Free online conference on pre-vegetation river systems
Vegetation appeared only around 400 million years ago and is, geologically speaking, a novelty.
Understanding of the dynamic evolution of rivers and landscapes before vegetation existed is
therefore integral to understanding the Earth’s full history. Rivers are particularly important because
they are the sediment-transport pathways that control landscape evolution and the filling of
sedimentary basins, and, rivers would have acted rather different before vegetation developed.
Without vegetation, what is there to hold river banks in place? What would non-vegetated
floodplains look like? Would basin fills be fundamentally different before vegetation developed?
Understanding pre-vegetation rivers is also of crucial practical importance because many prevegetation river deposits are ideal reservoirs for the geological storage of CO2 (IBDP & GSCO2).
Understanding the formation of these sandstone successions underpins the success of a key
technology to reduce CO2 emissions world-wide.
In order to develop a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental processes and research
questions around pre-vegetation rivers, we are hosting a free, online mini-conference with invited
speakers that cover a diverse range of scales and perspectives on pre-vegetation river deposits.
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[Introduction] The global importance of understanding pre-vegetation river deposits:
Geological Storage of CO2
Jim Best – University of Illinois, USA
[Keynote] Rivers before the advent of land plants
Darrel Long – Laurentian University, Canada
Processes and products on pre-vegetation wet floodplains
Phil Fralick – Lakehead University, Canada
Spatial variability in the depositional architecture of pre-vegetation fluvial systems
Renato Almeida – University of São Paulo, Brazil
-breakMeandering rivers in modern desert basins: implications for the pre-vegetation fluvial rock
record
Mauricio G.M. Santos – UFABC, Brazil
Towards a morphometric assessment of pre-vegetation fluvial channels: a Proterozoic
perspective
Alessandro Ielpi – Laurentian University, Canada
River and floodplain dynamics in the Cambrian Illinois basin
Arnold Jan Reesink – University of Illinois, USA & University of Southampton, UK
[Keynote] Adapting the global BQART sediment transport model to a world without
vegetation: is it possible?
James Syvitski – University of Colorado, Boulder, USA
When:
Where:
Software:
Hosts:
Email:
September 16th 11:00 - 15:00 CST (Central Standard Time – Chicago, IL, USA)
Online!
GoToWebinar by Citrix. Webinar ID: 538-248-523
URL: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1557520170530898436
Arnold Jan Reesink, UIUC & Mauricio G.M. Santos, UFABC
[email protected] Twitter: @riverancestors
How the online conference works
In order to attend the online meeting, follow the link and register with your name and email. Up to
500 people can join. Questions can be submitted to the organisers by using the question-mark icon
at the top right of the screen, or through Twitter (@riverancestors) – selected questions will be
posed to the speakers during the Q&A sessions at the end of each talk.