Legendary fluvial geomorphologist Reds Wolman once said “Floods come from too much water,” and that’s the phenomenon distilled to its core essence. But this bit of wisdom doesn’t give us much to go on if we want to understand what creates floods or why some areas are more flood-prone than …
Congratulations to Darren Reilly who did a wonderful job defending his MS thesis on Tuesday. Darren’s thesis focused on the identification of groundwater pollution and its sources in rural northeastern Pennsylvania residential water wells. Darren will be preparing his thesis for publication in a journal and is looking for a …
The Kent State University Child Development Center kindergarten class is coming to visit the Geology Department this morning. They are going to get a chance to work on the Emriver stream table, figure out the the difference between fossils and rocks, and compare their stride length to a dinosaur’s. At …
These maps have come in awfully handy as I’m getting my bearings on Ohio’s geography, geology, and hydrology. Physiographic regions of Ohio Bedrock geology map Glacial map of Ohio Ohio 8-digit hydrologic units Ohio’s rivers (Figure B-1 on page 8 of the 2012 Integrated Report by Ohio EPA has more …
A nice British video explaining the connection between rivers and groundwater. I can’t get the embed to work, so you’ll have to click through to watch: http://www.groundwateruk.org/How-Rivers-Work-Role-of-Groundwater.aspx This is why I say I study rivers AND groundwater – if you want to understand how water moves through a watershed, you’ve got to …
Jefferson, A. 2011. Seasonal versus transient snow and the elevation dependence of climate sensitivity in maritime mountainous regions, Geophysical Research Letters, 38, L16402, doi:10.1029/2011GL048346. Abstract: In maritime mountainous regions, the phase of winter precipitation is elevation dependent, and in watersheds receiving both rain and snow, hydrologic impacts of climate change …
Cross posted at Highly Allochthonous Fargo, North Dakota is coming out of its 3rd snowiest winter since 1885. Snow continued to fall into late March, and daytime temperatures have only been above freezing for few weeks. At night, it’s still below freezing, though starting tomorrow night the forecast calls for …
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.
The geology, geography, and climate of the Red River Valley make major floods an inevitability.
For the past two weeks, unusually heavy monsoon rains have deluged Pakistan, resulting in flooding and landslides. Pakistan is heavily populated all along the Indus River valley, so this is a slow-moving disaster of epic proportions. The latest news reports estimate that flooding has displaced 14 million people – more …