News & Outreach

Follow us on Instagram @geomann74, #ncsugeomorph #ncsugeojourney #ncsufieldcamp #ncsugeology

2018

Spring

• Join us this summer on a Colorado River GeoJourney - An immersive learning experience for incoming NC State University students
• Information available from the NCSU GEOPATHS website and from our advertisement flyer.

2017

Fall

• M.S. student Adam Lee's thesis research on the effectiveness of Beaver Dam Analog structures for incised Piedmont stream and ecosystem restoration is highlighted in the Autumn issue of Coast Watch, published by NC Sea Grant.

• The Center for Geospatial Analytics at NC State is set to launch it's PhD program for fall 2018. Details about the program and information for perspective students on the application process are here.

Summer

• The College of Sciences at NC State highlighted the social media scene associated with our Field Geology Course (MEA465) offered in northern New Mexico at the beginning of each summer.

• Friends and Colleagues, Doug Prose and Diane LaMacchia of the Earth Images Foundation in Oakland, CA published an article in Earth Magazine "The Himalaya Connection: Telling a story of geoscientific exploration on film" that includes discussion of our research efforts in central Mongolia.... Check it out and watch their upcoming full-length PBS documentary, "The Himalayan Connection" when it comes out later this year.

• photo credit: Diane LaMacchia
• USGS - Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center publishes Multibeam bathymetry and Acoustic Backscatter data for Lake Crescent, Olympic National Park, Washington in support of our paleoseismic investigations of the Lake Creek - Boundary Creek fault zone, collected during a 2016 cruise of the R/V Parke Snavely. The data is available for download from the USGS.

• An outstanding group of NC State Geology majors on the summit of High Dune (229 m, 750' tall) at Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado as part of the 2017 MEA 465 Field Geology course.

Spring

• Karl Wegmann joined Tom Kearney on his WPTF AM 680 Radio show on Wednesday, April 19 to discuss earthquakes big and small. An archive of the broadcast if available for streaming or download here.
• Karl Wegmann presented the April 17th Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences weekly departmental seminar on research into the enigma of high standing topography in continental interiors as viewed through the lens of the Hangay Mountains of Mongolia:

• Former PhD Student Sean Gallen (ETH - Zurich) and I just published a new article on River profile response to normal fault growth and linkage from the island of Crete, Greece. Check it out in the open-access journal Earth Surface Dynamics

• In January, MS student Adam Lee installed his first analog beaver dam (BDA) along Swift Creek in Wake County, NC. The goal of Adam's research is to test the hypothesis that natural and analog beaver dams can be successfully used for stream restoration and watershed health improvements in the Piedmont of North Carolina. Watch the short time-lapse video of the installation of his first BDA on Swift Creek.

2016

Fall

• Former M.S. student Matthew Morriss publishes thesis research on fluvial geomorphology of the Burnt River, a tributary to the Snake River near Hells Canyon in eastern Oregon in the February, 2017 issue of Geomorphology. Read all about it here.
• Congratulations to MS student Catelyn Joyner upon the successful Oct. 5th defense of her MS thesis Lacustrine Megaturbidites and Displacement Waves: The Holocene Earthquake History of the Lake Creek–Boundary Creek Fault at Lake Crescent, Washington, USA.
• Congratulations to PhD student John Wall on the publication of his first research paper, Morphometric comparisons between automated and manual karst depression inventories in Apalachicola National Forest, Florida, and Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, USA in the journal Natural Hazards, available online beginning October 3, 2016.
• Ph.D. student John Wall's research combining shallow geophysics, geodesy, photogrametry, and GIS to identify unmarked graves at one of Raleigh's historic cemeteries received a very nice write up on the NC State News website.

