RETREAT GEOMORPHOLOGY GROUP
The RETREAT geomorphology group involves professors, post-docs, and graduate students from three universities in the United States and five universities in Italy . The processes that uplift and erode the varied and complex Italian landscape is the focal point of our shared research interests. We view the landscape as integrating the geologic, geophysical, and geodynamic processes being investigated by other RETREAT research groups. The Italian Apennines expose an orogenic wedge undergoing concurrent shortening and extension that sits high above sea level. The core problem that our geomorphic research bears on is the relationship between the rock deformation, and the emergence of those rocks above sea level. One hypothesis maintains that rock deformation, especially in the prowedge, has ceased with the most recent movements being rapid vertical uplift of the wedge since the middle Pleistocene. The alternative hypothesis is that rock deformation and their emergence above sea level are concurrent and related processes and the Apennines are an expression of these tectonic processes and their interaction with surficial processes. The experiments we are currently conducting to test these hypotheses include:
(1) Mapping of terraces, and reconstructing rates of river incision, Reno River .
(2) Using soil geomorphology to identify the location and paleoseismology of active (?) faults in the exposed prowedge.
(3) Using caves and cave deposits to determine rates of river incision and long- and short-wavelength landscape tilting.
(4) Cosmogenic nuclide dating for Quaternary geochronology and reconstruction of basin-wide erosion rates.
(5) Basin analysis of Plio-Pleistocene continental deposits as an indicator of the style and rates of the transition from shortening in the pro-wedge to extension in the retro-wedge.
(6) Regional modeling of river longitudinal profile evolution as an indicator of variable rates of tectonic activity.
(7) Regional assemblage of topographic metrics in a GIS and their integration with geophysical, geodetic, and geodynamic data.
The RETREAT geomorphology group, and their main interests are:
P.I.s
Frank J. Pazzaglia, Lehigh University , Tectonic geomorphology, river terraces, long profile modeling.
Darryl Granger, Purdue University , Cosmogenic dating, cave geomorphology
Martha Cary Eppes, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, Soil and tectonic geomorphology
Francesco Dramis, University Roma Tre, Tectonic and fluvial geomorphology
Mauro Coltorti, University of Pisa , Quaternary geology and geomorphology
Vincenzo Picotti, University of Bologna , Stuctural geology and geomorphology
Post-docs
Matteo Spagnolo, University of Pisa , Glacial geology and geomorphology, long profile modeling
Pierluigi Pierucini, University of Siena , Quaternary geology and geomorphology
Nicole Gasparini, Yale University , Numeric landscape evolution models
Graduate Students
James Cascione, Lehigh Unviersity
Ryan Bierma, University of North carolina-Charlotte
_________, Purdue University
Sandro Mariani, University of Camerino and Lehigh University
Preliminary map of terraces in the lower Reno valley
Images of the Geomorph Group in action.
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