W. John Schmelz

About me

I'm an Assistant Research Professor in the Stratigraphy and Earth History lab group at Rutgers University (Deptartment of Earth and Planetary Sciences). I study coastal and marine strata as a record of of sea level change, Earth's geological climate history, and tectonic processes. My current projects include forward-stratigraphic modeling the Miocene to present strata of the US Mid-Atlantic margin, assessing Cretaceous sandstone reservoirs with potential to store supercritical CO₂ offshore southern New Jersey and Maryland, and collecting UAV/RTK-GNSS surveys of modern barrier systems to track change occuring in response to coastal storms. Collectively, these projects aim to inform our understanding of continental-margin sedimentary processes, global mean sea level history, and coastal resiliance.