Landscapes Live

Thursday, 15 May 2025 at 16:00 CEST

Audrey Margirier (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)

Constraining sediment transport and relief evolution with luminescence dating and low-temperature thermochronology

Recent advancements in dating techniques—particularly in trapped charge methods and low-temperature thermochronometry—have significantly enhanced our ability to constrain the timing and rates of processes that shape the Earth’s surface. In this presentation, I will discuss two distinct research projects that apply these methods: the first involves luminescence dating of englacial clasts, and the second focuses on thermochronological dating to investigate the timing of canyon incision.

(1) Understanding sediment transport in glacierized catchments is crucial for studying both glacier dynamics and landscape evolution. Yet, direct observations of sediment transport beneath and within glaciers are sparse. I will present a novel approach that combines luminescence rock surface burial dating with glacier modeling to reconstruct sediment transport histories through Miage Glacier and the Mer de Glace in the Alps.

(2) Resolving the timing of canyon incision remains difficult due to the limited resolution of existing geochronological tools, especially in areas with minimal exhumation. The Colorado Plateau, with its high-elevation, low-relief surface dissected by canyons, provides a compelling setting for such studies. While most work has focused on the deeply incised Grand Canyon, I will show how a region with a high geothermal gradient allows the use of low-temperature thermochronology to study a less incised canyon.

Zoom link: https://washington.zoom.us/meeting/register/GMt5-2mATk-uBNbms8iBhg 

Audrey's website: https://audreymargirier.wixsite.com/geology

Thursday, 22 May 2025 at 16:00 CEST

Jingtao Lai (University of Glasgow, United Kingdom)

Landscape transience and response times in glaciated mountain ranges

Earth’s topographic form is controlled by interactions between tectonics, climate, and surface processes. Under constant conditions, landscapes tend toward a steady state in which erosion rates approximately balance tectonic uplift rates. However, short-term perturbations in tectonics, climate, or surface processes may create a temporary imbalance between erosion and uplift. Repeated glacial-interglacial cycles during the Quaternary have acted as such perturbations in mid-latitude mountain ranges worldwide, resulting in erosion rates that exceed or lag tectonic uplift rates. Understanding the dynamics of transient landscape evolution and quantifying landscape response times are crucial for understanding the interactions among different Earth systems.

In this presentation, I will discuss how glaciation can perturbate landscapes through drainage divide migration. Asymmetric glaciation across drainage divides, driven by cross-divide contrasts in precipitation and solar insolation, is ubiquitous in mountain ranges. Using a combination of analytical model, numerical simulations, and topography analysis, I will show that asymmetric glaciation can create unequal glacial erosion rates across the drainage divide and cause divide migration, and differences in the glacier equilibrium line altitude (ELA) across the divide are the primary control on the extent of glacially-driven divide migration. This divide migration can induce transient changes of erosion rates in downstream rivers, and these transient changes last over million-year timescales – much longer than ~40-100 kyr glacial-interglacial cycles. This suggests that periodic climatic perturbations in the Quaternary can create persistence imbalance between tectonics and topography.

Zoom link:

Jingtao's website: https://laijingtao.github.io/

Thursday, 29 May 2025 at 16:00 CEST

Lucy Clarke (Nottingham Trent University, UK)

Reflections on success in academia

Zoom link:

Lucy's profile: https://www.ntu.ac.uk/staff-profiles/animal-rural-environmental-sciences/lucy-clarke 

Thursday, 5 June 2025 at 16:00 CEST

Dan Parsons (Loughborough University, United Kingdom)

TBD

Zoom link:

Dan's website: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/geography-environment/staff/dan-parsons/

Thursday, 12 June 2025 at 16:00 CEST

Joel Wilner (Dartmouth College, United States)

Erosion showdown: glacial vs. fluvial erosion rates and the limits to timescale-dependence

Zoom link:

Joel's Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zfRosDIAAAAJ&hl=en

Thursday, 19 June 2025 at 16:00 CEST

Andrew Gunn (Monash University, Australia)

TBD

Zoom link:

Andrew's website: https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/andrew-gunn

Thursday, 26 June 2025 at 16:00 CEST

Zhiwei Xu (Nanjing University, China)

TBD

Zoom link:

Zhiwei's website: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kZLbPDEAAAAJ&hl=en

Provisionally Thursday, 3 July 2025 at 16:00 CEST

Abdallah S. Zaki (University of Texas at Austin, United States)

Ancient water-formed landscapes and past climate on Earth and Mars

Zoom link:

Abdallah's website: https://abdallahszaki.com/

Thursday, 8 May 2025 at 16:00 CEST

Jaap Nienhuis (Utrecht University, Netherlands)

Global Delta Morphodynamics: why and how?

