Dr. Brett R. Lenz

Brett R. Lenz, Ph.D., LG, LEG, RPA is President, Columbia Geotechnical Associates Inc. His specialties include Quaternary and forensic geology, geoarchaeology, and expertise in the energy and hydroengineering industry.
 
After completing his undergraduate work in Anthropology and Geology, Brett undertook an MS in Geology on the topic of paleoseismic liquefaction. For his Ph.D. research he studied the archaeology of colonization with an emphasis in Ice Age cultures of North and South America. Shortly after, he founded Columbia Geotechnical Associates, based out of Redmond, Washington. Along the way he’s married (Danielle Clingman), and had three sons, Garreck, Haydn, and Carver.
 
Brett is an Officer in the Geologic Society of America’s Archaeological Geology Division — an outlet for his long-standing interest in Geoarchaeology. He has applied his skills in forensic geology as a consultant to federal and state law enforcement in murder investigations, his skills in ground penetrating radar applications to identifying prehistoric burial locations, and in reconstructing the geologic history of ancient earthquakes.
 
These days his research is focused on the Upper Pleistocene to Holocene transition — in particular, geomorphic and pedogenic response to late-glacial climate change, particularly as it applies to prehistoric use of the landscape. He’s defined two Cordilleran geosols, the Bishop geosol which formed across the North American Cordilleran between ~13.5 and 11.2 KBP and the Badger Mountain geosol which formed between 10 and 7.7 KBP. Both are time-stratigraphic marker horizons which help us understand timing of late-Quaternary deformation along the west coast of North America, provide a baseline for understanding timing of the earliest archaeology of the region, and ultimately, the ice age colonization of the North and South American continents.
 
Brett has presented the results of his research at dozens of National and International professional meetings, coauthored Recent geoarchaeological discoveries in central Washington, and Cultural stratigraphy at Mezhirich, an Upper Palaeolithic site in Ukraine with multiple occupations. He is currently completing a textbook on Archaeological Geology of the Pacific Cordillera. Read his LinkedIn profile.