Summer

• Check out the August 1, 2016 NC State News write-up "A Mountain of a Mystery" about the research in Mongolia of recent PhD graduate Stephen Smith
• Curious about the evolution of topography and erosion rates from the central Hangay Mountains of Mongolia? You should be... and now you can read all about it in our article published in the Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, as part of our NSF-funded project to study the Geodynamic Evolution the Hangay Mountains.
• Another great group of students at the 2016 NC State University Geology Field Course, here enjoying the view of the Rio Grande Gorge near Taos, NM

Spring

• Congratulations to Steve Smith, who on Earth Day (April 22) successfully defended his PhD Dissertation: Tectonic and Climatic Controls on Landscape Evolution in the Hangay Mountains, Mongolia and Olympic Mountains, USA.

2015

December

• Wegmann presents research on the links between climate, waterfalls, landslides, and topography of the southern Appalachians at the Dec. 10th 2015 meeting of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Meteorological Society in Raleigh, NC
• News article published in Earth Magazine that highlighting recent research from PhD alum Sean Gallen on the importance of understanding the dynamic reference frame of rivers when interpreting rates of stream incision from river terraces Earth Magazine link; Primary research publication in July 2015 issue of Geology

November

• Publication of our Paleoseismic investigation of the Egiin Davaa normal fault - Hangay Mountains, Mongolia with Richard Walker and co-authors in a Geological Society of London special publication.

October

• Regional Geology fall break trip to Zion National Park and surroundings, southwestern Utah - 28 students, 3 faculty, and 1 Mr. Wuf

September

• MEAS Professors K. Wegmann and E. Leithold were joined by graduate students Steve Smith, Audrianna Pollen, and Catelyn Joyner and scientists from the National Lacustrine Coring Facility (LacCore) at the University of Minnesota on a research trip to retrieve sediment cores from the bottom of Lake Crescent, Washington in support of a regional earthquake hazards study supported by the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP)

Aerial view of LacCore sediment coring platform

Just after the point of Khulenberg impact - 20 m Water depth

July

• Former PhD student Sean Gallen publishes insightful paper in Geology on the the importance of realizing that river longitudinal profiles represent dynamic - not static datums for tectonic geomorphology studies. Gallen, S.F., Pazzaglia, F.J., Wegmann, K.W., Pederson, J.L., and Gardner, T.W., 2015, The dynamic reference frame of rivers and apparent transience in incision rates: Geology, v. 43, p. 623-626.

June

• Congratulations to Steve Smith who successfully completed his PhD oral examination and advanced to candidacy today (June 29, 2015). Fame & Fortune are just around the corner!!!
• Great time in New Mexico and Colorado with the 2015 NC State Geology Field Course group (MEA465), shown here at the City Slickers' Cabin - Ghost Ranch, NM

May

• Former PhD student Nathan Lyon's first chapter of his dissertation, "Bank Erosion of Legacy Sediment at the Transition from Vertical to Lateral Stream Incision" is accepted for publication in the journal Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. Look for it on a Newsstand near you soon! http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/esp.3753/abstract

April

• K. Wegmann promoted to Associate professor with tenure, Dept. of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, College of Sciences at NC State University by the Board of Trustees
• K. Wegmann awarded "Worst Facial Hair" by Graduate Students at the 2015 MEAS Spring picnic.... all I have to say is you haven't seen anything yet. Just wait until next football season.
• Undergraduate geology majors, Hallie Nunamaker, Adam Lee, and Julie Sikes presented their legacy sediment and Piedmont stream water quality-related research at the annual NC State Undergraduate Research Symposium.

March

• K. Wegmann leads SE GSA Regional meeting field trip to the Cullasaja River basin to investigate the landscape response to purported Miocene topographic rejuvenation of the Southern Appalachians. You can access a pdf of the field guide here.

February

• The MEAS 2015 Krispy Kreme Challenge team "The Orogenic Wave" pounds the pavement and donuts for charity!

January

• Former Ph.D. student Sean Gallen begins Assistant Professor appointment in the Earth Surface Dynamics group at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland.

2014

December

Members of the Surface Processes & Active Tectonics group co-chaired two sessions and presented research findings at the Annual AGU meeting in San Francisco.

