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Bolton Howes, Ph.D.Assistant Professor of Geology, Director of the Wheaton College Field Station (On Faculty beginning August 2025)
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Bolton Howes is a sedimentary geologist who studies how Earth's climate history is recorded in the rock record. During his doctoral work at Princeton University, Bolton worked on two projects. First, he developed new methods for measuring the shape and size of sand grains using a three-dimensional grinding and imaging tool Princeton Grinder Lab. He then used these measurements to better understand the history of the ocean's chemical composition. His second project involved studying the location and conditions of the K–Pg Extinction (the extinction of the dinosaurs) in the Bolivian Altiplano.
Following the completion of his Ph.D., Bolton was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Miami, where he studied flash floods and submarine landslides in the Red Sea. He was then an NSF postdoctoral scholar at the University of Washington, where he studied how climate change influences the behavior of rivers.
When he is not working on research projects or geology, Bolton enjoys exploring parks and neighborhoods with his dog, Mango, playing basketball, reading, and photography.
Princeton University
Ph.D., Geosciences, 2023
University of Georgia
M.Sc., Geology, 2017
Macalester College
B.A., Geology, 2015
- Sedimentary Geology
- Earth History
- Image Processing
- Remote Sensing
- Statistics and Machine Learning
- Geological Society of America
- American Geophysical Union
The goal of Bolton’s research is to use sedimentary rocks to understand how Earth's climate has operated in the past. For example, he is currently studying sediments left behind by ancient rivers to understand how climate change affects rivers and floodplains. In the past, he has conducted research in settings that range from the Bolivian Altiplano to the floor of the Red Sea. His work typically begins with field observations and measurements, followed by the use of remote sensing and quantitative methods to supplement and analyze the data. Bolton enjoys involving students in research projects, so if you are interested, please send him an email!
Howes, Bolton, A., Geyman, E., Wilcots, J., Manzuk, R., Deutsch, C., Maloof, A. (2024), The where, when, and how of ooid formation: what ooids tell us about ancient seawater chemistry. Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
Geyman, E.C., Wu, Z., Nadeau, M.D., Edmonsond, S., Turner, A., Purkis, S.J., Howes, Bolton, Dyer, B., Ahm, A.-S.C., Yao, N., et al. (2022), The origin of carbonate mud and implications for global climate, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(43), e2210617119.
Mehra, A., Howes, Bolton, Manzuk, R., Spatzier, A., Samuels, B.M., and Maloof, A.C. (2022), A Novel Technique for Producing Three-Dimensional Data Using Serial Sectioning and Semi-Automatic Image Classification, Microscopy and Microanalysis, 28(6), 2020-2035.
Howes, Bolton, Mehra, A., and Maloof, A. (2021), Three-dimensional morphometry of ooids in oolites: A new tool for more accurate and precise paleoenvironmental interpretation, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 126(4), e2020JF005601.
Hoffman, P.F., Halverson, G.P., Schrag, D.P., Higgins, J.A., Domack, E.W., Macdonald, F.A., Pruss, S.B., Blättler, C.L., Crockford, P.W., Hodgin, E.B., Howes, Bolton J., et al. (2021), Snowballs in Africa: sectioning a long-lived Neoproterozoic carbonate platform and its bathyal foreslope (NW Namibia), Earth-Science Reviews, 219, 103616. [journal]