Steven Wojtal

  • Professor Emeritus of Geosciences
  • Fellow of the Geological Society of America

Areas of Study

Education

  • PhD, Johns Hopkins University, 1982
  • MA, Johns Hopkins University, 1976
  • BS, Brown University, 1974

Biography

My research focuses on determining the mechanical behavior of Earth materials. I use field observations and measurements to characterize structures in naturally deformed rocks and then draw upon experimental data on the physical properties of crystals, crystalline aggregates, and continuous media and theoretical principles from continuum mechanics to analyze and interpret those rock structures.

I regularly taught an introductory course on glaciers and climate change, an intermediate course in tectonics, and an advanced course in structural geology.

Markley, M. J. (OC '90) & Wojtal, S. 1996. Mesoscopic structure, strain, and volume loss in folded cover strata, Valley and Ridge Province, Maryland.  American Journal of Science 296, 24-58. 

Tikoff, B (OC '86). & Wojtal, S. F.  1997.  Computer visualization of three-dimensional deformation and application to upper-crustal settings.  Continuing Education Manual for Short Course offered by Geological Society of America, 130 p.

Tikoff, B (OC '86). & Wojtal, S. 1999, Displacement control of geologic structures. Journal of Structural Geology 21 (Special Issue on Questions in Structural Geology), 959-967. 

Tikoff, B (OC '86). & Wojtal, S. F.  2001.  Computer visualization of three-dimensional deformation and application to upper-crustal settings (revised), 140 p. A thoroughly revised version of the manual for our short course, which we offered to the Midwest Universities Structure and Tectonics Group.

Strine, M. (OC '99) & Wojtal, S.  2004. Evidence for non-plane strain flattening along the Moine thrust, Loch Srath nan Aisinnin, North-West Scotland.  Journal of Structural Geology 26,1755-1772.

Strine, M. (OC '99) & Wojtal, S.  2005. Reply to the comments of Alsop and Holdsworth on ‘Evidence for non-plane strain flattening along the Moine thrust, Loch Srath nan Aisinnin, North-West Scotland.’  Journal of Structural Geology 27, 785-788.

Tikoff, B. (OC '86), Blenkinsop, T., Kruckenberg, S., Morgan, S., Newman, J (OC '85)., & Wojtal, S. 2013. A perspective on the emergence of modern structural geology: Celebrating the feedbacks between historically based and process-based approaches.  In: The Web of Geosciences:  Advances, Impacts, and Interactions, Geological Society of America 125th Anniversary Volume, Special Publication 500 (edited by Bickford, M. E.), 65-120. 

Wells, R., Newman, J (OC '85), & Wojtal, S. 2014. Microstructure and rheology of a calcite-shale thrust fault. Journal of Structural Geology 65, 69-81.  

Wojtal, S., Blenkinsop, T., & Tikoff, B (OC '86).  2022.  An Integrated Framework for Structural Geology: Kinematics, Dynamics, and Rheology of Deformed Rocks. John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 580 p.

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