• Convener & Chair for Theme Session T21A: Earth System Dynamics of high Elevation Continental Interiors: From the Asthenosphere to the Biosphere
• Co-Convener for Theme Session H23J: New Insights into the Storage, Mobilization, and Hydrologic Transport of Legacy Contaminants

Research Abstracts Presented:

1. Leithold, E., Wegmann, K., Bohnenstiehl, D., and Smith, S., 2014, A record of the in-lake and upland response to large earthquakes, Lake Quinault, Washington: Eos Trans. AGU, Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract T43B-4731.
2. Wegmann, K., Mendelson, T., Sabaj-Perez, M., Lopresti, M., Cole, M.B., Gosse, J., Smith, S., Bayasgalan, G., Ancuta, L., McDannell, K., and Gallen, S., 2014, Geomorphic and fish genetic constraints on Late Cenozoic Long Wavelength Topographic Evolution of the Hangay Mountains, Central Mongolia: Eos Trans. AGU, Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract T21A-4560.

November

• Nathan Lyons' PhD Dissertation is now available for download from the NC State Libraries

October

• Congratulations to Nathan J. Lyons on the successful defense of his PhD dissertation to the Department yesterday (10/28/2-014)!!! Nathan is currently a post-doctoral scholar at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City.
• Richmond Times-Dispatch's Outdoors writer Katherine Calos publishes article on the waterfalls of western North Carolina, that includes portions of a phone interview with K. Wegmann. Read the October 18 newspaper column here.
• At the 2014 GSA meeting in Vancouver, the Geomorphology and Earth Surface Processes group presented 5 posters and 2 talks! Way to represent the geosciences at NC State!

Leithold, E.L., Wegmann, K., Bohnenstiehl, D.R., Smith, S.G., Riddell, B., and Moore, C., 2014, Holocene paleoseismicity and sediment degassing, Lake Quinault, Washington: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 46, p. 570.

Marlantes, G., Pringle, P.T., and Wegmann, K., 2014, Investigation of subfossil trees at Irely Lake, Olympic National Park Washington: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 46, p. 518.

Morriss, M.C., Wegmann, K., and Vezie, c., 2014, 1:24,000 scale mapping reveals dynamic and climatic landforms riding a kinematic wave along the Burnt River, Baker County, northeast Oregon: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 46, p. 0523.

Pazzaglia, F.J., Gallen, S.F., Wegmann, K.W., Pederson, J., and Gardner, T.W., 2014, River incision, the fluvial Sadler effect, and geomorphic interpretation of rock uplift: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 46, p. 178.

Smith, S.G., Leithold, E.L., Wegmann, K.W., Bohnenstiehl, D.R., and Moore, C., 2014, The nature of climatically driven flood deposition in Lake Quinault, WA: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 46, p. 592.

Wall, J., Bohnenstiehl, D.R., Wegmann, K., and Levine, N.S., 2014, A morphometric comparison of state inventoried and semi-automated catalogs of karst depressions at Apalachicola National Forest and Mammoth Cave National Park: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 46, p. 458.

Wegmann, K.W., Bohnenstiehl, D.R., Leithold, E.L., and Pringle, P.T., 2014, Earthquakes, mass wasting, and fish from northern Cascadia: Post-glacial rupture of the lake Creek-Boundary Creek Fault revealed by Chirp seismic investigations at Lake Crescent, Washington: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 46, p. 779.

• The Fall break regional geology course (MEA599) headed to Death Valley National Park this October. What's not to love in a place so dry that plants have an awful hard time obscuring rocks and geologic structures! See more photos of the students, rocks, and of course Mr. Wuf by checking our the twitter hash-tag #MEA599

students enjoying the "flatness" of Race track playa Mr. Wuf chillin' 282 ft below sea level #activetectonics

One of our students, Steven Larcom made a video compilation of the trip. Check it out on his Youtube channel at:

July

• PhD student Nathan Lyons provides an in-depth interview of his "Fish Tectonics" research in the Olympic Mountains of Washington State to the hosts of SciWorks Radio, a production of 88.5 FM WFDD - Winston-Salem, NC. You can listen to the interview or read the full transcript on the SciWorks Website.

