About

John A. Goff is a Research Professor at the UT Institute for Geophysics. His research interests include seafloor mapping, coastal processes, and geostatistics. As a key member of the institute, he contributes to understanding Earth's geological features and processes, with a focus on marine and coastal environments. His work supports the institute's mission to understand the Earth and other planets to solve key problems that affect us all.

Research topics

• Geophysics
• Oceanography
• Geology
• Geomorphology
• Paleontology
• Seismology
• Geodesy
• Mineralogy

Selected publications

• Flowline bathymetric profiles in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for statistical analysis

  DRYAD · 2026-04-14

  datasetOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  These data sets consists of approximately flowline-parallel bathymetric profiles in the North and South Atlantic Oceans, along the northern and southern East Pacific Rise, and along the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge. These data are used in a paper submitted to Geophysical Research Letters entitled "A spreading-rate dependence for periodic signals embedded in otherwise aperiodic abyssal hills". The first zip file, AHspectral_profiles.zip, contains unprocessed profiles, each containing the following columns: (1) longitude, (2) latitude, (3) depth in m, (4) crustal age in my, and (5) half spreading rate in 1/1000th of a cm. The second zip file, AHspectral_processed.zip, the profiles have been processed to be a function of crustal age, resampled at constant interval, and detrended with an order 6 polynomial. Header gives number and data points and sampling interval in my. The profile naming convention consists of the cruise ID of the data collection survey (except for NEPR data, which come from too many bathymetric sources, and so are just identified as “nepr”), and a 3-digit code indicating (a) whether data profile was to the east (e)or the west (w) of the ridge axis, (b) a number indicating which of one or more profiles where utilized for that cruise ID, and then (c) a letter indicating which segment of the profile was used. If the data were sampled from multibeam data, that is indicated by an “mb” suffix; otherwise the data were gathered from mgd77 trackline data files.

  PublisherDOI

• Subglacial erosion rates calculated from proglacial sediments in two marine terminating glaciers in West Greenland

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2025-01-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Contrasting evolution of upper crustal velocities in young oceanic crust: Insights from the Southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge

  Tectonophysics · 2025-09-03

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Ebb-tidal delta and sand bar construction offshore Shell Island, Florida

  Continental Shelf Research · 2025-10-22

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Revisiting the stratigraphic development of the postglacial, transgressive paleo-Changjiang (Yangtze River) mouth: A journey from tide-dominated estuary to delta

  Geological Society of America Bulletin · 2024-04-24 · 6 citations

  article

  Abstract The transition between a tide-dominated estuary and a tide-dominated delta, which is observed in modern settings and repeatedly throughout the geologic record, is a critical process for understanding sea-level and environmental changes. This transition remains poorly documented, however, leaving a knowledge gap about the sedimentary and stratigraphic processes involved. To help bridge the gap, we reexamined the postglacial transgressive system beneath the modern Changjiang (Yangtze River) Delta, built by one of the world’s largest rivers, using new chirp data supplemented by correlation with previously documented boreholes. Our results revealed a previously undocumented tide-dominated estuary-to-delta transition around the Younger Dryas, with the pretransition evolution dominated by the retrogradation of the tide-dominated estuary, which fills most of the accommodation space in the lowstand incised valley. This transition occurred when the middle and seaward parts of the estuary reached the subaqueous modern Changjiang Delta area and underwent extensive tidal erosion. Overlying the tidal ravinement, a series of ridge-and-swale structures formed due to tidal/fluviotidal channelization on the mud-dominated heterolithic substrate, primarily consisting of delta-front sediments characterized by flat, stratified reflections (bedding) with shallowing-upward trends. Ridge orientation rotates clockwise from north to south, with intervening swales bifurcating from a common apex point, and these features are flanked by inclined and sigmoidal levee-like channel fills dominated by homogeneous mud (acoustically transparent material). We reinterpret these features as tide-dominated delta islands and distributary channels, rather than the previously interpreted erosional mud ridges in the seaward part of the estuary, as they align with patterns observed in classic tide-dominated deltas. These patterns also suggest a shift from delta-front to delta-plain environments coinciding with shoreline advance ca. 10 k.y. B.P., but this was preceded by the evolution of a backstepping delta. Our study highlights the interplay between sediment supply and sea-level fluctuations in controlling the large-scale stratigraphic and environmental evolution of tidal-dominated river mouth systems. In the transgressive, paleo-Changjiang mouth, this interplay drove the system to evolve through stages of retrogradational estuary, backstepping delta, and progradational delta, and each environment differs significantly from the pattern observed in the modern Changjiang Delta. This study provides important insights for evaluating the evolution and sequence-stratigraphic reconstruction of other tidal depositional systems.

