Frank Ettensohn's research interests largely center on sedimentary geology and are integrative and field-oriented in nature. His background is in the fields of stratigraphy, sedimentology, and paleontology, but he has found it rewarding to integrate these disciplines with each other and commonly with regional tectonics for a more complete resolution of the problem at hand. Dr. Ettensohn and his students have been especially successful using this approach in the areas of black-shale geology, carbonate paleoenvironments, and seismites.

Recently, this approach has been used to decipher possible relationships between foreland-basin stratigraphy and tectonics via lithospheric flexure. Based on his recent work on the Appalachian Basin, it appears that there is growing evidence in the Paleozoic foreland-basin sequence for the presence of second- and third-order, unconformity-bound flexural sequences reflecting orogenies and included tectophases. These sequences generally exhibit a well-ordered stratigraphic succession of dark shales, flysch-like clastic sediments, carbonates, and marginal-marine clastic sediments, which may be repeated several times reflecting recurrent tectophases. Similar sequences have been observed in other North American foreland basins, and it is a continuing goal of this research to see how extensive in time and space such sequences are, for they potentially have great predictive value. Dr. Ettensohn has also used related approaches for understanding how far-field tectonic forces may influence development of more distal, cratonic stratigraphy during coeval, craton-margin orogenies.

Most recently, Dr. Ettensohn and his students have been examining horizons of soft-sediment deformation of probable seismic origin, or seismites, in these sequences as evidence of coeval far-field tectonic effects. Although Dr. Ettensohn encourages integrative studies, he has also advised more specific studies in paleontology and stratigraphy, particularly in the area of echinoderm paleoecology and systematics, which is an area of special interest.

Ettensohn, F.R., in press, The sedimentary manifestation of foreland-basin, tectophase cycles: Examples from the Appalachian Basin, U.S.A., in Mabesoone, J.M., and Neumann, V.H., eds., Cyclic development of sedimentary basins. Elsevier.

Ettensohn, F.R., 2004, Modeling the nature and development of major Paleozoic clastic wedges in the Appalachian Basin, U.S.A.: Journal of Geodynamics, v. 37, 657-681.

Ettensohn, F.R., Kasl, J.M., and Stewart, A.K., 2004, Structural inversion and origin of a Middle/Late Ordovician carbonate buildup: Evidence from the Tanglewood and Devils Hollow members, Lexington Limestone, central Kentucky (USA): Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 210, p. 249-266.

Ettensohn, F.R., and Brett, C.E., 2002, Stratigraphic evidence for continuation of Taconian orogeny into Early Silurian time: in Mitchell, C.E., and Jacobi, R., eds., Taconic convergence: Orogen, foreland basin, and craton: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, v. 27, p. 279-288.

Ettensohn, F.R., Hohman, J.C., Kulp, M.A., and Rast, N., 2002, Evidence and implications of possible far-field responses to Taconian Orogeny: Middle-Late Ordovician Lexington Platform and Sebree Trough, east-central United States: Southeastern Geology, v. 41, p. 1-36.

Ettensohn, F.R., Kulp, M.A., and Rast, N., 2002, Interpreting ancient marine seismites and apparent epicentral areas for paleo-earthquakes, Middle Ordovician Lexington Limestone, central Kentucky, in Ettensohn, F.R., Rast, N., and Brett, C.E., eds., Ancient seismites: Geological Society of America Special Paper 359, p. 177-190.

Ettensohn, F.R., 1998, Compressional tectonic controls on epicontinental black-shale deposition: Devonian-Mississippian examples from North America in Schieber, J., Zimmerle, W., and Sethi, P.S., eds., Shales and mudstones, v. 1: Stuttgart, E. Schweizerbartsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, p. 109-128.

Ettensohn, F.R., and Brett, C.E., 1998, Tectonic components in third-order Silurian cycles: Examples from the Appalachian Basin and global implications, in Landing, E. and Johnson, M.E., eds., Silurian Cycles: New York State Museum Bulletin 491, p. 145-162.

Ettensohn, F.R., 1997, Assembly and dispersal of Pangea: Large-scale tectonic effects on coeval deposition of North American, marine, epicontinental black shales: Journal of Geodynamics, v. 23, p. 287-309.

Pashin, J.C., and Ettensohn, F.R., 1995, Reevaluation of the Bedford-Berea sequence in Ohio and adjacent states: Forced regression in a foreland basin: Geological Society of America Special Paper 298, 68p.

Ettensohn, F.R., 1994, Tectonic control on formation and cyclicity of major Appalachian unconfor-
mities and associated stratigraphic sequences: SEPM Contributions to Sedimentology and Paleontology, v. 4, p. 217-242.

Ettensohn, F.R., 1993, Possible flexural controls on the origins of extensive, ooid-rich, carbonate environments in the Mississippian of the United States, in Zuppan, C.W., Keith, B., eds., Missis-sippian oolites and modern analogs: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Studies in Geology #35, p. 13-30.

Ettensohn, F.R., 1992, Controls on the origin of the Devonian-Mississippian oil and gas shales, east-central United States: Fuel, v. 71, p. 1487-1492.