surface processes

The EES Surface Processes group conducts research in the critical zone where physical, chemical, hydrologic, geologic, and ecologic processes interact. We emphasize training and exposure to process fluvial geomorphology, hydrology, glaciology, and aqueous geochemistry. We offer a mix of field, remote sensing, analytical, and GIS-based computational skills in our courses and research. Alaska, the Yukon, the Rocky Mountains, Italy, Crete, South America, the Appalachians and more are where we work with our students on projects ranging from glacial geology, to active tectonics, to snow-melt hydrology, to stream restoration, to the fate and transport of metals in soils.

We work closely with one another and encourage students to develop projects that take advantage of our complementary interests. Our labs are outfitted with excellent computational, analytical, and hydrologic instrumentation resources and we have access to facilities for analogue modeling of Earth surface systems.

Application for Graduate Study and Further Information

We strongly encourage interested students to contact individual faculty members for more information about specific research opportunities. This web site provides further information about our graduate program and admission procedures. If you can't find an answer to your question or you need help, contact us at:

• Dr. Zicheng Yu (Graduate Coordinator)
• Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
• 31 William's Drive
• Lehigh University
• Bethlehem, PA 18015-3188
• email: ziy2@lehigh.edu
• phone: 610/758-6751 fax: 610/758-3677

Thank you for your interest!

Some Recent Publications by Group Members

A. Ascione, E. Miccadei, F. Villani, C. Berti, Morphostructural setting of the Sangro and Volturno Rivers divide area (Central-Southern Apennines, Italy). Geografia Fisica e Dinamica Quaternaria, Volume 30, 2007.

A. Ascione, A. Cinque, E. Miccadei, F. Villani, C. Berti, The Plio-Quaternary uplift of the Apennine chain: new data from the analysis of topography and river valleys in Central Italy. Geomorphology, Volume 102, Issue 1, Impact of Active Tectonics and Uplift on Fluvial Landscapes and Drainage Development, 15 November 2008, Pages 105-118, ISSN 0169-555X, DOI: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2007.07.022.

Belmont, P., Morris, D. P., Pazzaglia, F. J., and Peters, S. C., 2009. Penetration of ultraviolet radiation in streams of eastern Pennsylvania: Topographic controls and the role of suspended particulates. Aquatic Sciences, DOI 10.1007/s00027-009-9120-7.

Kopczynski, S., J. Ramage, D. Lawson, S. Goetz, E. Evenson, J. Denner, and G. Larson, 2008. Passive Microwave (SSM/I) Satellite Predictions of Valley Glacier Hydrology, Matanuska Glacier, Alaska, Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2008GL034615.

Peters, S.C., 2008. Arsenic in Groundwaters in the Northern Appalachian Mountain Belt: A Review of Patterns and Processes. Journal of Contaminant Hydrology Special Issue, doi:10.1016/j.jconhyd.2008.04.001.

Ramage, J.M., J. D. Apgar, R.A, McKenney, W. Hanna, 2007. Spatial Variability of Snowmelt Timing from AMSR-E and SSM/I Passive Microwave Sensors, Pelly River, Yukon Territory, Canada, Hydrological Processes. 21, 1548-1560.

Ramage, J., McKenney, R.A., Thorson, B., Maltais, P., Kopczynski, S.E., 2006. Relationship between Passive Microwave-Derived Snowmelt and Surface-Measured Discharge, Wheaton River, Yukon Territory, Canada, Hydrological Processes. 20, 689-704.

Wegmann, K. W. and Pazzaglia, F. J., 2009. Late Quaternary fluvial terraces of the Romangna and Marche Apennines, Italy: Climatic, lithologic, and tectonic controls on terrace genesis in an active orogen. Quaternary Science Reviews, 28, 137-165, doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2008.10.006.

Wollenberg J.L. and Peters S.C., 2009. Diminished mercury emission from waters with duckweed cover, Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, doi:10.1029/2008JG000770.

Yu, Z.C., K.N. Walker, E.B. Evenson, and I. Hajdas., 2008. Late glacial and early Holocene climate oscillations in the Matanuska Valley, south-central Alaska. Quaternary Science Reviews, 27, 148-161, doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2007.02.020.

