Climate and Fluvial Systems

My Ph.D. thesis research is focused on the influence of climate on ancient fluvial system. Specifically, I am interested in how changes in the hydrologic and weathering processes during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) approximately 55 Ma influenced basin drainage patterns, fluvial channel dimensions, discharge volumes, and patterns in channel migration and/or avulsion. The PETM represents a time period of elevated atmospheric pCO2 due to the introduction of isotopically-light carbon at rates and magnitudes comparable to those observed in the modern system. Strong shifts in paleothermal gradients occurred due to this event that likely altered atmospheric water vapor transport causing increased aridity and enhancement of monsoonal precipitation at certain latitudes. Because fluvial systems ultimately derive their transport ability from meteoric precipitation strong shifts in the precipitation pattern such as this should be reflected in the ancient fluvial systems. Moreover, recovery from this ‘hyperthermal’ event presumably involved elevated chemical weathering on continents that should be recorded in nonmarine sediments straddling the boundary, and possibly changed the character of sediment supplied to fluvial systems.