Previously Funded Projects

QRC members lead and participate in a wide range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary research projects from the study of past earth climates and glaciations to shifts in the geographic distributions and evolution of vegetation and faunal communities, to the evolution and dispersals of the genus Homo and the increasing scales of human modification of earth environments through the Holocene. QRC provides a venue for meeting and collaborating with scholars across Quaternary disciplines. We are also fortunate to be able to provide seed funding and small grants for member research projects. We are especially happy to support grad student and junior scholar research activities, much of which leads to larger, external funding from agencies like the National Science Foundation.

2 projects in Floods All Projects
  • 2017-18 | |
    • Joel Gombiner, Student

    A search for pre-LGM megaflood sedimentation in Cascadia Basin

    Abstract: Marine sediments along the Cascadia margin are likely to contain continuous, long-term records of marine and continental change in the Pacific Northwest over the last several million years. While glaciations, floods, and erosion have reworked the terrestrial record, many marine sites had continuous deposition over this timespan. Such sites are potential archives of oceanographic history, meltwater influx, density-current processes, subduction zone tectonics, and landscape evolution. We propose to study two legacy sediment cores from Cascadia Basin, focusing on depositional chronology and tracers of sediment provenance. The two cores, Deep Sea Drilling Program (DSDP) Sites 174 and 175 are by far the deepest cores from this region, and thus unique in their recovery of sediment spanning multiple glacial-interglacial cycles. This work is a first step towards finding and developing long-term records of megafloods down the Columbia River and understanding Cascadia Basin sedimentation throughout the Pleistocene.

    Report: pending

  • 2015-16 | |
    • Alan Gillespie, Member

    Evaluation of paleoflood evidence, Matanuska Valley, Alaska

    Abstract: There are two interpretations of the surficial geological evidence in the lower reaches of the Matanuska River in Alaska: the last significant event was the retreat of the Matanuska Glacier (“glacier only” model) or the retreat was followed by a megaflood that reshaped the landscape (“flood” model). The purpose of this proposal is to resolve this conflict.

    We intend to (1) map geomorphic features in the contentious areas of the Matanuska and Knik valleys with newly available high-resolution LiDAR DEMs; (2) to conduct fieldwork to assess stratigraphy and lithology of geomorphic features; (3) to model hydrologic processes of various flood flows down the Matanuska Valley.

    We will test the following 3 hypotheses: (1) the discrepancy between the “glacier only” and “flood” models can be resolved if the Knik Glacier readvanced over the previously flooded Matanuska lowlands, leaving the glacial features in the path of the earlier Atna flood, or (2) some areas of glacial ice survived the Atna flood, shielding glacial landforms from erosion by the floodwaters; and (3) the glacier dam at Tahneta Pass was destroyed nearly instantaneously. H3 is an interesting problem reaching well beyond the Atna floods (cf. Batbaatar and Gillespie, 2015) and we intend to test it by quantifying discrepancies between flood depths inferred from geological evidence and from hydrologic modeling.

    This proposal will build on work previously published in Quaternary Research. The existence of Glacial Lake Atna has been recognized for well over a century (Schrader, 1900), but other than our previous paper, no reports have discussed in detail the lake’s relation to four large adjacent drainages (Matanuska, Susitna, Tanana/Yukon, and Copper rivers) or the modes in which this very large ice impounded lake drained. The project area is one we know very well, and by Alaska standards is highly accessible and has many sites with existing exposures (e.g., gravel pits, road cuts)—so our ability to accomplish necessary field tasks is greatly enhanced.

    Report: Read the report here.

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