GEOSC 548
Advanced Surface Processes
Fall 2016
341 Deike: TTh 1:35-2:50 pm
Instructor: Roman DiBiase | 306 Deike | rad22@psu.edu
Course description and overview
A mechanistic understanding of surface processes is central to understanding landscape evolution, from short term responses to climate and land use change (landslide, flood, debris flow, and coastal hazards), to long term interactions among climate, tectonics, and erosion, to quantitative interpretation of the stratigraphic record. This course will cover the fundamentals of sediment transport and erosion with a focus on fluvial and hillslope processes and the theory and evidence for models that describe the connection between process, rate, and form. Students will apply these concepts to field and numerical modeling projects that form the bulk of the course workload.
Assignments and grading
Problem sets (30%): Throughout the semester, I will assign ~4-5 problem sets that will serve as an opportunity to cement fundamental concepts – typically working through analytical problems.
Modeling projects (45%): There will be 3 major projects throughout the semester that focus primarily on building heuristic understanding of surface processes. The first exercise will also be paired with a one-day field trip where we will collect data to compare with model results.
Final project (25%): In October, we will take a 3-day field trip to the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, where you will work with your classmates to collect data that will form the core of an independent final project, due at the end of the semester.
Course materials
The following relevant textbooks are housed in the small library of the Active Tectonics/Geomorphology Laboratory (3rd floor Deike). You are free to borrow these, but please return them promptly so that others may use them:
Anderson and Anderson: Geomorphology: The Mechanics and Chemistry of Landscapes
Knighton: Fluvial Forms and Processes
Furbish: Fluid Physics in Geology
Parker: morphodynamics ebook (available online at link below) http://hydrolab.illinois.edu/people/parkerg/morphodynamics_e-book.htm
John Southard MIT course on sediment transport: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/earth-atmospheric-and-planetary-sciences/12-090-introduction-to-fluid-motions-sediment-transport-and-current-generated-sedimentary-structures-fall-2006/index.htm
Kelin Whipple MIT course on surface processes: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/earth-atmospheric-and-planetary-sciences/12-163-surface-processes-and-landscape-evolution-fall-2004/
| Date | Topic | Readings | Assignments |
| 8/23/2016 (Tu) | Introduction | ||
| 8/25/2016 (Th) | Flow mechanics: conservation of mass | Class notes/Furbish text | |
| 8/30/2016 (Tu) | Flow mechanics: conservation of momentum | Class notes/Furbish text | |
| 9/1/2016 (Th) | Flow mechanics: turbulence | Class notes/Furbish text | Math review due |
| 9/6/2016 (Tu) | Flow mechanics: flow resistance equations | Nikuradse, 1933; Keulegan, 1938; Ferguson, 2007 | |
| 9/7/2016 (W) | Delft3D tutorial by R. Slingerland | ||
| 9/8/2016 (Th) | Flow around a bend; field trip planning | Hooke, 1975; Dietrich et al., 1979 | |
| 9/10/2016 (Sa) | Field trip to Raystown Branch | ||
| 9/13/2016 (Tu) | Sediment transport: initial motion | Miller and Byrne, 1966; Wiberg and Smith, 1987; Buffington et al., 1992; Buffington et al., 1997; Lamb et al., 2008 | |
| 9/15/2016 (Th) | Sediment transport: transport formulae | Einstein, 1950; Dietrich, 1982; Wiberg and Smith, 1989 | Problem set #1 due |
| 9/20/2016 (Tu) | Guest lecture: L. Hajek | ||
| 9/22/2016 (Th) | Guest lecture: S. Trampush | ||
| 9/27/2016 (Tu) | Introduction of F. Lakes project, review of PS#1 | Problem set #2 due | |
| 9/29/2016 (Th) | Alluvial channel bedforms and morphology | Parker, 1978; Montgomery and Buffington, 1997 | |
| 10/4/2016 (Tu) | Alluvial channel long profiles | Paola et al., 1992; Parker et al, 2007 | F.Lakes proposal due |
| 10/6/2016 (Th) | Alluvial channel profiles, continued | Parker et al., 1998 | Raystown project due |
| 10/11/2016 (Tu) | Bedrock channels: erosion processes | Whipple et al., 2000; 2013 | |
| 10/13/2016 (Th) | Bedrock channels: saltation-abrasion model | Sklar and Dietrich, 2001; 2004 | |
| 10/14/2016 (F) | Finger lakes field trip | ||
| 10/15/2016 (Sa) | Finger lakes field trip | ||
| 10/16/2016 (Su) | Finger lakes field trip | ||
| 10/18/2016 (Tu) | Bedrock channels: saltation-abrasion model | Sklar and Dietrich, 2008; Lamb et al., 2008 | |
| 10/20/2016 (Th) | Bedrock channels: stream power model | Whipple et al., 1999 | |
| 10/25/2016 (Tu) | Bedrock channels: stoch. threshold model | DiBiase and Whipple 2011; Lague, 2014 | |
| 10/27/2016 (Th) | Bedrock channels: transient evolution | Whipple, 2001; Whipple and Tucker, 2002; Crosby et al., 2007; DiBiase et al., 2015 | |
| 11/1/2016 (Tu) | Hillslopes: linear soil transport | Davis, 1892; Gilbert, 1909; Culling, 1963; Reneau et al., 1990; McKean et al., 1993; Fernandes and Dietrich, 1997; West et al., 2014 | Problem set #3 due |
| 11/3/2016 (Th) | Hillslopes: non-linear soil transport | Roering et al., 1999; Roering et al., 2001; Roering and Gerber, 2005; Roering, 2008 | |
| 11/8/2016 (Tu) | Hillslopes: weathering processes | Heimsath et al., 1997; Small et al., 1999 | |
| 11/10/2016 (Th) | Hillslopes: landslides and slope stability | Montgomery and Dietrich, 1994 | Knickpoint evolution modeling exercise due |
| 11/15/2016 (Tu) | Hillslopes: bedrock hillslopes | DiBiase et al., 2012; DiBiase and Lamb, 2013 | |
| 11/17/2016 (Th) | Tectonic geomorphology | Beaumont et al., 1992; Willett et al., 1999; Beaumont et al., 2001; Stolar et al., 2006; Whipple and Meade, 2006; Whipple, 2009 | |
| 11/29/2016 (Tu) | Tectonic geomorphology | Koons et al., 2012; Roy et al., 2016 | |
| 12/1/2016 (Th) | Divide migration | Willett et al., 2014; Yang et al., 2015; Whipple et al., 2017a; Whipple et al. 2017b | |
| 12/6/2016 (Tu) | Final presentations (groups 1 + 2) | ||
| 12/8/2016 (Th) | Final presentations (groups 3 + 4) | Projects due 12/9 |