Courses for Graduate Students Relevant to Surface Processes

EES is a broad department focused on several aspects of the Earth system, giving you abundant opportunities to work across disciplines. The following courses available for graduate credit are some of those most directly related to issues in surface processes:

• EES 316. Hydrogeology (4) (Peters)
• EES 320. (CEE 320) Flood Hydrology and Hydraulics (3)
• EES 323. (CEE 323) Environmental Groundwater Hydrology (3)
• EES 325. Remote Sensing of Terrestrial and Aquatic Environments (4) (Ramage)
• EES 357. Paleoecology and Landscape History (4) (Yu)
• EES 402. Scientific Foundations of Environmental Policy Design (3) (Sahagian)
• EES 412. Advanced Fluvial and Tectonic Geomorphology (3) (Pazzaglia)
• EES 414. Glacial and Quaternary Geology (3) (Evenson)
• EES 426. Tectonic Processes (3) (Meltzer, Zeitler)
• EES 429. Methods & Applications of Geochronology (3) (Zeitler)
• EES457: Advanced Remote Sensing (3) (Ramage)
• EES 459. Reconstructing Environmental Change (3) (Booth)
• EES 473. Aqueous Geochemistry (3) (Peters)
• EES 471. Stable Isotope Chemistry - Theory, Techniques, and Applications in the Earth and Environmental Sciences (3) (Bebout)

Recent Graduate Theses in Surface Processes

Michael Bubb (M.S.) 2009. Mercury emission from in-situ tidally exposed mudflat sediments using a dynamic flux chamber. (advisor: Peters).

Patricia Monahan (M.S.) 2009. Spatial and temporal AMSR-E derived melt variability and runoff timing on the southern Patagonian Icefield. (advisor: Ramage).

Jennifer Wollenberg (Ph.D.) 2009. Factors affecting mercury emission from aquatic systems. (advisor: Peters).

Karl Wegmann (Ph.D) 2008. Tectonic gomorphlogy above Mediterranean subduction zones: northeastern Apennienes of Italy and Crete, Greece. (advisor: Pazzaglia).

Fenglin Yan (M.S.) 2008. Combining AMSR-E observations, modeling and stream discharge records to interpret flow timing and magnitude in the Pelly River Basin, Canada. (advisor: Ramage).

Jeremy Apgar (M.S.) 2007. Understanding the Timing and Variation of Snowmelt in Subarctic Heterogeneous Terrain Using Passive Microwave AMSR-E Observations. (advisor: Ramage).

Iain Barton (M.S.) 2007. Calculating the peak discharge of the outburst flood from Glacial Lake East Fork in the Big River Valley, east-central Idaho. (advisor: Evenson).

Matthew Bennett (M.S.) 2007. Erosion transport processes: Describing the discharge and sediment relationship. (advisor: Pazzaglia).

Patrick Belmont (Ph.D.) 2008. Landscape evolution and aquatic ecology: long-term sediment dynamics and landscape influences in stream ecosystems. (advisors: Pazzaglia and Morris).

Sarah Flanagan (M.S.) 2006. Traverse drainages, divides and landscape evolution in the Great Valley, eastern United States. (advisor: Pazzaglia).<

Josh Galster (Ph.D.). 2006. The connections between rivers and their watersheds over multiple scales. (advisor: Morris/Pazzaglia).

Michael Kutney (M.S.) 2006. The timing of topographic development in southeastern Tibet from low-temperature thermochronology. (advisor: Zeitler).

Jeremy Laucks (M.S.) 2006. Divide mobility and migration in the Appalachian Mountains. (advisor: Pazzaglia).

Karina Walker (M.S.) 2005. Post-glacial Vegetation and Climate History of the Matanuska Valley, Alaska: A Multi Proxy Approach. (advisor: Yu, Evenson).

Molly Malloy (M.S.) 2004.Rapid erosion at the Tsangpo knickpoint and exhumation of southeastern Tibet. (advisor: Zeitler).

Kurt L. Frankel (M.S.) 2002. Quantitative topographic differences between erosionally exhumed and tectonically active mountain fronts: Implications for late-Cenozoic evolution of the southern Rocky Mountains. (Advisor: Pazzaglia).

 

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