Dr. Kenneth Lepper

Assistant Professor

Department of Geosciences

North Dakota State University

Stevens Hall

Fargo, ND 58105

Ken(dot)Lepper(at)ndsu(dot)edu

(701) 231-6746

Research:

Quaternary
Geochronology

The ODD Lab:
Optical Dating and Dosimetry Laboratory

What is Optical Dating a.k.a. OSL dating

The ODD Squad
Students and their contributions to ODD Lab research

Current Research Focus Areas: (active links to additional information coming soon)

Glacial Lake Agassiz and The Great Lakes

Beach ridge chronology
Lake level history
Interactions between large lakes and global climate
Impacts of lake level fluctuations on groundwater hydrology and near shore wetland ecosystems

The Southern High Plains

Holocene drought history as reflected in eolian activity
Process geomorphological interactions between eolian and fluvial systems in drylands

MARS

Development of optical dating for remote, robotic, in-situ geochronology on Mars

Recent Peer-reviewed Journal Papers

Lepper, K., Fisher, T., Hajdas, I., and Lowell, T. (2007) Ages for the Big Stone moraine and the oldest beaches of glacial Lake Agassiz: Implications for deglaciation chronology. Geology, 35(7):667-670.
Lepper, K., Reneau, S., Thorstad, J., and Denton A. (2007) OSL dating of a lacustrine to fluvial transitional sediment sequence in Valle Toledo, Valles caldera, New Mexico. New Mexico Geology, 29(4): 112-116.
Lepper, K. and Goff, F. (2007) Yet another attempt to date the Banco Bonito rhyolite, the youngest volcanic flow in the Valles Caldera, New Mexico. New Mexico Geology, 29(4): 117-121.
Lepper, K. and Ashworth, A.C. (2007) A dynamic record of late Holocene environmental change recorded in banded colluvium from the northern Great Plains. Current Research in the Pleistocene, 24:201-204.
Lepper, K. and Scott, G.F. (2005) Late Holocene aeolian activity in the Cimarron River Valley of Western Oklahoma. Geomorphology, 70: 42-52.
Cordova, C., Porter, J., Lepper K., Kalchgruber, R., and Scott, G., (2005) Sand dune stability along a climatic gradient in North and Northwest Oklahoma. Great Plains Research, 15(2): 227-249.
Rowland, J.C., Lepper, K., Dietrich, W.E., Wilson, C.J., and Sheldon, R. (2005) Tie channel sedimentation rates, oxbow formation age, and channel migration rate from Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) analysis of floodplain deposits. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 30: 1161-1179.

Additional Select Peer-reviewed Journal Papers

Lepper, K. and McKeever, S.W.S. (2002) An objective methodology for dose distribution analysis. Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 101: 349-352.
Lepper, K., Agersnap-Larsen, N., McKeever, S.W.S. (2000) Equivalent dose distribution analysis of Holocene eolian and fluvial quartz sands from Central Oklahoma. Radiation Measurements, 32: 603-608.
Lepper, K. and S.W.S McKeever. (2000) Characterization of fundamental luminescence properties of the Mars soil simulant JSC Mars-1 and their relevance to absolute dating of Martian eolian sediments. Icarus, 144:295-301.
Lepper, K., Siggaard-Andersen, M.L., Agersnap-Larsen, N., Hammer, C.U. and McKeever, S.W.S. (2001) Characterization of luminescence properties of insoluble mineral grains extracted from the Greenland Summit GRIP ice core, and their potential for luminescence dating. Radiation Measurements, 33: 445-455.

GEOL 105	Physical Geology	Fall 2007, 2005
GEOL 310	Planetary Geology	Coming in Fall 2008
GEOL 412/612	Geomorphology	Spring 2006
GEOL 413/613:	Glacial Geology	Spring 2008, 2006, 2004
GEOL 414/614	Hydrogeology	Fall 2007, 2005, 2003
GEOL 491	Geosciences Seminar	Spring 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005
GEOL 494	IS Laboratory Methods in Quaternary Geochronology	Spring 2008, 2005
GEOL 499/696	Topics in Geophysics	Spring 2005
GEOL 793:	IS Planetary Geology	Spring 2008
GEOL 793:	IS Techniques in Optical Dating	Spring 2008

Author: Kenneth Lepper
Last updated: 2/15/08