A Geomorphologist

Professor of Geological Sciences, INSTAAR, University of Colorado, Boulder

EDUCATION:

PhD: University of California, Berkeley, 1995
MS: University of Washington, 1987
BS cum laude: University of Puget Sound, 1979

Suzanne P. Anderson

Suzanne Anderson started her education as a chemistry major, but she changed her focus after the eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1980. This event caused her change her studies to geosciences. She soon got interested in geomorphology at the Univeristy of Washington and completed a MS thesis on permafrost in 1986. She then began a PhD at University of California at Berkeley, in which her dissertation was chemical geomorpholgy. After that, she went on to the University of Wyoming in order to combine her interest of glaciers and weathering through a post- doctoral fellowship. Since 2003, Suzanne has been at the University of Colorado and a memeber of INSTARR (Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research).

I find Suzanne Anderson's work interesting because she started out her eduaction as a basic chemisty major, but she was able to persue her education and transform her interests into more a specific focus. I also am intrigued by how many different universities she has been a part of. To me, that seems almost impossible, but I can see from her that it is possible. More specifically, I find her work intersting because I think glaciers are extremely interesting. I find learning the chemical proccesses of weather of glaciers to be fascinating, which is exaclty what she studied. When I was searching for a geomorphologists I was looking for someone with a focus in glaciers, and she was the perfect scientist!

Suzanne Anderson was the co-author of Geomorphology: The Mechnaics and Chemistry of Landscapes (pictured above) with her husband Bob Anderson in 2010

In 2019, Suzanne Anderson was the author of Breaking it Down: Mechanical Processes in the Weathering Engine

Two Papers I Read

Meier, M. F., Dyurgerov, M. B., Rick, U. K., Oneel, S., Pfeffer, W. T., Anderson, R. S., . . . Glazovsky, A. F. (2007). Glaciers Dominate Eustatic Sea-Level Rise in the 21st Century. Science, 317(5841), 1064-1067. doi:10.1126/science.1143906

This paper talks about how most sea- level rise is due to ice loss from glaciers and ice caps, instead of from ice sheets. In fact, most of sea- level rise to due to ice loss. Over the past decade, smaller glaciers have been thinning and reatreating causing more and more sea-level rise contribution from smaller glaceirs that have a high level of instability. The article mentions that this issue is typiacally not considered when it comes to climate modeling. However, this acceleration of melting glaciers could cause 01. to 0.25 additional meters of sea level rise by 2100.

Anderson, S. P., Drever, J. I., & Humphrey, N. F. (1997). Chemical weathering in glacial environments. Geology, 25(5), 399. doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1997)0252.3.co;2

This paper focuses on the folowing question: "Do glaciers enhance or inhibit chemical weathering rates relative to other environments?" They talk about how the presense of glaciers in the carbon cycle and climate change is dependant on the answer to the above question. In this paper they compare data on chemical denundation rates to evaluate the efficiency of glacial weathering. They also compare chemical compositions of glacial and also non glacial runoff in order to also learn more about glacial weathering.

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