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SUMMARY:Rivers in the Rock Record: From Utah to Wales - Dr Catherine Russe
 ll\, University of Leicester
DTSTART:20200224T180000Z
DTEND:20200224T190000Z
UID:TALK135865@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Natalie Forrest
DESCRIPTION:River deposits form an important component of the sedimentary 
 rock record. They are crucial for the interpretation of ancient environmen
 ts\, climatic regimes\, and long-term patterns in weathering and erosion. 
 However\, we know that modern river deposits can be extremely complex in t
 heir architecture\, which is not demonstrated in classic geological models
 . This complexity is due to the ways that meandering rivers change on both
  short and long timescales due to climate changes\, oxbow lake formation\,
  and other factors. It is particularly challenging to interpret the shape 
 of meandering rivers from vertical exposures of rock successions. How can 
 we reconstruct the complex “plan-view” shapes of rivers\, when we usua
 lly only see vertical stacks of sediment exposed in rock faces? Furthermor
 e\, within the river deposits\, we need to understand where mud and sand i
 s distributed so that we can correctly interpret seismic profiles\, and pr
 edict the likely distribution of petroleum resources. Here\, I will presen
 t quantitative data collected from modern rivers with markedly differing m
 orphologies has been enabled the development of a robust\, novel methodolo
 gy for more accurately interpreting the rock record. Measurements of 35 mo
 rphometric parameters of 200 active meander bends from 13 different rivers
  were acquired using Google Earth Pro. An ancient point-bar deposit\, from
  the Pennsylvanian in Wales\, served as a test data set for accurate recon
 struction of meander morphology. The work has found that the novel methodo
 logies utilised in this study\, can enable meandering rivers to be more ac
 curately interpreted from our fragmented geologic record.
LOCATION: Harker 1\, Department of Earth Sciences\, Downing Street
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