew P. Garb, Caitlin Boas, Ekaterina Larina, Remy Rovelli, Lucy E. Edwards, Robert M. Sherrell, J. Wesley Cochran
Shallow marine response to global climate change during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, Salisbury Embayment, USA
The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was an interval of extreme warmth that caused disruption of marine and terrestrial ecosystems on a global scale. Here we examine the sediments, flora, and fauna from an expanded section at Mattawoman Creek-Billingsley Road (MCBR) in Maryland and explore the impact of warming at a nearshore shallow marine (30–100 m water depth) site in the...
Authors
Jean Self-Trail, Marci M. Robinson, Timothy J. Bralower, Jocelyn A. Sessa, Elizabeth A. Hajek, Lee R. Kump, Sheila M. Trampush, Debra A. Willard, Lucy E. Edwards, David S. Powars, Gregory A. Wandless
North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature Report 12 – Revision of article 37, lithodemic units, of the North American Stratigraphic Code
At the 71st Annual Meeting of the North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature, 26 September, 2016, in Denver, Colorado, the Commission voted unanimously to accept the revision of Article 37 of the North American Stratigraphic Code (North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature, 2005), printed below. It replaces all older versions of this Article. An application for...
Authors
Robert M. Easton, Lucy E. Edwards, Randall C. Orndorff, Manuel Duguet, Ismael Ferrusquia-Villafranca
Geology and biostratigraphy of the Potomac River cliffs at Stratford Hall, Westmoreland County, Virginia
The cliffs along the Potomac River at Stratford Hall display extensive exposures of Miocene marine strata that belong successively to the Calvert, Choptank, St. Marys, and Eastover Formations. Within the lower part of this sequence, in the Calvert and Choptank Formations, there is well-developed cyclic stratigraphy. Above the Miocene units lies the marginal marine to deltaic Pleistocene...
Authors
Robert E. Weems, Lucy E. Edwards, Bryan D. Landacre
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 105
Chesapeake Bay impact structure—Development of "brim" sedimentation in a multilayered marine target
The late Eocene Chesapeake Bay impact structure was formed in a multilayered target of seawater underlain sequentially by a sediment layer and a rock layer in a continental-shelf environment. Impact effects in the “brim” (annular trough) surrounding and adjacent to the transient crater, between the transient crater rim and the outer margin, primarily were limited to the target-sediment...
Authors
Henning Dypvik, Gregory Gohn, Lucy E. Edwards, J. Wright Horton, Mercer Parker, Ronald J. Litwin
The significance of dinoflagellates in the Miocene Choptank Formation beneath the Midlothian gravels in the southeastern Virginia Piedmont
The Fall Line (formally "Tidewater Fall Line") separates the more resistant igneous, metamorphic, and consolidated sedimentary rocks of the Piedmont from the typically unconsolidated deposits of the Coastal Plain of Virginia. Widespread but now discontinuous patches of a deeply weathered sand and gravel are found west of the Fall Line, capping the highest hilltops. Near the community of...
Authors
Lucy E. Edwards, Robert E. Weems, Mark W. Carter, David Spears, David S. Powars
A fossiliferous spherule-rich bed at the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary in Mississippi, USA: Implications for the K–Pg mass extinction event in the Mississippi Embayment and Eastern Gulf Coastal Plain
We describe an outcrop of the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary exposed due to construction near New Albany, Union County, Mississippi. It consists of the Owl Creek Formation and overlying Clayton Formation. The Owl Creek Formation is rich in the ammonites Discoscaphites iris and Eubaculites carinatus, which, along with biostratigraphically important dinoflagellate cysts and...
Authors
James D. Witts, Neil H. Landman, Matthew P. Garb, Caitlin Boas, Ekaterina Larina, Remy Rovelli, Lucy E. Edwards, Robert M. Sherrell, J. Wesley Cochran
Shallow marine response to global climate change during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, Salisbury Embayment, USA
The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was an interval of extreme warmth that caused disruption of marine and terrestrial ecosystems on a global scale. Here we examine the sediments, flora, and fauna from an expanded section at Mattawoman Creek-Billingsley Road (MCBR) in Maryland and explore the impact of warming at a nearshore shallow marine (30–100 m water depth) site in the...
Authors
Jean Self-Trail, Marci M. Robinson, Timothy J. Bralower, Jocelyn A. Sessa, Elizabeth A. Hajek, Lee R. Kump, Sheila M. Trampush, Debra A. Willard, Lucy E. Edwards, David S. Powars, Gregory A. Wandless
North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature Report 12 – Revision of article 37, lithodemic units, of the North American Stratigraphic Code
At the 71st Annual Meeting of the North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature, 26 September, 2016, in Denver, Colorado, the Commission voted unanimously to accept the revision of Article 37 of the North American Stratigraphic Code (North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature, 2005), printed below. It replaces all older versions of this Article. An application for...
Authors
Robert M. Easton, Lucy E. Edwards, Randall C. Orndorff, Manuel Duguet, Ismael Ferrusquia-Villafranca
Geology and biostratigraphy of the Potomac River cliffs at Stratford Hall, Westmoreland County, Virginia
The cliffs along the Potomac River at Stratford Hall display extensive exposures of Miocene marine strata that belong successively to the Calvert, Choptank, St. Marys, and Eastover Formations. Within the lower part of this sequence, in the Calvert and Choptank Formations, there is well-developed cyclic stratigraphy. Above the Miocene units lies the marginal marine to deltaic Pleistocene...
Authors
Robert E. Weems, Lucy E. Edwards, Bryan D. Landacre
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government