Landscapes Live
EGU-GM Online Seminars in Geomorphology
Landscapes Live is a weekly online seminar series freely accessible to the international scientific community interested in various aspects of geomorphology. Our talks take place on Zoom every Thursday, starting at 4pm time of Paris/Berlin/Amsterdam. Check your local time here.
Landscapes Live is affiliated to the Geomorphology (GM) division of EGU and contribute to develop its virtual activities. Indeed, EGU is pioneering a new CampFire concept to bring together the geoscience community in between General Assemblies. We hope that this will meet the needs of the current pandemic but also help us in our transition to a greener future and ensure that our community better serve the needs of all scientists regardless of international mobility.
We are expanding the options to interact with the LL speakers during and after their talks by opening dedicated channels on the new Landscapes Live discord server.
Program (Spring 2024):
Thursday, 28 March 2024 at 16:00 CET
Katy Burrows (ESA)
Resolving the impacts of earthquakes, storms, and prolonged rainfall on shallow landsliding
Abstract: In mountainous areas, earthquakes and rainfall trigger shallow landslides, which represent a significant source of erosion, as well as posing a hazard to communities. Multi-spectral satellite images allow us to compile detailed inventories of these events which allow us to estimate mass wasting volumes and calibrate landslide models. Unfortunately, these images are often obscured by cloud cover so that landslides are mapped using images acquired weeks or months after they were triggered. For landslides triggered during sequences of earthquakes or storms, or during long periods of rainfall, this means we cannot tell when each landslide happened, and by extension what triggered it and whether it later reactivated.
Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images can be acquired through cloud cover and since 2015, Sentinel-1 has acquired data globally every 6-12 days. These data are sensitive to changes in scattering properties at the Earth’s surface and can therefore be used to constrain the timings of individual landslides. In this seminar, I will use events in Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, and Haiti to explore how Sentinel-1 data can be used to (i) assign landslides to particular earthquakes or storms in a sequence (ii) detect multi-stage failure during earthquake sequences and (iii) untangle the combined effect of earthquakes, storms and monsoon rain. With this information, we are able to better understand how landslide hazard and mass wasting evolve in space and time during such sequences.
Talk is now on LL's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72yxOMXzfNs
Website: https://sciencehub.esa.int/sciencehub_team/katy-burrows/
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
Abstract: This talk will navigate through examples of geomorphic changes during recent rainstorm events that have impacted the Atacama Desert. It will demonstrate how the integration of remote sensing (in particular Synthetic Aperture Radar products) assists in understanding how and where surface changes occur during stochastic rainfall events that impact such landscapes.
I will also present specific examples focusing on landforms such as alluvial fans and ephemeral channels. Through these examples, I aim to engage the audience in understanding the critical importance of deciphering the effects of rainfall events in arid landscapes, as highlighted by early works in arid geomorphology dating back to the mid-20th century.
Talk is now on LL's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKF473Pv1No
Website: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kl9UPp8AAAAJ&hl=es
Thursday, 11 April 2024 at 16:00 CEST
Scott Jess (Washington State University, USA)
The ups and downs of extensional tectonics
Abstract: Landscapes shaped in extensional tectonic settings are hard to study. For centuries many have attempted to delineate long-term tectonic histories of these areas through a range of geomorphic, analytical and stratigraphic approaches, all arriving at differing conclusions. These are, in part, down to the limitations inherent in each approach and a lack of combining methods in many studies. For example, the record of surface and rock uplift preserved in an area’s geomorphology over million-year times scales can be difficult to delineate, if it is present at all. Low-temperature thermochronology, frequently used to infer long-term exhumation histories, has limitations that can make it difficult to interpret and model. Offshore, sedimentary fluxes observed in many extensional basins are consistently linked to a tectonically active onshore, even though mechanisms for are hard to find. Using examples from across Eastern Africa, North Atlantic, and the United States, we will explore how these limitations can be overcome or challenged to help reexamine how extensional tectonic system evolve over geological timescales. Rock uplift histories extracted from horst structures across the East African Rift may help to show how extension in the region is older than expected. Thermochronology and offshore sediment packages fluxes across West Greenland are re-examined and reconciled to suggest the margin has experienced little tectonically induced uplift over the last 60 million years. Finally, new thermochronology methods used across the Appalachians show real potential for improving how we can study exhumation across vast extensional settings. These works highlight that studying landscapes shaped by extensional tectonics is challenging, but can be made easier when the entire system is examined, and new methods are implemented.
Talk is now on LL's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQQFXh5aYIw
Website: https://www.scott-jess.com/
Thursday, 2 May 2024 at 16:00 CEST
Danica Roth (Colorado School of Mines, USA)
Title TBA
Abstract: TBA
Thursday, 9 May 2024 at 16:00 CEST
Edward Rhodes (University of Sheffield, UK)
Title TBA
Abstract: TBA
Website: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/geography/people/academic-staff/edward-rhodes
Thursday, 16 May 2024 at 16:00 CEST
Virginia Ruiz-Villanueva (University of Bern, Switzerland)
Title TBA
Abstract: TBA
Thursday, 23 May 2024 at 16:00 CEST
Claire Masteller (Washington University in St. Louis, USA)
Title TBA
Abstract: TBA
Thursday, 6 June 2024 at 16:00 CEST
Nakul Deshpande (NC State University, USA)
Title TBA
Abstract: TBA
Website: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=iy_PdWoAAAAJ&hl=en