February 13, 2019
Stronger monsoon drove ancient Indus civilization into the hills
Roughly 4,000 years ago, the Indus River Valley was home to the advanced and thriving Harappa culture. But by 1800 B.C., the civilization’s …
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Geomorphology
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13 articles · Page 1 of 1
January 17, 2019
Humans accidentally created new rivers in Europe
Meandering rivers that flow through and transport sediment to deltas often split off from their main courses and flow in different directions. …
January 16, 2019
Mighty Mekong cut by monsoon, not tectonics
The rivers draining the Tibetan Plateau are some of the largest, longest and most deeply incised waterways in the world. For decades, most …
May 23, 2018
Down to Earth With: Matt Kondolf
As a fluvial geomorphologist teaching in the Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Department at the University of California at …
February 23, 2018
Spawning salmon engineer landscapes
All animals depend on their ecosystems for habitat. And, in turn, many animals impact their ecosystems by engineering the landscape to suit their …
June 15, 2016
Searching for the ancestors of meandering rivers
It might be difficult to imagine Earth devoid of vegetation, but for billions of years the sun shone, winds blew and rivers flowed on a planet …
November 6, 2015
Wormholes may limit landslides
Scientific investigations sometimes take unexpected twists and turns. When Emma Harrison, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, …
November 2, 2015
Due diligence in river incision data
As great equalizers of topography, rivers and streams whittle down landscapes by alternately scouring away broad flat swaths of sediment and …
September 4, 2015
Sculpting the Alps
Mountains typically get steeper the higher you climb. The European Alps are an exception: Beginning at altitudes between about 1,500 and 2,000 …
June 16, 2015
Sediment load shapes rivers
The amount of sediment carried in meandering rivers influences how quickly the bends in those rivers migrate back and forth, according to recent …
May 12, 2015
Pre-settlement erosion rates illuminated
Humans are one of the most powerful erosive agents on Earth, moving copious amounts of sediment to and fro, mainly through agriculture and …
January 13, 2015
Down to Earth With: Geomorphologist Gregory Tucker
As an undergraduate anthropology student, Gregory Tucker thought math was a boring subject with abstract rules that didn’t relate to his life. …
December 15, 2014
Down to Earth With: David Montgomery
From the length and breadth of his body of work, you might assume that David Montgomery, a geomorphologist at the University of Washington in …