University Calendar
The Long and the Short View: Deltas, Subsidence, and Wetland Restoration in Louisiana
Dr. Chris Paola, University of Minnesota
About Dr. Paola
Dr. Paola received his B.S. from Lehigh University, M.Sc. from the University of Reading (United Kingdom), and Ph.D. from MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He is the Director of the National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics-2 at the University of Minnesota. His major research focus is the development of techniques for experimental stratigraphy, which includes the Experimental EarthScape system (“Jurassic Tank”), a large experimental basin equipped with a subsiding floor. The basin can be programmed to reproduce almost any form of natural subsidence pattern. It allows 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. Dr. Paola has worked extensively on stream braiding and how braided channels can be “corralled” into a single-channel state by vegetation. Dr. Paola is a Fellow with both the Geological Society of America and the American Geophysical Union. In 2011, he was awarded the Charkes Lyell Medal from the Geological Society of London.