Research Interests
"The sediments are a sort of epic poem of the Earth."
-Rachel Carson
Unfortunately, this poem is written in a
language we don't understand. Its author is, of course, the
Earth herself, through a suite of processes both familiar and
mysterious: river floods, coastal storms, earthquakes, land
slides, and so on. The fundamental goal of my research program
is to help decipher this greatest of all epics. Because the
processes that create strata occur all around us, we can easily
see and study them; because they leave a permanent record only
in particular areas and over very long time scales, we must
learn to think about the familiar in new ways.
The processes that act to create the sedimentary
record are as diverse, fascinating, and complex as the Earth's
surface itself. No one can study all of them; my own focus has
been on fluvial processes. Our research group has worked extensively
on stream braiding, creating the first models for the dynamics
and time evolution of fully developed braided streams, a dominant
contributor to the fluvial sedimentary record. We have also
worked on sediment fractionation in depositional systems, a
major factor that drives downstream changes in fluvial morphology
and sedimentary character. As part of this effort, our group
carried out the first experiments that produced measurable fractionation
under laboratory conditions. Other work has focused on the effect
of statistical fluctuations on preserved stratigraphy, the formation
of parallel lamination, and controls on rates of fluvial avulsion.
Apart from the sedimentary record as a motivating factor, a
common theme of all this research is a combination of quantitative
theoretical, experimental, and field work. I am not a believer
in "technique-driven" science.
Much of my research is carried out in the
congenial environment of St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, part
of our Civil Engineering Department, with frequent collaboration
with one or more of the C.E. faculty at the lab. Together with
Professor Gary Parker of C. E., my major effort now is the construction
of a new large experimental basin equipped with a subsiding
floor. The basin can be programmed to reproduce almost any form
of natural subsidence pattern. It will allow, for the first
time, experimental study of the interplay between surface transport
systems and basement subsidence that ultimately produces the
sedimentary record: a kind of Rosetta Stone for the language
of stratigraphy. This basin, along with associated theoretical
modeling efforts and field studies, will be my main research
focus for the foreseeable future. (Current project: Experimental Stratigraphy Basin "Jurassic
Tank" )
Professional Society Memberships
- American Geophysical Union
- Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists
- International Association of Sedimentologists
- Geological Society of America
Recent Honors and Awards
- Fellow, Geological Society of America, 1998
- 1995-96, 1992-93, Institute of Technology Outstanding Instructor
Award
Courses Taught
- Oceanography
- Earth Resources
- Sedimentology/Stratigraphy
- Depositional Mechanics
- Geodynamics II: The Fluid Earth
Selected Publications
- Paola, C., Improving public understanding of scientific research: a view from the research side, in Creating Connections: Museums and the Public Understanding of Current Research, edited by D. Chittenden, G. Farmelo, and B.V. Lewenstein, pp. 145-152, Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, California, 2004.
- Tal, M., K. Gran, A.B. Murray, C. Paola, and D.M. Hicks, Riparian vegetation as a primary control on channel characteristics in multi-thread rivers, in Riparian Vegetation and Fluvial Geomorphology, edited by S.J. Bennett, and A. Simon, pp. 43-58, American Geophysical Union, 2004.
- Voller, V.R., J.B. Swenson, and C. Paola, An analytical solution for a Stefan problem with variable latent heat, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 47, 5387-5390, 2004.
- Cantelli, A., C. Paola, and G. Parker, Experiments on upstream-migrating erosional narrowing and widening of an incisional channel caused by dam removal, Water Resources Research, 40 (in press), 2005.
- Hickson, T.A., B.A. Sheets, C. Paola, and M. Kelberer, Experimental test of tectonic controls on three-dimensional alluvial facies architecture, Journal of Sedimentary Research, in press, 2005.
- Kubo, Y., J.P.M. Syvitski, C. Paola, and E.W.H. Hutton, Advance and application of the stratigraphic simulation model 2D-SedFlux: From tank experiment to geological scale simulation, Sedimentary Geology, in press, 2005.
- Strong, N., B.A. Sheets, T.A. Hickson, and C. Paola, A mass-balance framework for quantifying downstream changes in fluvial architecture, in Fluvial Sedimentology VII, edited by M. Blum, S. Marriott, and S. Leclair, pp. 243-253, International Association of Sedimentologists, 2005.
- Swenson, J.B., C. Paola, L. Pratson, V.R. Voller, and A.B. Murray, Fluvial and marine controls on combined subaerial and subaqueous delta progradation: Morphodynamic modeling of compound-clinoform development, Journal of Geophysical Research, in press, 2005.
- Violet, J.A., B.A. Sheets, L. Pratson, C. Paola, R.T. Beaubouef, and G. Parker, Experiment on turbidity currents and their deposits in a model 3D subsiding minibasin, Journal of Sedimentary Research, in press, 2005.
- Voller, V.R., J.B. Swenson, W. Kim, and C. Paola, A fixed grid method for moving boundary problems on the Earth's surface, International Journal for Heat and Fluid Flow, in press, 2005.
Recent Research Support
- 9/2002 to 8/2007, NSF, STC: National Center for Earth Surface Dynamics
- 3/2004 to 2/2006, NSF, Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS) Implementation workshop
- 5/2004 to 1/2006, ONR, Theoretical and experimental study of strata formation
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