J. Richard Bowersox
Lecturer
B.S. 1973, M.S. 1974, San Diego State University
Ph.D. 2006, University of South Florida, Tampa

Rick Bowersox’ research interests fall into two disparate areas reflective of his academic and professional work: Neogene paleoenvironments and petroleum geology of naturally fractured shales.  However both areas of interest involve cross-discipline integration of geologic methods to arrive at an interpretation of the evidence found in the rock record.  Equally important is the often-overlooked relationships in the information of the surface and subsurface records and how they correlate.

His research has focused on the paleoenvironmental evolution of the Pliocene San Joaquin Basin, central California, as a model for the current phase of global climate change.  Evidence from the Pliocene San Joaquin Basin mollusc fossil record suggests that modern endemic faunas in shallow-water, estuarine, and shoreline proximal environments risk displacement and extinction due to invasion and colonization by non-native species as sea level rises and habitat is altered.

Prior to returning to academia in 1999, Dr. Bowersox was a petroleum geologist in Bakersfield, California, and partner in an independent oil and natural gas producing company.  In this and prior positions, his primary responsibility was the evaluation and development of naturally fractured siliceous shale petroleum reservoirs in the Miocene Monterey Shale.  The striking electric log similarities between the Monterey Shale and the black shales of the Devonian Appalachian basin suggest that many techniques he developed for evaluating naturally fractured shales may be applicable to much older rocks.

Bowersox, J.R., and Harries, P.J., 2007, Cross-scale temporal and spatial diversity and structure of molluscan faunas from the Pliocene Etchegoin group, San Joaquin Basin, central California [abstract]: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs vol. 39, no. 6.

Bowersox, J.R., and Harries, P.J., 2007, Multivariate analysis of molluscan biofacies of the Pliocene Etchegoin group, San Joaquin Basin, central California [abstract]: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs vol. 39, no. 6.

Bowersox, J.R., 2005, Reassessment of extinction patterns of Pliocene molluscs from California and environmental forcing of extinction in the San Joaquin Basin: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, vol.  221, p.  55-82.

Bowersox, J.R., 2004, Late Neogene Paleobathymetry, Relative Sea Level, and Basin Margin Subsidence, Northwest San Joaquin Basin, California [abstract]: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Annual Convention Abstracts Volume, v.13, p. A16;  American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Search and Discovery Article #90026.
www.searchanddiscovery.com/documents/abstracts/annual2004/Dallas/bowersox.htm

Bowersox, J.R., 2004, Late Neogene Paleobathymetry, Relative Sea Level, and Basin Margin Subsidence, Northwest San Joaquin Basin, California: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Search and Discovery Article #30029, unpaginated [7 p.].
www.searchanddiscovery.com/documents/2004/bowersox/index.htm

Bowersox, J.R., 2004, Determining freshwater Sr isotopic contribution to paleosalinity in the Pliocene San Joaquin Basin, California [abstract]: EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, vol. 85, no. 28, Western Pacific Geophysical Meeting Supplement, Abstract OS21A-23. 
www.agu.org/meetings/wp04/waiswp04.html

Bowersox, J.R., 2004, Sea-level control of molluscan diversity and extinction in the Pliocene San Joaquin Basin, central California [abstract]: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, vol. 36, no. 5, p. 366.

Bowersox, J.R., 2003, Reassessment of Pliocene marine mollusc extinction patterns: Western Atlantic, Eastern Pacific, and San Joaquin Basin, California [abstract]: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, vol. 35, no. 1, p. 66.

Bowersox, J.R., 2003, Pliocene age of the Etchegoin Group, San Joaquin Basin, California [abstract]: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Search and Discovery Article #90014.
www.searchanddiscovery.com/documents/abstracts/spe_aapg2003/bowersox.pdf

Bowersox, J.R., 2003, Salinity tolerance of the freshwater mussel Anodonta dejecta Lewis in Holocene lake Cahuilla, southeastern California: a caution in the use of fossil freshwater mussels as a freshwater indicator in stable isotope studies [abstract]: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, vol. 35, no. 6, p. 212.

Bowersox, J.R., 1997, Development of marginal fractured siliceous shale reservoirs  with horizontal wells in Lost Hills Field, California [abstract]: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, vol. 81, p. 680.

Bowersox, J.R., 1990, Geology of the Belridge diatomite, northern South Belridge field, Kern County, California, in J.G. Kuespert and S.A. Reid, editors, Structure, Stratigraphy and Hydrocarbon  Occurrences of the San Joaquin Basin: Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists and  American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Pacific Sections, p. 215-224.

Bowersox, J.R., and Shore, R.A., 1990, Reservoir compaction of the Belridge diatomite and surface subsidence, South Belridge field, Kern County, California: in J.G. Kuespert and S.A. Reid, editors, Structure, Stratigraphy and Hydrocarbon  Occurrences of the San Joaquin Basin: Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists and American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Pacific Sections, p. 225-230.

Bowersox, J.R., and Shore, R.A., 1990, Reservoir compaction of the Belridge diatomite and surface subsidence, South Belridge field, Kern County, California [abstract]: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, vol. 74, p. 616.