Author: Ouimet, William

Highlights from GSA in Vancouver, BC Canada!

Our group had a successful showing last week at the Geological Society of America (GSA) National Meeting in Vancouver, BC Canada!

We were involved in 3 talks:

  • Ouimet, W., Dethier, D., Shea, N., Wyshnytzky, C. and Bierman, P., 2014, Meteoric 10Be, Hillslope Erosion and Landscape Evolution along the Colorado Front Range, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 46, No. 6, p.241 LINK
  • Dethier, D., Ouimet, W., Kaste, J., Shea, N., Wyshnytzky, C. and Bierman, P., 2014, Application of meteoric 10Be, 137Cs and elemental profiles to studies of soil mixing and erosion—a Front Range perspective, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 46, No. 6, p.241 LINK
  • Ouimet, W., Dethier, D., Kaste, J, Murphy, S., Purinton, B., Mondrach, H. and Abrahams, E., 2014, Characterizing Sediment Mobilization and Landscape Response to Wildfire and Extreme Flooding using Short-Lived Fallout Radionuclides 137Cs and 210Pb, Colorado Front Range, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 46, No. 6, p.800 LINK

…and two posters:

  • Ouimet, W., Johnson, K. and Hill, M.M., 2014 Historical Archaeology, Historic Human-Environment Interactions, and Land-use Dynamics in southern New England using Aerial LiDAR, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 46, No. 6, p.96 LINK
  • Samuels, R., Ouimet, W., Dethier, D., 2014, Geochemical Impacts of Legacy Mine Waste Contributions to Fourmile Canyon, Colorado, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 46, No. 6, p.303 LINK

It was also great seeing research group alum Neil Shea (UConn GSCI MS, 2013) at the meeting.

2015 AAG Call for Papers – The View from the Anthropocene: Measuring the Historic Human Impact on the Environment and Landscape

Group members Megan Hill and Kate Johnson will be co-organizing a session at the 2015 AAG conference in Chicago.

The session is co-sponsored by the Geomorphology, Historical Geography and Landscape specialty groups.

The View from the Anthropocene: Measuring the Historic Human Impact on the Environment and Landscape
Organizers: Megan McCusker Hill and Katharine Johnson, Dept. of Geography, University of Connecticut
Discussant: Dr. Anne Chin, Professor, Dept. of Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Denver. Editor-in-chief, Anthropocene.

The U.S. Research Council recently identified one of their Grand Challenges as understanding “How Will Earth’s Surface Evolve in the ‘Anthropocene’?” This proposed geologic epoch has been broadly defined as the recent period of geologic history characterized by drastic and widespread changes to Earth’s surface, ecosystems, landscape, and climate by human activity (e.g., Crutzen and Stoermer 2000, Steffen et al. 2007, Syvitski 2012).

Meeting the challenge put forth by the U.S. National Research Council in 2010 requires detailed studies on past and present human interactions with earth surface processes over multiple spatial and temporal scales (Chin et al., 2013). Specific interactions can be measured within specific disciplines (e.g., climate science, geology, archaeology) however these interactions all occur within a spatial framework and thus are brought together under the discipline of Geography. Understanding these interactions from a historic perspective then provides a context for the present and future. As a result, it is vitally important to be able to reconstruct or understand how humans have transformed the earth on historic timescales, and what this means for our future.

Through this paper session, we hope to further studies regarding the Anthropocene by creating a discussion with a focus on quantifying the historic human impact on the landscape and the implications for our present and future. We seek to bring together a broad range of research interests and locations to discuss the present epoch of the Anthropocene and the many physical and spatial forms that it has taken. Papers should emphasize an analysis or critical evaluation of historic human impacts on the landscape.

Citations

Chin, A., Fu, R., Harbor, J., Taylor, M.P., and Vanacker, V. 2013. Anthropocene: Human interactions with earth systems. Anthropocene 1: 1-2.

Crutzen, P.J. and Stoermer, E.F. 2000. The ‘Anthropocene’. IGBP Newsletter 41: 17-18.

National Research Council. 2010. Landscapes on the Edge: New Horizons for Research on Earth’s Surface. The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.

Steffen, W., Crutzen, P.J., and McNeill, J.R. 2007. The Anthropocene: are humans now overwhelming the great forces of nature?. Ambio: A Journal of the Human Environment 36(8): 614-621.

Syvitski, James. 2012. “Anthropocene: An epoch of our making” Global Change Magazine 78:12-15.

The Economist. 2011. A man-made world: The Anthropocene – Humankind is becoming a geological force. Accessed 21 September 2014, published 31 May, 2011 http://www.economist.com/content/anthropocene?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/theanthropocene

Session Participants and tentative paper titles

  • Discussant: Dr. Anne Chin
  • Kathryn A. Catlin, “Archaeology and the Anthropocene: Soil and Scale in the Settlement of Iceland”
  • Katharine Johnson, “Quantifying the Anthropocene: the Physical and Cultural Controls on Stone Wall Construction in Southern New England”
  • Timothy Beach, “The ‘Mayacene’: Maya Mirror for the Americas”
  • Charles W. Martin, “Trace metal storage in recent floodplain sediments along the Dill River, central Germany”
  • Megan McCusker Hill, “Gullies as Markers of Holocene and Anthropocene Environmental Change in southern New England”
  • Suzanne Elizabeth Pilaar Birch, “Reconstructing human-mediated environmental change at the Pleistocene-‘Anthropocene’ transition”
  • Trisha Jackson, “Geochemical Imprints of Society in the Brazilian Amazon”
  • Simon Goring, “Shifts in ecotones position and composition throughout the upper Midwestern United States since EuroAmerican settlement”

Recent Graduates…

Congratulations to two group members who recently finished their theses and graduated from UConn!

