In probing the life-supporting critical zone, researchers hope to protect it for future generations. 
Where does water go when it rains? How does soil form? How did forests and other ecosystems develop? And how can understanding those processes inform human behaviors in the face of changes in land use and climate? Those are among the questions that scientists are asking about the critical zone—defined loosely as the region at Earth’s surface that extends from the treetops down to bedrock. 

Although critical-zone research is tuned to local environments, scientists also look for broader implications. At the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory in Colorado, part of the US network of nine CZOs, the main focus is on how erosion and weathering shape topography.  

Floods, fires, and findings 
At some CZOs, natural disasters have become natural experiments. According to Chorover of the Catalina-Jemez CZO, almost all the long-term erosion at the observatory takes place in the  years immediately following a wildfire. That understanding, he says, was derived from a combination of before-and-after lidar landscape images and measurements of beryllium-10. Concentrations of the isotope, which forms when cosmic rays bombard rock minerals, provide a measure of erosion rate. And after the devastating 2013 Colorado Front Range flood, Boulder Creek researchers led by Suzanne Anderson studied landslides and debris flow. “We found that in the course of a few minutes, the hill slopes lost sediment produced by 300–400 years of weathering,” she says.

See the full article in , January 2018.

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This class studies the surface of the Earth and the processes which shape physical environments.  Landscapes reflect the underlying geologic and erosional histories, both of which are affected by climate and the biosphere. At the surface, rock is transformed and sculpted by water, wind, ice, and biota, all fueled by solar and chemical energy and pulled by gravity. Our study will be built around examining these earth-shaping processes, especially those we can understand with simple physics. The course introduces glaciers, crustal-scale geomorphology, dating with cosmogenic isotopes, slope processes, rivers, hill-slope hydrology, and the effects of wind. 

Like much of physical geography and the earth sciences, the material is based in physics and chemistry, and therefore you must be prepared to think quantitatively. We will use math in this class; calculus 1 is a prerequisite. Homework sets are built around quantitative problem solving.  The goal with these exercises is to predict some aspect of the behavior of the system. Laboratory exercises will provide experience making measurements and simple calculations relevant to surface processes, and will include field projects to introduce real world systems. We will also read a few technical papers from journals to introduce you to the style of communication among scientists. You will write a short paper and give a presentation, which will serve to bring about learning on your own and from your classmates.

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Suzanne Anderson's research featured in 

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The Geological Society of America Geology  co-authored by Suzanne Anderson

See below for more information

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Suzanne is an invited speaker at  in Paris in August 2014.

ORGANIZED BY THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GEOCHEMISTRY, IAGC and Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, IPGP.

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Suzanne interviewed on KGNU Independent Community radio

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