Page 16 - 2020 GGE Newsletter

Page 16

A NOTE FROM THE ENGINEERING GROUP
AND THE SURFACE PROCESSES AND GEOMORPHOLOGY GROUP

The engineering geology industry continues to remain strong, in spite of the economic uncertainty during the pandemic,
with plenty of employment options for our graduates. Likewise, research in the field is progressing along many interesting
fronts. Dr. Santi continues to focus the bulk of his research on debris flow and landslide analysis, as well as other geologic
hazards. Recent projects funded through the Center for Mining Sustainability (teamed with Dr. Wendy Zhou) are using GIS
and remote sensing methods to map geologic hazards, and analyzing a massive landslide impacting the Pan American high-
way (PhD student Andrew Graber). Andrew Graber also continues his research on rockfall recurrence in Glenwood Canyon,
shifting the focus to post-wildfire effects, thanks to the recent Grizzly Creek Fire (funded by CDOT). Several students com-
pleted their degrees: Cory Wallace developed methods to measure and predict landslide runout, Kyle Radach analyzed the
Cedar Pass landslide complex at Badlands National Park, Matt Tello developed techniques to optimize landslide susceptibil-
ity modeling in Puerto Rico, Omid Arabnia unraveled the timing of landslide and other deposits off the Grand Mesa in west-
ern Colorado, Sam Rumel measured the change and recovery over time of soil properties following burning by wildfire, and
Claire VandeYacht studied the accumulation of sediment and shallow landsliding following wildfire in the San Gabriel
Mountains. Also, MS student Lauren Herbert received the Norman R. Tilford Field Study Scholarship from the Association
of Environmental and Engineering Geologists to support her research on debris flow avulsion in the White Mountain of Cali-
fornia.
The Center for Mining Sustainability, headed by Professor Paul Santi, received funding for a second phase of
research in Peru, totaling $9M. Of the 8 new projects in this phase, several are related to geological engineering,
such as research on the identification and prediction of geologic hazards, geophysical imaging of subsoils and land
slides for a new massive irrigation project, and geochemistry and mineralogical influences of water quality in 5 ma
jor regional watersheds. Center research is done in partnership with the Universidad Nacional de San Agustín in
Arequipa Peru, involving approximately 30 faculty from each university.

Dr. Walton and his Computational Geomechanics Laboratory (geomech.mines.edu) have continued to focus on rock me-
chanics in the context of underground excavation stability and remote sensing applications in rockfall hazard characteriza-
tion and monitoring. Notable research outcomes include identification of climate triggering patterns for rockfall
with unprecedented spatio-temporal resolution (M.Sc. student Heather Schovanec) and development of new approaches for
analysis of ground-support interaction in mines (Ph.D. student Sankhaneel Sinha). Dr. Walton also recently gave a (virtual)
keynote lecture, "Advances in Bonded Block Modeling", at Sweden's national rock mechanics day conference.

Dr. Zhou and her research group have continued to focus on geohazards and geoinformatics in the context of environmen-
tal & engineering geology. Notable research outcomes include (1) backward erosion piping of earth dam & levees and
flood prediction using remote sensing (Ph.D. students Stephen Semmens and Dorcas Idowu); (2) uncertainty assessment for
3D geologic modeling (Ph.D. student Ashton Krajnovich); (3) ground subsidence due to tunneling using remote sensing and
machine learning techniques (Ph.D. students Kendall Wnuk and Linan Liu); and (4) Landslide susceptibility studies (MS
students Lauren Southerland and Justin Manning). Dr. