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Professor of Sedimentology and Geochemistry

Co-Director: �ʹ�����'s Facility for Isotope Research

Editor-in-Chief:

Scientific Advisor: Geological Survey of Brazil's (CPRM) Project Phosphate

Peir Pufahl (Ph.D.) leads an international, multidisciplinary research program focused on the sedimentology, geochemistry, and economic geology of bioelemental sediments. Bioelemental sediments include phosphorite, iron formation, ironstone, and chert, which are precipitates of the nutrient elements P, Fe, and Si. These rocks are economically important because they are used to manufacture fertilizer and steel. Black shales associated with many phosphorites are also important hydrocarbon source rocks. Because bioelemental sediments actively participate in Earth system evolution they record the interplay between climate, meteorology, and ocean circulation on nutrient cycling and environmental change.

Supervising Information

My students and postdoctoral fellows use a process oriented, interdisciplinary approach to solve sedimentologic problems that result in manuscripts published in top-tier, peer-reviewed journals. International and Canadian-based thesis research interprets the sedimentology, stratigraphy, and geochemistry of bioelemental sediments to understand Earth history and create state-of-the-art exploration models for industry.

Interested?  Please contact me!

Industry Courses

• Economic significance and petrogenesis of phosphorite
• Iron ore genesis, exploration, and production

Teaching

• GEOL 200 Oceanography
• GEOL 840 Graduate Seminar Advanced Sequence Stratigraphy

Awards

• Fellow Society of Economic Geologists
• Discovery Award Professional of Distinction Finalist
• Atlantic Geoscience Society Distinguished Lecturer
• PetroCanada Young Innovator Award
• Acadia Student Union Teaching Award

Publications

Refereed Book Chapters

Hiatt, E.E. and Pufahl, P.K., 2014. Chapter 5: Cathodoluminescence petrography of carbonate rocks: a review of applications for understanding diagenesis, reservoir quality, and pore system evolution, In Coulsen, I.M. (ed.), Cathodoluminescence and its Application to Geoscience, Mineralogical Association of Canada, 75-96. Invited

Pufahl, P.K., 2010.  Bioelemental Sediments, In James, N.P. and Dalrymple, R.W. (eds.), Facies Models, 4th Edition, Geological Association of Canada, 477-504.  Invited

James, N.P., Kendall, A.C, and Pufahl, P.K., 2010.  Introduction to Bioelemental Sediments. In James, N.P. and Dalrymple, R.W. (eds.), Facies Models, 4th Edition, Geological Association of Canada, 323-340.

Selected Refereed Journal Papers

Pufahl, P.K., Squires, A.D., Murphy, J.B., Quesada, C., Lokier, SW., Álvaro. J.J., and Hatch, J., submitted. Ordovician ironstone of the Iberian margin: coastal upwelling, ocean anoxia and Paleozoic biodiversity. The Depositional Record.

Chipman, M.D., Grey, M., and Pufahl, P.K., in press. Coprolites from a brackish ecosystem in the Pennsylvanian Joggins Formation, Nova Scotia, Canada and their palaeoecological implications. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.

Hiatt, E.E., Pufahl, P.K., and Silva, L.G., 2020. Iron and phosphorus biochemical systems and the Cryogenian-Ediacaran transition, Jacadigo Basin: implications for the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event. Precambrian Research, 337.

Zhang, Y., Pufahl, P.K., Du, Y., Chen, G., Liu, J., Chen, J., and Wang, Z., 2019. Economic phosphorite from the Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation, South China, and the Neoproterozoic-Cambrian Phosphogenic Event. Sedimentary Geology, 388, 1-19.

Todd, S.E., Pufahl, P.K., Murphy, J.B., and Taylor, K.B., 2019. Sedimentology and oceanography of Early Ordovician ironstone, Bell Island Newfoundland: ferruginous seawater and upwelling in the Rheic Ocean. Sedimentary Geology, 379, 1-15.

Sampaio, G.M.S., Pufahl, P.K., Raye, U., Kyser, T.K., Abreu, A.T., Alkmim, A.R., and Nalani Jr, H.A., 2018. Influence of weathering and hydrothermal alteration on the REE and δ56Fe composition of iron formation, Cauê Formation, Iron Quadrangle, Brazil. Chemical Geology, 497, 27-40.

MacNeil, L.A., Pufahl, P.K., and James, N.P., 2018. Deposition of a saline giant in the Mississippian Windsor Group, Nova Scotia, and the nascent Late Paleozoic Ice Age. Sedimentary Geology, 363, 118-135.

Caird, R.A., Pufahl, P.K., Hiatt, E.E., Abram, M.B., Rocha, A.J.D., and Kyser, T.K., 2017. Ediacaran stromatolites and intertidal phosphorite of the Salitre Formation, Brazil: phosphogenesis during the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event. Sedimentary Geology, 350, 55-71.

Pufahl, P.K. and Groat, L.A., 2017. Sedimentary and igneous phosphate deposits: formation and exploration. Economic Geology, 112, 483-516. Invited review.

Ó Gogáin, A., Falcon-Lang, H.J., Carpenter, D.K., Miller, R., Benton, M.J., Pufahl, P.K., Ruta, M., Davies, T.G., Hinds, S.J., and Stimson, M., 2016. Fish and tetrapod communities across a marine to brackish salinity gradient in the Pennsylvanian (early Moscovian) Minto Formation
of New Brunswick, Canada, and their palaeoecological and palaeogeographic implications. Palaeontology, 59, 689-724.

Tosca, N.J., Guggenheim, S., Pufahl, P.K., 2016.  An authigenic origin for Precambrian greenalite: implications for iron formation and the chemistry of ancient seawater. GSA Bulletin, 128, 511-530.

Drummond, J.B.R., Pufahl, P.K., Porto, C.G., and Carvalho, M., 2015.  Neoproterozoic peritidal phosphorite from the Sete Lagoas Formation (Brazil) and the Precambrian phosphorus cycle. Sedimentology, 62, 1978-2008.

Falcon-Lang, H., Pufahl, P.K., Bashforth, A., Gibling, M., Miller, R. and Minter, N. 2015.  A marine incursion in the Lower Pennsylvanian Tynemouth Creek Foration, Canada: implications for paleogeography, stratigraphy and paleoecology.  Palaios, 30, 779-791.

Raye, U., Pufahl, P.K., Kyser, T.K., Ricard, E., and Hiatt, E.E., 2015.  The role of sedimentology, oceanography, and alteration on the d56Fe value of the Sokoman Iron Formation, Labrador Trough, Canada.  Geochimica et Cosomochimica Acta, 164, 205-220.

Hiatt, E.E., Pufahl, P.K., and Edwards, C.T., 2015.  Sedimentary phosphate and associated fossil bacteria in a Paleoproterozoi