Rick Cheel

Professor, Earth Sciences

Office: Mackenzie Chown D422
905 688 5550 x3512
rcheel@brocku.ca

Website

Clastic sedimentology with an interest in experimental sedimentology and the sedimentology of shallow marine storm deposits.

Career History

  • April 2022 – Sept. 2022  Chair, Department of Mathematics and Statistics
  • July 2015-June 2018: Chair, Department of Earth Sciences
  • July 2013 – May 2014: Associate Dean, Undergraduate Programs, Faculty of Mathematics and Science
  • April 2013-June 2013: Associate Dean, Research & Graduate Studies, Faculty of Mathematics and Science
  • February 2010-December 2011: Interim Dean, Faculty of Mathematics and Science, Brock University.
  • September 2007-February 2010: Associate Dean, Faculty of Mathematics and Science, Brock University.
  • June 2001–June 2003: Vice Chair, Senate, Brock University.
  • June 1996-98 Director, Environmental Science Program, Faculty of Mathematics and Science, Brock University.
  • June 1996–June 1997: Vice Chair, Senate, Brock University.
  • July 1996–July 1997: Acting Dean, Faculty of Mathematics and Science, Brock University.
  • 1995–1996: Chair, Department of Earth Sciences, Brock University.
  • 1994 to present: Professor of Earth Sciences, Brock University.
  • July 1994–December 1994: Acting Dean, Faculty of Mathematics and Science, Brock University.
  • 1991–1994: Chair, Department of Geological Sciences/Earth Sciences, Brock University
  • 1990–1994: Associate Professor, Department of Geological Sciences/Earth Sciences, Brock University.
  • 1986–1990: Assistant Professor, Department of Geological Sciences, Brock University
  • 1984-1986: Assistant Professor, Department of Geology, Brandon University
  • 1983–1984: Lecturer, Department of Geology, Brandon University.

Qualifications

  • Ph.D. McMaster University, 1984
  • M.Sc. University of Ottawa, 1980
  • B.A. McMaster University, 1977

Activities

Internal Activities

  • Associate Dean, Faculty of Mathematics and Science.

International committees and editorial boards

  • Member of the Editorial Board for Sedimentology (the journal of the International Association of Sedimentologists), 1999-2001.
  • Invited contributor of terms for sedimentary structures and textures to the Glossary of Geology (5 th Edition, 2005) published by the American Geoscience Institute in 2005.

Conferences, symposia and workshops

  • Registration Chair, Geological Association of Canada/Mineralogical Association of Canada Annual Meeting, 2004.

Teaching

  • ERSC 1P92 Extreme Earth

  • ERSC/GEOG 2P16 Introduction to Clastic Sedimentology

  • ERSC 4P10 Advanced Clastic Sedimentology

  • ERSC 4P11 Sedimentary Facies Models

  • ERSC 5P50 Sedimentary Environments

Research

Research

Rick is currently conducting studies of the formation of current crescents in response to unidirectional flow over obstacles on a sand bed. Using his 10-metre recirculating sediment flume, he is examining the effects of flow depth and velocity and obstacle diameter on the morphology of the resulting current crescents.

Graduate Student Supervision

  • Mike Johnson ( Brock University)
  • Tony Benincasa ( Brock University)
  • Sean Mcfarland ( Brock University)
  • Jens Paterson ( Brock University)

Publications & Student Activities

Articles in Books

  • Cheel, R.J., 2003. Hummocky Cross-Stratification. Invited contribution to The Encyclopedia of Sediment and Sedimentary Rocks , G.V. Middleton, Editor. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 362–364.
  • Cheel, R.J., 2003. Heavy Mineral Shadows. Invited contribution to The Encyclopedia of Sediment and Sedimentary Rocks , G.V. Middleton, Editor. Kluwer Academic Publishers, p. 355–356.
  • Cheel, R.J. , 2003. Parting lineation and current crescents. In The Encyclopedia of Sediment and Sedimentary Rocks , G.V. Middleton, Editor. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 512–514.

Research Articles

  • Alexander J., J.S. Bridge, R.J. Cheel, and S.F. LeClair, 2001. Bed forms and associated sedimentary structures formed under supercritical water flows over aggrading sand beds. Sedimentology , 48: 133–152.
  • McFarland S., Westrop S.R. and R.J. Cheel, 1999. Allogenic versus autogenic processes in the genesis of Middle Ordovician brachiopod-rich shell beds, Verulam Formation, Ontario. Palaios , 14: 282–287.
  • Leckie, D.A., and Cheel, R.J., 1997, Sedimentology and depositional history of the Lower Cretaceous Coarse-grained clastics, southwest Alberta and southeast British Columbia: Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Bulletin , 45: 1–24.
  • Paterson, J. and Cheel, R.J., 1997. The depositional history of the Bloomington complex, an ice-contact deposit in the Oak Ridges Moraine, southern Ontario, Canada. Quaternary Science Reviews , p. 705–719.