Research

My core approach involves geomorphology & frequently draws on terrestrial cosmogenic radionuclides & numerical modelling to quantify rates of erosion, transport & deposition in sedimentary environments. There are a few main themes:

✦ Cold landscapes

Glacial & postglacial processes in high mountain & high latitude environments, including deglaciation chronology, cryogenic soil processes, glacioisostasy & fluvial-glacial interactions. This work has focused mainly on the continental margins fringing the North Atlantic.

Glacially eroded plateau surfaces above 1400m, Jotunheimen, S-Norway.

✦ River processes & dynamics

Rivers & the evolution of landscapes, including bedrock incision, sediment transport-deposition & the role of channel vegetation in river behaviour. My research began with fluvial geomorphology & it remains a core interest.

Wet Season river surveying & bedload gauging in Magela Ck, N-Australia.

✦ Extreme geological events
Processes & products of rare, high-magnitude floods triggered by extreme rainfall or collapse of ice-dammed lakes. Understanding the magnitude & frequency of events that shape Earth's surface is central to geomorphology.

Suspended-load gravel in giant-flood bar, Vitim River, Siberia.

✦ Desert environments

Erosion & sediment transport processes in drylands & palaeoenvironmental reconstruction via river, lake & dune proxies. I like working in dry stony places.

Palaeoshoreline excavation at Lake Callabonna, central Australia.

✦ Archaeology

After first touching on archaeology during my PhD studies in central Australia, more recently I have applied luminescence and cosmogenic nuclide burial dating to sites of early human dispersal in Europe, Siberia, and the Levant.

Early Palaeolithic (Mode 1) stone artefacts excavated at Korolevo, western Ukraine.