Kyle M. Straub
Professor
Education & Affiliations
Biography
Dr. Kyle M. Straub serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Tulane University. He joined Tulane in 2009 and has played a key role in advancing the department’s academic programs and research initiatives. As Chair, Dr. Straub oversees faculty development, curriculum planning, and strategic growth, fostering an environment that broadens participation and emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and student engagement.
He earned his Ph.D. in Geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his B.S. in Geosciences from Pennsylvania State University. Prior to Tulane, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, where he focused on experimental approaches to understanding sedimentary processes.
Dr. Straub is widely recognized for his leadership in Earth and environmental sciences and for mentoring students. He has received numerous awards for research, including the James Lee Wilson Young Scientist Award from SEPM and Tulane’s Innovation Award. His commitment to student success extends beyond the classroom, as he actively supports experiential learning opportunities through laboratory research, remote sensing of Earth’s surface and subsurface, numerical modeling, and field studies as part of collaborative projects.
Courses
EENS 3270 – Sedimentation and Stratigraphy
EENS 6080 – Depositional Mechanics
EENS 6160 – Construction and Interpretation of 3D Stratigraphy
Research
Research Areas:
Dr. Straub's research interests include Morphodynamics of Fluvial and Submarine Sediment Routing Systems, Experimental Sedimentology, and Quantitative Stratigraphy.
Research Overview:
Dr. Straub’s research focuses on the transport of sediment from land through the ocean and into the stratigraphic record. Scales of interest range from the interaction of turbidity currents with submarine topography over minutes to the construction and preservation of deltas over millions of years. The sedimentary bodies that arise from these processes are home to hundreds of millions of people, archives of past Earth conditions, and reservoirs of natural resources. He examines the morphodynamics and strata of these systems using a combination of carefully designed physical and numerical experiments, remote sensing of the Earth’s surface and subsurface sedimentary deposits, field studies of modern and ancient sediment transport systems, and targeted quantitative analysis.
He leads the Tulane Sediment Dynamics and Stratigraphy (TSDS) Group, which focuses on morphodynamic processes and their stratigraphic signatures.
Contributions
Wu, C., Kim, W., Yang, S., Tsai, F., Nittrouer, J.A., Dong, T.Y., Keum, D., Straub, K.M., 2025, High variability in flood discharge and stage accelerates river mobility, Science Advances.
Mukherjee, U. and Straub, K.M., 2025, Field testing autogenic storage thresholds for environmental signals in the strata of the Mississippi delta, Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 95, p. 405-416, DOI: 10.2110/jsr.2024.021.
Reece, J.K., Dorrell, R.M., Straub, K.M., 2025, Influence of flow discharge and minibasin shape on the flow behavior and depositional mechanics of ponded turbidity currents, Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 137, p. 1797-1814, DOI: 10.1130/B37517.1.
Sifuentes, C., Martin, H.K., Straub, K.M., Hajek, E.A., Edmonds, D.A., 2025, Floodplain topography and avulsion pathfinding control stratigraphic architecture in a numerical model of a fluvial fan, Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 95, p. 209-222, DOI: 10.2110/jsr.2024.045.
Reece, J.K. and Straub, K.M., 2025, Statistics of depressions covering the northern Gulf of Mexico saltminibasin province: drivers and strength of bathymetric self-organization, Journal of Geophysical Research – Oceans, v. 130, e2024JC021726, DOI: 10.1029/2024JC021726.
Griffin, C., Duller, R.A, Straub, K.M., 2024, The incomplete record of autogenic processes on the limits on signal detectability, Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, 129, e2023JF007538, DOI: 10.1029/2023JF007538.
Reece, J.K., Dorrell, R.M., Straub, K.M., 2024, Circulation of hydraulically ponded turbidity currents and the filling of continental slope minibasins, Nature Communications, v. 15, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46120-2.
Sylvester, Z., Straub, K.M., Covault, J.A., 2024, Stratigraphy in space and time: A reproducible approach to analysis and visualization, Earth-Science Reviews, v. 250, 104706, DOI: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2024.104706.
Zapp, S., Sanks, K.M., Silvestre, J.R., Shaw, J.B., Dutt, R., Straub, K.M., 2023, Sediment compaction in experimental deltas: Towards a meso-scale understanding of coastal subsidence patterns, Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, 128, e2023JF007238, DOI: 10.1029/2023JF007238.
Griffin, C., Duller, R.A, Straub, K.M., 2023, The degradation and detection of environmental signals in sediment transport systems, Science Advances, v. 9, eadi8046, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi8046.
Sanks, K.M., Shaw, J.B., Zapp, S.M., Silvestre, J.R., Dutt, R., Straub, K.M., 2023, Marsh-induced backwater: the influence of non-fluvial sedimentation on a delta’s channel morphology and kinematics, Earth Surface Dynamics, v. 11, p. 1035-1060, DOI: 10.5194/esurf-11-1035-2023.
Straub, K.M., Dutt, R., Duller, R.A., 2023, Coupled channel-floodplain dynamics and resulting stratigraphic architecture viewed through a mass-balance lens, Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 93, p. 595-616, DOI: 10.2110/jsr.2022.112.
Barefoot, E.A., Nittrouer, J.A., Straub, K.M., 2023, Sedimentary processes and the temporal resolution of sedimentary strata, Geophysical Research Letters, 50, e2023GL103925, DOI: 10.1029/2023GL103925.
