Landscapes into Rock - Part 4

This post ends my summary of the Landscapes into Rock conference that took place in London, September 21-23, 2010.  Click here for previous posts.

Theme three – Landscapes into Rock – was obviously the central theme of the Conference. It was chaired by Sebastien Castelltort (ETH – Zurich) and Emma Finch (University of Manchester), it had eleven oral presentations and featured a very insightful “keynote of the keynotes” by Mike Leeder (University of East Anglia). Of interest for me was the research by Alex Whittaker et al using regional grain-size trends to derive information on the dynamics of the sediment routing system.

The high-point of the session was the keynote address by Mike Leeder. Mike put forth many interesting and provocative ideas:

• the need to fully utilize the sedimentary record to test the landscape evolution models; 
• the recent advances in speleothem and calcisol research that may provide the ability to isolate climate/vegetation forcing of the eroding landscape; 
• the understanding of the link between the rate of tectonic evolution and how they induce major changes in the landscape; 
• teleconection – the link between the eroding landscape and the downslope deposcape.

The fourth (and last) theme – Integrative studies of sediment routing systems and the petroleum systems - was organized by Ian Lunt (Statoil) and Mike Blum (ExxonMobil), and featured two presentation and two keynote speakers – Ole Martinsen (Statoil) and Peter Burgess (Shell and Royal Holloway University of London). For me, the highlight of this session was Peter’s overview of stratigraphic forward modeling in hydrocarbon exploration. Peter noted that stratigraphic forward models (SFM) are more mature but still have a limited predictive power. SFM prove most useful in their ability to quickly create multiple scenarios, to test hypotheses and ideas, to devise numerical experiments that illustrate how depositional systems work and through that to develop new plays and concepts.

On a less-formal side, the conference ended each day with a social hour, which involved a lot of discussion of the ideas presented during the day, accompanied by wine, of course.  The discussions were less formal, but certainly not less technical.  They were less flashy than the gathering that took place at Dolce & Gabbana one evening, just down the street from the Burlington House (picture below), but the social hour at the Landscapes into Rock conference were certainly more intellectually stimulating -- for me :)

Landscapes into Rock - Part 3

This post continues my summary of the Landscapes into Rock conference that took place in London, September 21-23, 2010.  Click here for previous posts.

The second theme of the conference – The Dynamics of the Sediment Routing System – was chaired by Alex Densmore (Durham University) and Ruth Robinson (University of St. Andrews), who assembled a very good mix of nine talks and three keynote speakers: James Syvitski (University of Colorado), Greg Tucker (University of Colorado) and Chris Paola (University of Minesota).

Interesting research of the Golo source-to-sink system was presented by Tor Somme (University of Bergen) et al.  One of the interesting conclusions was that channel aggradation may occur both during eustatic highstand and lowstand, and that sediment partitioning along the source to sink continuum may be controlled by internal thresholds rather than external forcing.

 The keynote by Greg Tucker (University of Colorado) on rapidly changing landscapes underscored some interesting points:

• channel incision rate correlates with characteristic stream power and shear stress;
• temporal variability in sediment cover is an important control in long-term bedrock river incision.

Chris Paola’s keynote address on mass balance effects in depositional systems was full of insight, discussing many fascinating concepts:

• fractional sediment extraction and the subsidence-driven depositional mass loss 
• similarity in fining profiles along depositional trends
• the use of generalized models/experiments as reference cases of down transport changes, against which field or subsurface cases can be compared

For the benefit of advancing our knowledge and workflows Chris jokingly invoked the need for adhering to the “Republic of Simplicity”, which created a cascade of comments in almost every talk that followed. Others, in return, advocated the “Republic of Complexity” or the “Monarchy of Necesity”, leading to great discussions but also polarized opinions among two camps: those who view the need to approach the Earth’s dynamic systems in all of their complexity, and those who believe that a simplifying approach maybe more appropriate. I certainly subscribe to the simplicity theory, while I choose to remain a citizen of the world and not subscribe to any republic or monarchy :)

Landscapes into Rock - Part 2

The Landscapes into Rock conference held in London this past week had four main themes.  For more general information about the event, see my previous posts.

The first conference theme was "The Erosional Engine". The session was chaired by Alex Whittaker (Imperial College London) and Andrew Carter (Birkbeck College London) and focused on geomorphology, erosion, sediment flux, burial/exhumation histories. The theme had eight contributions in the form of presentations and two keynote speakers: Niels Hovius from University of Cambridge and Kelin Whipple from University of Arizona.  Several posters were also on display.

