Michael L Sweet

Michael L Sweet
Research Scientist, Institute for Geophysics, Jackson School of Geosciences
Program Co-Director, UT Gulf Basin Depositional Synthesis Project (GBDS)


Office: ROC

Mike is co-director of the Gulf Basin Depositional Synthesis Project (GBDS), an industry-supported research project that assembles and synthesizes well, seismic, and other data to establish a basin-scale depositional history of the Gulf of Mexico. His work is focused on Cenozoic depositional system. He is interested in quantifying how sediment moves between depositional environment, particularly between shallow marine and deep-water environments. He is interested in how fluids move in the subsurface and on stratigraphic barriers and baffles to flow.

Research Locations



Current Research Programs & Projects

Quaternary Evolution of Mississippi Canyon

Sediment routing from shallow marine to deep-water environments in the Cenozoic northern Gulf of Mexico

Source to Sink Sediment Routing in the Paleogene Tyee Formation of Oregon ( view )Rates of deposition in deep-water environments ( view )

President, Gulf Coast Section of SEPM (2021 - 2022)

Gulf Coast Association of Geologic Societies, Technical Program Committee, GeoGulf 2021 Meeting - Austin (2020 - 2021)

Editor, AAPG Bulletin, American Association of Petroleum Geologists (2013 - 2016)

Sweet, Michael. (2019). Sediment routing from shelf to basin floor in the Quaternary Golo System of Eastern Corsica, France, western Mediterranean Sea. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 132(5/6), 1217-1234. doi:.

Sweet, M. (2021). How fast do submarine fans grow? Insights from the Quaternary Golo fans, offshore Corsica. Geology, 49(10), 1204-1208. doi:.

Sweet, M. (2021). Deep-water deposits of the Eocene Tyee Formation, Oregon. From Terranes to Terrains: Geologic Field Guides on the Construction and Destruction of the Pacific Northwest: Geological Society of America Field Guide 62 (, pp. 19-48): Geological Society of America. doi:.

Undergraduate Students

Jacob Margoshes
John Cabrales