  PublisherDOI

• Foraminiferal analysis of Holocene sea-level rise within the Trinity River Incised Paleo-Valley, Offshore Galveston Bay, Texas

  Marine Geology · 2024-07-04 · 1 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Inference of source signatures of merchant ships in shallow ocean environments

  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2024-05-01 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  An ocean acoustics experiment in 2017 near a shipping lane on the New England continental shelf in about 75 m of water provided an opportunity to evaluate a methodology to extract source signatures of merchant ships in a bottom-limited environment. The data of interest are the received acoustic levels during approximately 20 min time intervals centered at the closest position of approach (CPA) time for each channel on two 16-element vertical line arrays. At the CPA ranges, the received levels exhibit a frequency-dependent peak and null structure, which possesses information about the geophysical properties of the seabed, such as the porosity and sediment thickness, and the characterization of the source, such as an effective source depth. The modeled seabed is represented by two sediment layers, parameterized with the viscous grain shearing (VGS) model, which satisfies causality, over a fixed deep layered structure. Inferred estimates of the implicit source levels require averaging an error function over the full 20 min time intervals. Within the 200-700 Hz band, the Wales-Heitmeyer model captures the inferred frequency dependence of the source levels.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Internal sand bank seismic stratigraphy provides insight into paleo-barrier island preservation

  Marine Geology · 2024-07-09

  article
  PublisherDOI

• IDENTIFYING PALEO-BARRIER ISLANDS TO UNDERSTAND PRESERVATION POTENTIAL

  2023-03-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• A PATH TOWARDS HOLISTIC COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT IN TEXAS LEVERAGING SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENTS IN DATA COLLECTION, PLANNING, AND IMPLEMENTATION

  Coastal Engineering Proceedings · 2023-09-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The Gulf of Mexico shorelines of Texas are in a largely regressive state due to an amalgamation of factors including but not limited to: sea level rise, subsidence, littoral drift, and riverine supply disruptions. In some areas the erosion rate is several meters annually, leading to significant loss of coastal barrier island area. The bulk of the coastal barrier systems in Texas is undeveloped. However, barrier island loss is no longer able to go unnoticed as there is ever-growing recognition of their intrinsic value to coastal habitat and economies and their role in coastal storm resilience. Projects with significant merit and sediment needs are being identified for funding, which could result in a firstcome- first-serve extraction of the easily available and less costly sediment resources. Without proper management, the complexity and cost of future projects will naturally escalate, leading to a reduction in investments due to lower returns. The following questions need to be addressed: how can lower returns be avoided to incentivize investment and maximize coastal restoration efforts in Texas? And what can be done to galvanize support for beneficial use (BU) placement of beach-quality dredge material to minimize its removal from the littoral system? What can be done now to inform and leverage the existing and future knowledge so that management decisions lead to better outcomes for the environment and Texas constituents? A well thought out and executed plan maximizing returns and coastal resilience will enable other regions to more easily replicate the success.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• A Robust Test of the Milankovitch Cycle Hypothesis Predictions for Influencing Abyssal Hill Morphology: A Pilot Study

  NSF · $120k · 2017–2019

Frequent coauthors

• S. P. S. Gulick

  The University of Texas at Austin

  66 shared

• Donald J. P. Swift

  52 shared

• Alan W. Niedoroda

  50 shared

• M. S. Steckler

  Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

  50 shared

• James P. M. Syvitski

  50 shared

• William B. F. Ryan

  49 shared

• Steve C. Cande

  Scripps Institution of Oceanography

  49 shared

• C. A. Raymond

  Jet Propulsion Laboratory

  49 shared