One of the highlights for me was the talk by Paul Bierman et al (University of Vermont) on their synthesis of the ten-year research in erosion and sediment rates using cosmogenic nuclides, with one big takeaway being the fact that bedrock erosion rates (measured from outcrop along ridgelines) are slower than basin-scale erosion rates inferred from fluvial sediment; the latter integrates processes active across the entire landscapes. Interesting also was the positive correlation between tectonic setting/activity and erosion rates and the documentation of using cosmogenic nuclides as tracers to study processes over 10 to 10^5 years timescale.

The keynote address by Niels Hovius on weathering, erosion and sediment transfer in Taiwan, was another highlight, with a valuable insight into the fact that to get a better understanding of weathering and erosion it is more useful to look at the dynamic forces acting upon a landscape (tectonics, erosion, climate), rather than at the static proxies such as topography or landscape.  Both Niels and Paul referred to mountains as being “big piles of sand”, which stirred a big debate during the discussion sessions.

Kelin Whipple’s keynote talk on tectonic and climatic control on erosion rates made some excellent points: at steady state conditions, tectonic is the major control on erosion (not climate). For non-steady state conditions, some generalizations arise regarding the ability to distinguish between the tectonic or climatic forcing, with erosion rates increasing gradually in response to tectonic forcing, versus erosion rates increasing immediately in response to climate forcing.

Landscapes into Rock - Part 1

Landscape into Rock conference, held in London during 21-23 September, was an extremely insightful event, rich in ideas and very inspiring. The title itself is meant to represent many aspects of sedimentary geology: 

• the link between surface geologic processes and the resulting rocks; 
• the source-to-sink continuum of sedimentary processes and depositional systems, and the need to understand and view this continuum with a holistic approach; 
• the insights that can be captured from short term processes, rates and models and how these insights may be applied to the rock record, which represents a much longer time frame and records controlling factors and rates that may have been very different compared to what we observe today; 
• what makes stratigraphy and how do we place stratigraphy in the context of Earth’s dynamic systems.

The organizers were Philip Allen (Imperial College London), Paul Bishop (University of Glasgow), Hugh Sinclair (University of Edinburgh) and Robert Gawthorpe (University of Bergen).  Through careful planning at many levels they made this conference a success.  The event was held at the Burlington House on Picadilly Street.

© RomaniaRocks

The conference was held as one plenary session, which for me was great: more focused and less stressful compared to large conferences with many synchronous sessions, which leads to the desire to clone oneself in order to be able to be in several places at once in order to not miss relevant talks.

The talks and posters were grouped in four themes, which took place in succession over the three days.  I will cover each theme in a separate blog post (to come over the next few days).  Needless to say, I was unable to tweet or blog real time, as internet connection costs an arm and a leg in London.

One side note: during the event, Paul Bierman made everyone aware of the digital archive of Earth surface images that is under development at the University of Vermont. This is a NSF-supported, free archive useful for teaching and learning about geomprphology - enjoy!.

Landscapes into Rock - geoscience meeting

This fall I will attend and present at the William Smith 2010 meeting "Landscapes into Rock", hosted by the Geological Society in London, 21-23 of September.  Landscape into Rock is an inspiring title, with an even more inspiring set of sessions and keynote speakers.  Below is a synopsis of the meeting; you can also go to the website here, find out more, and register if you are planning to attend.

The Erosional Engine - co-chaired by Alex Whittaker (Imperial College London) and Andy Carter (Birkbeck College, University of London);  Keynote speakers: Kelin Whipple (Arizona State University) and Niels Hovius (Cambridge University)

The Dynamics of Sediment Routing Systems - co-chaired by Alex Densmore (Durham University) and Ruth Robinson (St. Andrew’s University):; Keynote speakers: James Syvitski (University of Colorado-Boulder) and Chris Paola (University of Minnesota)

Landscapes into Rock: the Making of Stratigraphy - co-chaired by Sébastien Castelltort (ETH-Zürich) and Emma Finch (Manchester University); Keynote speakers: Mike Leeder (University of East Anglia) William Smith Lecture 2010 and Rudy Slingerland (Pennsylvania State University)

Integrative Studies of Sediment Routing and the Petroleum System - co-chaired by Ian Lunt (Statoil) and Mike Blum (ExxonMobil); Keynote speakers: Ole J. Martinsen (Statoil) and Peter Burgess (Shell)


I am planning to microblog (via twitter and Tumblr) in real time, and blog at the end of each day (in semi-real time at Romania Rocks), but I do not promise.  Internet connection can be quite a luxury while abroad (especially in Europe) and I hate paying an arm and a leg for the real-time thing.  In any case, I will certainly take good notes and blog heavily real-time or after the event.