A continental divide that runs through a valley

14,000 years ago there was direct connection between what is now the Red River basin and the Minnesota River basin. Today, there’s a continental divide – with the Red flowing toward Hudson Bay and the Minnesota flowing toward the Mississippi and Gulf of Mexico. But what a strange continental divide it is – for it runs through the former outlet of Lake Agassiz, in what is now known as the Traverse Gap. This divide is not so much a high point in the landscape, but a just-not-quite-as-low area.

REU Opportunity on Stormwater Management and Ecosystem Function

A National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) summer fellowship is open at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. We invite applications from qualified, highly motivated undergraduate students from U.S. colleges/universities to participate in a 12-week lab and field based summer research experience. The program runs from May 23 …

Reverberations of the Honshu tsunami

Cross-posted at Highly Allochthonous On Friday 11 March 2011, when the fault ruptured off of the Japanese coast in a M9.0 earthquake, it caused a sudden vertical movement of the seafloor, displacing the water above it and transferring energy to the ocean. As the water returned to place (thanks, gravity!), …

Edible debris flow

Steep hillslopes with loose sediment are at risk from debris flows triggered by heavy rain or rapid snowmelt. As water is added to the hillslope, surface runoff or positive pore water pressure catastrophically destabilizes a portion of the slope. I decided to undertake my own research and investigate the possibilities for an edible analog for debris flows.

The blog's 2010 in review

WordPress just emailed me this handy review of blog stats for last year. According to them, these are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010. Given that the point of this blog is to (1) keep prospective students and other people interested in my research and …