Courses Taught

• Regional Geology of North America (3370:410 and 3370:510)
• Carbonate Petrology (3370:623)

Research Interests

Dr. Bain's research concerns nearly all aspects of carbonate rocks-stratigraphy, petrology, diagenesis, dolomitization, facies analysis, microfabrics, modern environmental analysis and paleoenvironmental interpretation. These studies involve field work but utilize laboratory analyses to varying degrees. Access to such analytical instruments as X-ray diffraction, cathodoluminoscope, microprobe and SEM strengthen detailed petrographic and field examinations. Stable and radioactive isotopes have further aided in numerous studies.

Dr. Bain's experience with carbonates includes units ranging from Ordovician to Recent and from the Yukon Territory to Yucatan Peninsula.

In conjunction with graduate students, studies of Bahamian sediments and Pleistocene strata have resulted in facies maps and interpretation of carbonate deposition on San Salvador during the Sangamonian sea-level high stand. Several students and Dr. Bain combined their efforts to analyze and interpret the paleoenvironments of Pennsylvanian carbonates in southern Ohio The timing and process of dolomitization was the subject of several studies on Silurian and Devonian carbonates in central Ohio. Working with Dr. Foos, a Mississippian paleosol was compared to modern exposure surfaces forming in the Bahamas. Work on Ohio's carbonates continues with a study of the microstratigraphy of stromatolites.

Presently, Dr. Bain and his students are conducting detailed stratigraphic and facies analyses of Pennsylvanian carbonates in central Colorado. The oolitic and bioclastic limestones are associated with alluvial fan-delta arkosic sandstones and display interesting facies relationships.

Recent University of Akron Theses

• Yoho, M.B., 1996, Petrographic analysis of algal limestones in the Pennsylvanian Minturn Formation of central Colorado, 117 p.
• Hamilton, K.D., 1996, Petrography and Diagenesis of the Whiskey Creek Pass Limestone Member, Upper Madera Formation, Sangre De Cristo Mountains, South-Central Colorado, 137 p.
• Hebert, J., 1992, A lithofacies analysis of the northern portion of San Salvador Island, Bahamas.
• Kendall, R., 1989, Dolomitization and textural analysis of the Lower-Middle Devonian carbonates of north-central Ohio at Sandusky Crushed Stone Parkertown Quarry: Erie County, Ohio.
• Blauch, M.E., 1988, Dolomitization, digenesis and paleoenvironments of a middle to upper Silurian shallowing upward sequence exposed near Peebles, Ohio.
• Bruno, S.L., 1988, Diagenetic characteristics of the Vanport Limestone interval (Pennsylvanian) of eastern Ohio and Lawrence County, Pennsylvania.
• Sims,. W.R., 1987, Facies analysis of carbonate rocks on the southern end of San Salvador, Bahamas.

Selected Publications

• Foos, A.M. and Bain, R.J., 1995, Mineralogy, chemistry and petrography of soils, surface crusts and soil stones, San Salvador and Eleuthera, Bahamas. in Terrestrial and shallow marine geology of the Bahamas and Bermuda, H.A. Curran and B. White (eds.), Geological Society of America Special Paper 300, p. 223-232.

• Bain, R.J. and Kindler, P., 1994, Irregular fenestrae in Bahamian eolianites, a rainstorm induced origin: Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 64, no.1, p. 140-146.

• Kindler, P. and Bain, R.J., 1993, Submerged Late Holocene beachrock on San Salvador Island, Bahamas: Implications for recent sea level history, Geologische Rundschau, v. 84, p. 241-247.

• Bain, R.J. and Foos, A M., 1993, Carbonate microfabrics related to subaerial exposure and paleosol formation: in Rezak, R.(ed) Carbonate Micro-fabrics, Frontiers in Sedimentology, Springer-Velag, p. 19-27.

• Bain, R.J., 1991, Distribution of Pleistocene lithofacies in the interior of San Salvador Island, Bahamas and possible genetic models: in Bain, R.J., (ed) Proceedings of the Fifth Symposium on the Geology of the Bahamas, Bahamian Field Station, Ft. Lauderdale, FL p. 11-27.

• Bain, R.J., 1990, Diagenetic, nonevaporative origin for gypsum: Geology, v. 18, p. 447-450.

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