AEM Seminar: How to assemble a river that spans a continent: the unusual history of the Mississippi
Andy Wickert, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, UMN
2:30 PM on 2017-02-03
The Mississippi River as we know it has been in place for only the past ~14,000 years -- long as we measure time, but geologically just an instant. It was put in place by the interactions of three fluids: water, ice, and the Earth's mantle. Here I will tell the story of the river that flows through the Twin Cities, and connect its evolution to the past ice sheets of North America and their resultant effect on ocean circulation and global climate change. The central theme will be fluids, but set in geological history.
Bio:
I investigate ice, water, and landscapes through the past and present: growth and decay of ice sheets and glaciers and their interactions with climate, dynamics of river systems, global sea level variability, and modern hydrologic and Earth-surface processes. I approach these questions through a combination of field observations, field instrumentation, and numerical modeling. My current research interests and projects include:
The last deglaciation: ice sheet melt and associated proglacial lake development, fluvial geomorphic evolution, rapid sea-level rise, and impacts of meltwaer on climate
Development of inexpensive and open-source instrumentation to measure modern hydrologic, ecologic, and geomorphic processes
Open-source GIS algorithms to speed data processing and improve data--model intercomparisons
Fluvial system response to climate and land-use change
Lithospheric flexure as involved in glacial-isostatic adjustment and sedimentary basin backstripping