May

• Former Ph.D. student Sean Gallen and colleagues publish research on the Orogenic Wave and the evolution of the Greek island of Crete in the journal Earth & Planetary Science Letters. To find out if Homo erectus surfed the Cretan Orogenic Wave, I refer you also our 2011 paper in the Journal of Quaternary Research

April

• PhD Student Stephen Smith awarded grant from the Geological Society of America for his research titled: Tracking volcanic resurgence since the 74,000 year old Toba super-eruption: The evolution of Samosir Island, Indonesia

• April 10 - Participated in my first Science Café at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences: Southern Appalachian Landscapes - Not as Old as we Thought. Brave souls can watch the video cast of the event here.

March

• PhD students Nathan Lyons and Steve Smith represented Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences at the annual NC State University Graduate Student Research Symposium on 3/26.
• PhD student Nathan Lyons presents preliminary results to panel of scientists at Fort Bragg, NC related to his research into upland erosion, stream sediment transport, and the spatial distribution of native freshwater mussel populations on the base.
• Wegmann and MS student Matthew Morriss receive funding from the USGS EdMap program for our proposal entitled: "Surficial geology and geomorphology of the Burnt River corridor, Eastern Oregon: Investigating Late Cenozoic landscape response to Snake River downcutting". Geologic mapping will begin in May.

February

• Proud to be part of Team "The Orogenic Wave" at the 10th annual Krispy Kreme Challenge today (Feb. 8th) with lots of MEAS grad students. A few shown here in this post-race photo. If you are a prospective graduate student, the Krispy Kreme Challenge might be reason enough to strongly consider coming to NC State University! ~8000 runners - 5 Miles - 12 Donuts - 2400 Calories - 60 Minutes. What more do you need to know.

January

• Our Group's research into both the Topographic Rejuvenation of the Southern Appalachians and evidence for Homo erectus on the Greek island of Crete is being highlighted as part of the "NC State Research Around the World" debut on the iPearl Immersion Theater at the Hunt Library through February 6th. Check it out!!!

2013

December

• Congratulations to PhD Student Nathan Lyons, who was an Outstanding Student Paper Award Winner at the 2013 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco, CA for his research titled: Topographic and genetic markers of landscape change: Landslides and isolated fish populations demarcating basin-wide erosional waves above the Cascadia Subduction zone. Eos Trans. AGU, Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract EP53C-0851.

November

• Geoarchaeology research from Crete is beautifully described in colleague Tom Strasser's Plakias Stone Age Project website. Check it out!!!

October

• The month of October is Field trip time for the Earth Surface Processes Group, including a weekend class trip to the southern Appalachians for Tectonic Geomorphology (MEA592) and an NCSU Fall Break Regional Geology (MEA599) trip to the Grand Canyon region. View trip photos on Twitter with #MEA599.

September

• Former MS student Mark Voli (currently employed by Versar, Inc in MD) publishes first chapter of his MS thesis in a special issue of the Journal of Soils and Sediments devoted to Watershed Sediment Source Identification. Access here or email KW for a pdf version.
• Wegmann presented a research seminar in the new NC State College of Sciences First Year Event Series entitled: Recent Rejuvenation of Topography in the Southern Appalachians... or how old are those pretty North Carolina waterfalls?
• Wegmann and colleagues' final report for a NC Water Resources Research Institute grant that investigated the links between Piedmont stream water quality and legacy sediments is now available on line.

August

• A big welcome to new PhD students Gantulga Bayasgalan and Matthew Morriss.