Now on LL's Youtube page: https://youtu.be/qpmlqcnkMrs 

Thursday, 24 April 2025 at 16:00 CEST

Sinéad Lyster (Pennsylvania State University)

The impact of vegetation on delta landscapes and stratigraphy: Insights from physical experiments

Presentation now on LL's Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xGKVL-2HMc 

Thursday, 17 April 2025 at 16:00 CEST

Yaquan Chang (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

Tectono-geomorphic controls on plant biodiversity of the Hengduan Mountains

Presentation now on LL's Youtube page: https://youtu.be/4-3VU0iVf6s 

Thursday, 10 April 2025 at 16:00 CEST

Julia Cisneros (Virginia Tech, USA)

 Shaped by Nature: Bedforms as Windows into Environmental Systems

Talk is now on LL's Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/6uOiu98vCjM

 Thursday, 3 April 2025 at 16:00 CEST

Victor Sacek (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil)

Andean geodynamics and the landscape evolution in Amazonia

Talk is now on LL's Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/b44ScdIBVEg 

Thursday, 20 March 2025 at 16:00 CET

James Gearon (Indiana University Bloomington, USA)

How River Avulsion Works

Talk is now LL's Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/wNDyq7YB30c

Thursday, 13 March 2025 at 16:00 CET

Paul Bierman (University of Vermont, USA)

A landscape under the ice: Camp Century, Greenland

Talk is now on LL's Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/62_9NHPdC54

Thursday, 05 December 2024 at 16:00 CET

Edward Rhodes (University of Sheffield, U.K.)

Developing luminescence chronologies for active tectonic regions

Talk is now on LL's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI1YMtZ4W14

Thursday, 28 November 2024 at 16:00 CET

Lindsay Schoenbohm (University of Toronto, Canada)

Rocks Matter: why it is important to consider lithologic resistance to erosion in landscape evolution 

Talk is now on LL's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwU2C26c4Nc

Thursday, 7 November 2024 at 16:00 CET

Victoria Milanez Fernandes (GFZ, Germany)

Pleistocene landscape evolution above the Patagonian Slab window

Talk is now on LL's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCzNCwaOdrI

Thursday, 31 October 2024 at 16:00 CEST

Tancrède Leger (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)

A data-consistent model of the last glaciation in the Alps achieved with physics-driven AI

Talk is now on LL's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZpbp5doAIk

Thursday, 24 October 2024 at 16:00 CEST

Aurélie Davranche (University of Helsinki, Finland; University of Angers, France)

From field to space: multisource data to show how a nature based management can help to cope for sea level rise in the Mediterranean area 

Talk is now on LL's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41Weju45g0w

Thursday, 17 October 2024 at 16:00 CEST

Gareth Roberts (Imperial College London, UK)

Embracing scale and erosional randomness to understand landscape evolution

Talk is now on LL's Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/duqckTHGtI4

Thursday, 10 October 2024 at 16:00 CEST

Jérôme Lavé (CNRS, CRPG Nancy, France)

Giant collapses of high Himalayan peaks and their implications on the Himalayan landscapes

Talk is now on LL's YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/1pE68ZXTJ1A

Thursday, 3 October 2024 at 16:00 CEST

Eric Barefoot (University of California Riverside, USA)

Experimental Constraints on the Morphology of Canyons Formed by Crater Overtopping

Talk is now on LL's YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/WPZamy_EyS8?feature=shared

Thursday, 6 June 2024 at 16:00 CEST

Nakul Deshpande (NC State University, USA)

The Perpetual Fragility of Creeping Hillslopes

Talk is now on LL's YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/JuRl9coHMIo

Thursday, 28 March 2024 at 16:00 CET

Katy Burrows (ESA)

Resolving the impacts of earthquakes, storms, and prolonged rainfall on shallow landsliding 

Talk is now on LL's YouTube  channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72yxOMXzfNs

Thursday, 4 April 2024 at 16:00 CEST

Albert Cabré (GET, Geoscience Environment Toulouse, France)

Geomorphic work of recent episodic rainstorm events in arid landscapes: examples from the Atacama Desert

Talk is now on LL's YouTube  channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKF473Pv1No

Thursday, 11 April 2024 at 16:00 CEST

Scott Jess (Washington State University, USA)

The ups and downs of extensional tectonics

Talk is now on LL's YouTube  channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQQFXh5aYIw

Thursday, 2 May 2024 at 16:00 CEST

Danica Roth (Colorado School of Mines, USA)

Unveiling nonlocal landscape dynamics: exploring hillslope processes beyond the diffusive paradigm 

Talk is now on LL's YouTube  channel: https://youtu.be/VJcZBe6thqQ

Thursday, 9 May 2024 at 16:00 CEST

Sam Woor (University of British Columbia & University of the Fraser Valley, Canada)

Illuminating landscape responses to Quaternary climate change with luminescence

Talk is now on LL's YouTube  channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDmnPb-FiLA

Thursday, 16 May 2024 at 16:00 CEST

Virginia Ruiz-Villanueva (University of Lausanne & University of Bern, Switzerland)

Quantifying and monitoring instream large wood supply and transfer in rivers 

Talk is now on LL's YouTube  channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38oT5MwHgX4 

Thursday, 23 May 2024 at 16:00 CEST

Claire Masteller (Washington University in St. Louis, USA)

Wiggles in width:  Insights into alluvial channel dynamics from variability in high-resolution downstream hydraulic geometry

Talk is now on LL's YouTube  channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMizP1choAE