Our
Research Topics
Fluviodeltaic
AutoGenic
Processes
Geomorphic Signatures of Internal Dynamics
Self-organizing sediment storage and release processes naturally occur in cycles. In experimental deltas, channelization and sheet flow alternate repeatedly and cause pulses of shoreline progradation. We aim to understand the time and event scales of the fluviodeltaic autogenic processes under different boundary conditions (e.g., base level, sediment and water discharges, grainsize, and vegetation).
Allogenic
VS.
AutoGenic Product
Decoupling Allogenic and Autoenic Stratal Records
Allogenic and autogenic processes produce unique stratigraphic signitures. The charateristic time and event scales of autogenic processes are affected by the allogenic processes. Our goal is to understand their interactions to better decouple these two components and to decipher the environmental changes in stratigraphic products.
EcoGEO-
Morphology
of Deltas
Ecosystem and Morphodynamics in Deltas
Vegetation is a big part of the surface processes. Vegetation density, spatial distribution, patchness, and species, among others, control depositional rate, deltaic channel network, and shoreline progradation and roughness. We are quantifying these vegetation controls to better understand Eco-Geo-Morphodynamics.
Salt Tectonics and Sedimentation
Dynamic Interaction
The interaction between salt deformation and sedimentation is dynamic. We are using polymer (PDMS: a proxy for wet salt) to investigate the interaction between the polymer substrate and an evolving delta, fan, or gravity flow deposit.
Meandering Rivers in Planetary Surfaces
On Earth and Mars over Sediment and Base-level Cycles
Meandering rivers are ubiquitous on Earth and Mars, but are neither well understood or reproduced in laboratory setting. Our goal is to reproduce a self-sustaining meandering river in a scaled experiment and investigate the response of meandering river over sediment and base-level cycles.
Experimental
Data
Management
Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN)
SEN is a NSF funded Sediment Experimentalist Network. This group helps the community to share and discover experimental data. Our research group participates in SEN and actively shares our experimental data and knowledge (experimental setups, methods, and equipment) with the experimental community and beyond.
Arctic Deltas
Landscape Signature of Climate Changes
Arctic is one of the most senstive areas of global warming. Ice cover (fast ice) interacts with deltas and develops unique topography, which is also reworked by waves and coastal processes during seasons without ice-cover. We are trying to better understand the temperature controls on sediment transport and landscape changes, focusing on the Arctic area.