Amberlee Nicoulin, who successfully finished and defended her Master Thesis, titled “Fluvial Terraces and Post-Glacial River Incision Along the Farmington and Housatonic Rivers in Southern New England“.  Amberlee now has a Masters of Science degree in Geological Sciences from UConn.

Sam Dow, who successfully completed and presented her B.A. Thesis: “Sedimentation Behind Conway Electric Dam, South River, Western Massachusetts“.  Sam now has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geological Sciences from UConn.

Nice job and thanks for all your hard work advancing the geomorphic study of southern New England.

Frank Magilligan (Dartmouth College), April 15-16th…

The group recently welcomed Frank Magilligan (Dartmouth College) to campus for the William Morris Davis Lecture.

WM_Davis_Lecture_Flyer

For more information about Frank, visit:

For more information about the William Morris Davis Lecture series, visit:

 

 

Now In Press: Spatial variation in 10Be erosion rates and increasing relief in the southern Rocky Mountains…

‘Basins and bedrock: Spatial variation in 10Be erosion rates and increasing relief in the southern Rocky Mountains’, co-authored by group member Will Ouimet, is now In Press at Geology

Here’s the full citation: David P. Dethier, Will Ouimet, Paul R. Bierman, Dylan H. Rood, and Greg Balco, 2014, Basins and bedrock: Spatial variation in 10Be erosion rates and increasing relief in the southern Rocky Mountains, USA, Geology, first published on January 6, 2014, doi:10.1130/G34922.1

Here’s the early online access: http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/recent

More PRESS for our LiDAR and southern New England Archaeology research!

The PRESS keeps coming for our recently published LiDAR and southern New England Archaeology research – it didn’t stop with National Geographic!  The Journal of Archaeological Science article has seen lots of Press and media attention over the last few weeks. Here’s the full list:

National Geographic:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140103-new-england-archaeology-lidar-science/

Science:
http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeology/2014/01/lasers-unearth-lost-agropolis-new-england
Associated PodCast: http://news.sciencemag.org/scientific-community/2014/01/podcast-new-england%E2%80%99s-lost-civilization-surviving-nuclear-apocalypse

National Public Radio (NPR):
http://wnpr.org/post/language-mental-health-50-years-anti-smoking-efforts-archaeology-tech-uconn
(Third segment of the show ‘Where We Live’ on WNPR, Connecticut. Kate’s interview starts at minute ~36:00)

Archaeology Magazine:
http://www.archaeology.org/news/1697-140106-lidar-colonial-new-england

LiveScience.com:
http://www.livescience.com/42642-new-englands-lost-archaeological-sites-rediscovered.html
Additional Graphics made available: http://www.livescience.com/42638-lost-new-england-archaeology-lidar-photos.html

CBS News:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-englands-lost-archaeological-sites-rediscovered/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+tech_talk+%28CBS+News+-+Tech+Talk%29

Yahoo News:
http://news.yahoo.com/england-39-39-lost-39-archaeological-sites-rediscovered-115506844.html

NBC News:
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/new-englands-lost-archaeological-sites-rediscovered-n11911

Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/13/lost-agropolis-new-england-unearthed_n_4588017.html?utm_hp_ref=science

GIS Lounge:
http://www.gislounge.com/lidar-archaeology-revolution/

Newspaper Coverage

Blogs/Social Media/Comments

LiDAR and southern New England Archaeology research Highlighted in National Geographic!

Great news!  Kate Johnson’s recent paper in the Journal of Archaeological Science is receiving some great press!  Kate was interviewed by National Geographic and now her interview along some new graphics were just posted on their Daily News page.

Check it out: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140103-new-england-archaeology-lidar-science/

 

Now In Press: LiDAR and Historical Archaeology in southern New England…

‘Rediscovering the lost archaeological landscape of southern New England using airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)’, by group members Kate Johnson and Will Ouimet, is now In Press at the Journal of Archaeological Science

Check it out: http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.lib.uconn.edu/science/article/pii/S0305440313004342

Congratulations Kate and Will!

NSF RAPID grant to study the 2013 Colorado floods has been funded !

Lead faculty member Will Ouimet is now the principal investigator on a funded RAPID grant from the National Science Foundation through the Geomorphology and Land Use Dynamics program (Division of Earth Sciences).  The grant is titled “RAPID: Characterizing Sediment Mobilization and Landscape Response to the Combined Effects of Wildfire and Extreme Flooding along Fourmile Canyon, Front Range Colorado”.  The project seizes an opportunity to view exposures and sample flood deposits associated with severe flooding along the Colorado Front Range in September 2013.  This region experienced a large, intense wildfire in September 2010, and since that time we have been studying the effects of the wildfire on soils, erosion and sediment deposition along Fourmile Creek. The major flooding of September 2013 affords a unique opportunity to confirm and expand on this work.

This research continues a collaboration with Dave Dethier (Williams College), James Kaste (College of William and Mary), members of the Boulder Creek CZO (Suzanne Anderson, Bob Anderson) and USGS professionals at Boulder, Colorado office (Sheila Murphy and Deborah Martin).  It also builds upon previous Keck research with BA Thesis graduates Hannah Mondrach (UConn, ’13), Ben Purinton (Wesleyan University, ’13) and Sarah Beganskas (Amherst College, ’12).

This news (and a photo) is also posted HERE.