Former WVU postdoc Kristin Chilton led a new and exciting series of flume experiments to test the influence of bedrock dip angle on plucking thresholds and knickpoint dynamics. Find the paper here!
Paper on inferring extreme solar particle events from tree rings
WVU PhD student Megan Walker used inverse modeling approaches to infer past solar storm events from isotopic signatures in tree rings! Check it out here.
New Paper: Modeling erosion in the Himalayas
New numerical modeling work by Yuqiang Li and coauthors enables reconstruction of erosion and sediment dynamics over large scales in rapidly evolving landscapes. 10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119305. [PDF]
New paper: Beyond boundaries in bedrock rivers
Check out new work by former WVU MS student Nick Colaianne looking at how the depositional environment of in-channel bedrock ultimately affects erodibility and the shape of bedrock rivers. Paper here!
Paper on suspended-sediment response to wildfire and post-fire floods
A team led by USFS scientist Dr. Sandra Ryan monitored fluvial suspended-sediment concentrations for three years after a severe wildfire in northern Colorado. One year after the fire, our study area experienced a ~100-year flood. In this paper we explore how watersheds respond to fire-flood sequences, which has important implications for the sustainability of the water supply in the American West. Find it here.
The lasting legacy of megaflood boulders in mountain rivers
Fresh new science from Dr. Susannah Morey and friends in Geophysical Research Letters. Find it here.
The uncertain future of mountaintop-removal-mined landscapes
Check out two new invited papers in Geomorphology with WVU grad student Sam Bower and friends on how mountaintop removal coal mining influences subsequent landscape evolution:
Part 1: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2023.108984
Part 2: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2023.108985
Changes
On 7/14/2023 I left West Virginia University to join the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station as a Research Geomorphologist. Given my new job, I will not be routinely taking on new graduate students except through collaborations with university PIs. I remain happy to collaborate with anyone to whom I might be of help.
How impervious are solar arrays?
My new opinion piece in Earth Surface Processes and Landforms uses a recent public policy dust-up over stormwater regulations for solar installations in Virginia to examine the broader question of how we should weigh up the environmental benefits and geomorphic impacts of energy transition infrastructure. Find it here.
The art of landslides
Check out Benjamin Campforts’s recent JGR paper on how landslides govern river and landscape evolution here.