Research questions

Numerical modeling erosional processes at the centimeter scale

To safely and effectively plan for land usage and development, it is essential to understand the landscape. The erosion rates in rivers set the pace for change in the landscapes which they drain. To be able to predict those erosion rates, there is still much work to do investigating erosional processes.

  • Roughness structures on riverbeds influence how water moves and carry sediments. How do the shape and scale of the structures influence sediment transport in rivers?

  • How does the variability of sediment transport affect the rate and distribution of mechanical erosion of riverbeds?

  • Is there a significant role for cavitation in stream bed erosion? If so, under what conditions?

  • What are the interactions and feedbacks between various erosional processes (e.g., abrasion, dissolution, plucking, cavitation)?

  • What controls the spacing of regular erosional and depositional features?

  • knickpoints
  • leaves
  • sawdust
  • gravel
  • riffle and pool sequences
  • rimstone dams

Landscape Evolution Modeling (LEM) at the kilometer scale

In order for humans to make wise landscape usage decisions, it is important to understand the ways that landscapes respond to various perturbations. These changes can be modeled using principles from physics; several earth surface processes have been coded in Python and are available as open-source code in a modeling ecosystem called Landlab.

  • Coupling Landlab components to write a LEM, how might two different erosional or depositional processes interact to shape earth's surface?

  • How might landscapes evolve over time in response to differing projected climate change scenarios?

  • How do different types of landscapes evolve in response to similar perturbations?

  • There are more processes that can be investigated by writing new Landlab components. Natural or urban karst represents a gap in the current modeling toolkit. How can we simulate channelized subterranean flow in a way that will integrate with the Landlab modeling ecosystem?

  • Many Landlab components have educational Jupyter Notebooks lab written for them. These can be implemented in the classroom, in setting ranging from high school to graduate level. There is an increasing demand for development of more educational numerical modeling Jupyter Notebook labs.

Flow routing validation

Several software tools are available that will determine water flow paths over topography: LSDTopoTools, Topographic Analysis Kit, different tools in QGIS, and different components from Landlab. However, before we use to results generated with someone's algorithm to address a scientific question, we want to be sure that algorithm is valid. Here we are validating flow routing algorithms using aerial photography and manual flow routing.

  • How do the results of various flow routing algorithms compare, quantitatively, with each other, with aerial photographs, and with manual flow routing?

  • Do some routing algorithms work better on some kinds of topography than others? If so, why is that?

  • Can we write a generalized code that selects, or helps the user select, the most appropriate flow routing algorithm for a given terrane?

Time-series of images investigation

Humans have been imaging the earth from the ground, from the sky, and from space for decades. Imaging techniques used include photography, stereoscopic photography, radar, structure from motion photogrammetry, and LiDAR.

  • Set up a time-series imaging study of a local feature. How can this help with planning for safety or infrastructure?

  • How can we use these images and associated point clouds to quantify recent changes to our landscape?

  • Given a series of images from one location, is it possible to detect a trend in the land surface change? Can we use this to project possible continued change and hypothesize about future landscape evolution?

  • How can we use these images to present a visually compelling story about landscape change in response to human actions?

Analysis of data from Paleobiology Database

Using "Diversity and Extinction ," an Rstudio web app programmed by Abby Kelly, PhD candidate at the University of Cincinnati, we can pull data from the Paleobiology Database (PBDB). This app can start you off with visualizing data from mass extinction events. You can use this open exploration to help inform the development of your novel scientific question. Here is a link to directly access the PBDB website: https://paleobiodb.org/navigator/.

  • What can we learn about previous mass extinction events to inform modern choices about how humans interact with the earth and its resources?

Modeling diagenesis of the future to manage data storage for today

Humans are depositing materials on the earth’s surface, into the oceans, and beneath earth’s surfaces in ways unprecedented in geologic history. We extract ancient resources, reshape and refine them, and redeposit them. Additionally, there is information contained in anthropogenic deposits such as the rock record has never seen before. Everytime someone puts a laptop in a landfill (yes, they should be recycled, but stick with this. . . ) there is data deposited. Millions of years from now, these physical materials and data will be altered and incorporated into the rock record.

People in the future, earthlings or aliens, may be curious like humans are today. They may want to interpret the rock record to tell stories about the creatures who came before them.

  • Conceptual models are presented in sed/strat textbooks to describe depositional environments for rock units and sequences that we observe. Are there corresponding numerical models that simulate those depositional environments, and their subsequent burial, etc., to predict the resulting strata?

  • Can we use that modeling framework to simulate what the anthropocene units may eventually look like, incorporating new types of rocks since there will be new types of original materials?

  • Considering FAIR data practices, but for the way, way longer term, how can we manage our data now to make it the most preservable? How will geologists of the future interpret our fossilized data? What actions can we take in the present to make their jobs easier and their results as accurate as possible?

Mass balance of the Earth

Earth receives material from space every day, and sometimes sends material to space. Seafloor spreading rates are very similar in magnitude to surface erosional denudation rates. Both occur on the order of millimeters per year. Perform a literature review to find the actual ranges of the rates of both of these processes.

  • Do these locations communicate with each other to balance the rates? If so, how?

  • Are there other processes associated with the creation and destruction of Earth's crust that should be considered in this analysis?