May

• Team "QUAKE", that's "Quinault Underwater Acoustics and Koring (Coring) Events" successfully completes first deep coring (up to 7 m) of the sediments in Lake Quinault, WA

April

• Ph.D. student Nathan Lyons awarded a Graduate Student Research Grant from the Geological Society of America in support of his research "Investigating the coupling between landslides and stream incision above the Cascadia subduction zone, Clearwater River basin, Washington".
• Ph.D. student Nathan Lyons publishes his research on how to improve mass wasting inventories by incorporating topographic signatures of debris-flow dominated channels in the journal Landslides.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10346-013-0398-0
• Ph.D. candidate Sean Gallen accepts the Turner Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Michigan for the 2013-2014 academic year, and then will begin a tenure-track position in the Dept. of Geography & Geology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Congratulations, Sean !!!
• Senior Chris Stanbery presents his research on the "Impact of Beaver Dams on Local Stream Sediment Levels" at the 2013 Annual North Carolina State University Undergraduate Research Symposium.

March

• Ph.D. Candidate Sean Gallen, successfully defended his dissertation, The Development of Topography in Ancient and Active Orogens: Case Studies of Landscape Evolution in the Southern Appalachians, USA and Crete, Greece to his committee, colleagues and the public on March 21, 2013. Congratulations Sean!!!

February

• Ph.D. student Sean Gallen provides interview for the Science & Tech section of the Technician – NC State's student newspaper, about his work on waterfalls and landscape rejuvenation of the southern Appalachians - Read it here (on page 6).
• Spring 2013 MEAS Newsletter - Available on line here
• Wegmann participates in Skype discussion about careers in the Geosciences with South View Middle School (Hope Mills, NC) students who are interested in the sciences

January

• Ph.D. student Sean Gallen and NCSU faculty members Karl Wegmann and Del Bohnenstiehl publish the GSA Today February science article: Miocene rejuvenation of topographic relief in the southern Appalachians.
• The NC State News Room issues a press release on the article: Researchers Find Evidence of Geological 'Facelift' in the Appalachians.
• The popular science website OurAmazingPlanet.com featured research from our GSA Today article on 2/6/2012 in article: Appalachians get a Face-Lift from Earth's Mantle

2012

December

• Ph.D. students Sean Gallen¹ and Nathan Lyons² receive graduate funding from Sigma Xi for their research. ^1. Did the Minoans do it? Testing Natural verses Anthropogenic Controls on Holocene Valley-Bottom Aggradation in the Messara Plain, Crete, Greece. ^2. Genetic markers of landscape change: Cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii) populations above migrating waterfalls, Clearwater River, Washington State

September

• Leithold, Wegmann, and Bohnenstiehl's NSF proposal "Investigating the long-term record of seismically induced erosion preserved in the stratigraphy of Lake Quinault, Washington" receives 2 years of funding from the Geomorphology and Land Use Dynamics Program

August

• Levine, Wegmann, and Osburn receive funding to investigate the impact that stream bank erosion and channel sedimentation is having on native mussel (unionids) abundance in streams at Fort Bragg, North Carolina
• Sean Gallen awarded "People's Choice" Award at 2nd Annual Dept. of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences Graduate Student Symposium for his talk on the Age and Implication of Waterfalls in the Cullasaja River Basin of western North Carolina.

July

• Leithold, Wegmann, and Bohnenstiehl's NSF proposal to investigate the long-term impacts of Cascadia earthquakes on sedimentation in Lake Quinault, WA is recommended for funding

April

• Ph.D. student Sean Gallen receives best student poster award at the SE GSA Meeting in Ashville, NC for: "A Neogene to recent resurgence of topographic relief in the southern Appalachians: Geomorphic evidence from the Cullasaja River basin, North Carolina"

2011

April

• M.S. student Mark Voli receives Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research Award:"Total suspended sediment source contributions to a regionally important municipal drinking water source, Falls Lake North Carolina: A Sediment Fingerprinting Approach"

2010

April

• M.S. student Robert Lewis receives GSA Graduate Student Research Award:"Legacy Sediments and Stream Water Quality: Estimating Volume, Nutrient Content, and Stream Bank Erosion in Impaired North Carolina Waterways"

March

• Raleigh News & Observer Article and associated Video by Scott Huler on Legacy sediments and historic millponds