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EDUCATION

Tertiary Education

Primary and Secondary Education

Areas of Expertise:  

• I am a geologist and sedimentary geologist by undergraduate and postgraduate training, respectively, with special interest in basin analysis and petroleum geology.
• My research involves geologic mapping, sedimentary facies analysis, sedimentary petrology, lithostratigraphy, and sequence stratigraphy in reconstructing: depositional environments; sedimentary provenance; basin evolution, and prospecting for mineral, water and hydrocarbons across the Mesozoic to Cenozoic sedimentary basins in Tanzania.
• I also work in collaboration with paleontologists and paleoanthropologists in providing geologic context to the flora and fauna preserved within sedimentary basins.

EMPLOYEMENT AND WORKING EXPERIENCE

Teaching Experience:

• Lecturer of Sedimentary Geology - Undergraduate and Postgraduate Degree classes: April, 2017—To date; Dept. of Geosciences, Univ. of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
• Teaching Assistant of Sedimentology – on part-time basis: 2012—2015; Dept. of Geosciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia.
• Assistant Lecturer of Sedimentology: 2010–2017; Dept. of Geology, Univ. of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
• Tutorial Assistant – Sedimentary Geology: 2008—2010; Dept. of Geology, Univ. of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Postgraduate Supervision:

Collaborative Research Projects:

• The Rukwa Rift Basin Project: evolution of faunas and ecosystems in deep time―implications for Gondwana biogeography: 2021—To date
• Geology and Archeologic Investigation of the mid Pleistocene Isimila Stone-Age Site, Tanzania: 2020 —To date
• Rift Dynamics and primate evolution at the close of the Paleogene: A view from the Rukwa Rift Basin: 2012—2020

Consultancy Projects:

• Karoo and Cretaceous rocks mapping in Rukwa Basin (UDSM-UCB/SoMG/22086): April, 2022—April, 2023

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

2022. Sabuni, R., Mtelela, C. & Kagya, M. Geologic review of hydrocarbons potential of the Rufiji Basin, Tanzania. J. Sediment. Environ. 7, 337–349,

 https://doi.org/10.1007/s43217-022-00102-w

2022. Stevens, Nancy J., O'Connor, Patrick M., Mtelela, Cassy, and Roberts, Eric M. Macroscelideans (Myohyracinae and Rhynchocyoninae) from the late Oligocene Nsungwe formation of the Rukwa Rift Basin, southwestern Tanzania. Historical Biology, 34 (4). pp. 604-610.

https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2021.1938565

2022. Lawrence, L., Spandler, C., Hilbert-Wolf, H.L., Mtelela, C., Stevens, N.J., O'Connor, P.M., and Roberts, E.M. Radiogenic isotope record of magma genesis and lithospheric geodynamics of the Rukwa Rift Basin, Tanzania, from mid Mesozoic to present. Chemical Geology, 608. 121040,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2022.121040

2021. Jacob A. McCartney, Sierra N. Bouchard, Josephine A. Reinhardt, Eric M. Roberts, Patrick M. O'Connor, Cassy Mtelela, Nancy J. Stevens. The oldest lamprophiid (Serpentes, Caenophidia) fossil from the late Oligocene Rukwa Rift Basin, Tanzania and the origins of African snake diversity,

Geobios, 66-67,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geobios.2020.07.005

2021. Theresa J. Orr, Eric M. Roberts, Christopher M. Wurster, Cassy Mtelela, Nancy J. Stevens, and Patrick M. O’Connor. Paleoclimate and paleoenvironment reconstruction of paleosols spanning the Lower to Upper Cretaceous from the Rukwa Rift Basin, Tanzania. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 577, 110539, ISSN 0031-0182,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2021.110539

2020. Vittorio Maselli, Davide Oppo, Andrew L. Moore, Aditya Riadi Gusman, Cassy Mtelela, David Iacopini, Marco Taviani, Elinaza Mjema, Ernest Mulaya, Melody Che, Ai Lena Tomioka, Elisante Mshiu and Joseph D. Ortiz. Forum Reply - A 1000-yr-old tsunami in the Indian Ocean points to greater risk for East Africa. Geology 49(1): e516-e516.

 https://doi.org/10.1130/G48585Y.1

2020. Vittorio Maselli, Davide Oppo, Andrew L. Moore, Aditya Riadi Gusman, Cassy Mtelela, David Iacopini, Marco Taviani, Elinaza Mjema, Ernest Mulaya, Melody Che, Ai Lena Tomioka, Elisante Mshiu and Joseph D. Ortiz. A 1000-yr-old tsunami in the Indian Ocean points to greater risk for East Africa. Geology v. 48 (8), p. 808–813

https://doi.org/10.1130/G47257.1

2018. Mtelela, C., Preliminary sedimentology and stratigraphy of the enigmatic middle Lake Beds succession (Pleistocene?) in the Rukwa Rift Basin, Tanzania. Tanzania Journal of Science 44(1), p. 75-96. eISSN: 2507-7961, print ISSN: 0856-1761

https://journals.udsm.ac.tz/index.php/tjs/article/view/2805, https://www.ajol.info/index.php/tjs/article/view/171311

2017. Mtelela, C., Roberts, E.M., Hilbert-Wolf, H.L., Downie, R., Hendrix, M.S., O’Connor, P.M. and Stevens, N.J., Sedimentology and paleoenvironments of a new fossiliferous late Miocene-Pliocene sedimentary succession in the Rukwa Rift Basin, Tanzania. Journal of African Earth Sciences 129, p. 260-281. ISSN 1464-343X,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2017.01.010.

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1464343X17300110)

2017. Hannah Hilbert-Wolf, Eric Roberts, Bob Downie, Cassy Mtelela, Nancy Stevens and Patrick O’Connor. Application of U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology to drill cuttings for age control in hydrocarbon exploration wells: a case study from the Rukwa Rift Basin, Tanzania. AAPG Bulleti 101 (2), p. 143-159. AAPG Bulletin 101 (2), 143–159.

 https://doi.org/10.1306/06281616003

2017. Quaid Khan Jadoon, Eric Roberts, Bob Henderson, Thomas Blenkinsop, Raphael AJ Wüst, and Cassy Mtelela. Lithological and facies analysis of the Roseneath and Murteree shales, Cooper Basin, Australia. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 37, p. 138-168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jngse.2016.10.047