Regarding comings and goings in the Environmental Dynamics Lab, two important updates – which come with my apologies, because there’s “late-breaking news” and there’s news that’s just late. First, huge congratulations to Paul Evans – now Dr Paul Evans – for graduating with his doctorate in July’s ceremonies. Paul & I started working together in…
Read MoreSneak preview of a forthcoming animated feature. Below is a sequence of topographic scans taken from a single run. Data are a bit raw, but they still offer a sense of how active the berm could be. One pass with the laser along the three meter length of the berm required five cross-shore swaths (here…
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Today was my last on the SAFL shop floor. What a spectacular visit this has been. I’m grateful to both the NCED2 program and the British Society for Geomorphology for the opportunity to work here in Minneapolis these past two weeks. Rich discussions, incredible facilities, and so much enthusiasm from so many people – not…
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Been singing to myself this line from Father John Misty en route to the lab these past couple of mornings. Today was one of learning systems. Chris Ellis found a rotameter, introduced me to thread-seal tape (Teflon tape), and gave me a plumbing problem to work out (I still managed to install it upside-down the…
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Yesterday’s trial produced one overwash lobe; today’s produced two. Getting there. I spent much of today off by an eighth of an inch. I misaligned the blocks on the screed we’re using to level the planar surfaces, reminding myself of the classic construction adage to “measure twice, cut once.” After a lot of frowning and…
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It almost worked the first time. I’m writing from the University of Minnesota’s St. Anthony Falls Lab (SAFL) in Minneapolis, home of the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED). Thanks to Chris Paola, I’m here as a visiting scientist, funded by NCED and a small research grant from the British Society for Geomorphology to run…
Read MoreYesterday I flew from London to Minneapolis – a westbound and therefore endless afternoon, a trick played against winter’s abstemious daytime clock. I’m in Minneapolis for a two-week stint at St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, where I’ll be running some experiments in a custom-rigged sandbox. But more on that in posts to come. Right now I’m…
Read MoreBack in May I was invited to the BBC Cymru Wales Broadcasting House in Llandaff, Cardiff, for a quick spot on Good Evening Wales (BBC Radio Wales FM), the “drivetime round-up of the day’s news, sport, weather and travel.” I was asked to comment on a story that had appeared earlier that day in the…
Read MoreApril took me to Malta with our second-year Marine Geography undergraduates. (I know it’s now July, and April was a while ago. I’m doing my best here.) While Roo Perkins led one crew on snorkeling surveys of biodiversity in a selection of bays around the island, Rhoda Ballinger & I led a second group on…
Read MoreThree papers were released into the wild this winter, making for exciting times at the Lab. Walking to and from the office the past few days, I’ve been thinking about where and how their themes overlap. Seems to me these three papers are connected by a process of argumentation: the work of sketching out the…
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The Environmental Dynamics Lab (EDL) 