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Alison M Anders

Research Interests

I study interactions between climate, erosion and tectonics with a focus on orographic precipitation and anthropogenic influences on landscape evolution. Active areas of research include: 1) measurement and modeling of climatological precipitation patterns at scales from 1km – 100km, 2) characterization of erosion rates in areas of spatially variable precipitation, 3) analysis of sediment sources and fluxes in agricultural landscapes, and, 3) numerical landscape evolution modeling. Field areas include the Olympic Mountains of Washington State, the Western Ghats of India, the Swiss Alps, and the Midwestern United States.

Education

  • Ph.D. University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Courses Taught

  • GEOL 107: Physical Geology
  • GEOL 401: Geomorphology

Additional Campus Affiliations

Associate Professor, Geology
Associate Professor, Geography and Geographic Information Science
Associate Professor, European Union Center

Recent Publications

Margason, A. A., Anders, A. M., Conrick, R. J. C., & Roe, G. H. (2023). Spatially coherent variability in modern orographic precipitation produces asymmetric paleo-glacier extents in flowline models: Olympic Mountains, USA. Earth Surface Dynamics, 11(5), 849-863. https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-849-2023

An, C., Fang, H., Zhang, L., Su, X., Fu, X., Huang, H. Q., Parker, G., Hassan, M. A., Meghani, N. A., Anders, A. M., & Wang, G. (2022). Poyang and Dongting Lakes, Yangtze River: Tributary lakes blocked by main-stem aggradation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119(30), Article e2101384119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101384119

Anders, A. M., Lai, J., & Marshak, S. (2022). Development of Foreland Intracratonic Plateaus (Ozark Plateau and Appalachian Plateaus): A Consequence of Topographic Inversion Due To Erosion of Adjacent Fold-Thrust Belts. Tectonics, 41(4), Article e2021TC006957. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021TC006957

Cullen, C., Anders, A. M., Lai, J., & Druhan, J. L. (2022). Numerical modeling of groundwater-driven stream network evolution in low-relief post-glacial landscapes. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 47(2), 658-671. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5278

Lai, J., & Anders, A. M. (2021). Climatic controls on mountain glacier basal thermal regimes dictate spatial patterns of glacial erosion. Earth Surface Dynamics, 9(4), 845-859. https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-9-845-2021

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