Andy Breckenridge

Dr. Andy
Breckenridge

(He/Him)
Professor
Natural Sciences Department
Geology | Environmental Science | Aerospace Studies
Email:
Phone: 715-394-8428
Office: Barstow Hall 103A
Curriculum Vitae/Resume

About

Helping students learn to think critically and communicate effectively—both in writing and speech—is one of a teacher’s greatest challenges. As a geology instructor, especially at the introductory level, Andy enjoys the unique opportunity to introduce adults to the Earth’s diversity, timelessness, and complexity.

Research Interests

Andy’s teaching and research interests cover the areas of sedimentology, stratigraphy, global climate change, glacial geology and the study of the Earth’s landforms. He is fascinated by lake sediments because they provide a window into the past through which people can see how landscapes and climate have changed. Andy’s current research areas include:

  • The history of Lake Superior over the last 13,000 years
  • Understanding the nature of the drainage of Lake Agassiz, which may have initiated multiple abrupt climatic cooling events
  • Mapping landslides caused by an incredible flood that occurred on June 10, 2012, to understand factors that lead to slope failure
  • Developing techniques to use lake sediments to reconstruct barren-ground caribou populations over thousand-year time scales

Ongoing Research Opportunities for Students

  • Contribute to a larger project trying to understanding the geomorphological evolution of the Lake Superior basin (external link)
  • Work on glacial varves from Minnesota and Ontario to understand the response of ice sheets to rapid climate change (NSF award #1602791)
  • Study sediments from the St. Louis River Estuary to understand how the harbor and baymouth bar (Park Point/Wisconsin Point) developed over the last 4,000 years

Publications

(Last 5 years)

Research Gate profile

  • 2025. Triplett, L., Hammer, M., DeLong, S., Gran, K., Jennings, C., Engle, Z., Bartley, J/, Blumentritt, D., Breckenridge, A., Day, S., Kohout, M., Larson, P., McDermott, J., Richard, E. Natural Hazards, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-025-07262-8  
  • 2024. Fisher, T., Loope, H., Jol, H., Breckenridge, A., Goble, R., Anderton, J. A Holocene history of high bluffs, strandplains, terraces, and dunes along the SE margin of Lk Superior with reference to fluctuating lake levels. GSA Bulletin 137, https://doi.org/10.1130/B37843.1
  • 2024. Brosius, L., Walter Anthony, K., Lowell, T., Anthony, P., Chanton, J., Jones, M., Grosse, G., Breckenridge, A. Methane emissions from proglacial lakes: A synthesis study directed toward Lake Agassiz. Quaternary Science Reviews 344, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108975
  • 2023. Eshenroder, R., Breckenridge, A., Jacobsen, P. 2023. Reconciling Zoogeography and Genetics: Origins of Deepwater Cisco Coregonus artedi (sensu lato) in the Great Lakes. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, https://doi.org/10.1002/tafs.10444
  • 2022. DeLong, S., Hammer, M.N., Engle, Z.T., Richard, E.M., Breckenridge, A.J., Gran, K.B., Jennings, C.E., Jalobeanu, A. Regional-scale landscape response to an extreme precipitation event from repeat lidar and object-based image analysis. Earth and Space Science 9(12), https://doi.org/10.1029/2022EA002420
  • 2022. Fisher, T., Breckenridge, A., Relative lake level reconstructions for glacial Lake Agassiz spanning the Herman to Campbell levels. Quaternary Science Reviews 294, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.1077602021
  • 2021. Gauthier, M., Breckenridge, A., Hodder, T. Deglacial patterns for the MIS 2 Laurentide Ice Sheet in Manitoba, Canada. Boreas, https://doi.org/10.1111/bor.12571
  • 2021. Lewis, M., Breckenridge, A., Teller, J.T. Reconstruction of isostatically-adjusted paleo-strandlines along the southern margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, https://doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2021-0005
  • 2021. Keenan, B., Imfeld, A., Johnston, J., Breckenridge, A., Gelinas, Y., Douglas, P., Molecular evidence for human population change associate with climate events in the Maya lowlands. Quaternary Science Reviews 258, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106904
  • 2021. Breckenridge, A., Lowell, T., Peteet, D., Wattrus, N., Moretto, M., Norris, N. A new glacial varve chronology from along the southern Laurentide Ice Sheer that spans the Younger Dryas-Holocene boundary. Geology, https://doi.org/10.1130/G47995.1

Education

  • 2006 – Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Minnesota 
  • 1999 – Master of Science (M.S.), University of Minnesota 
  • 1994 – Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Purdue University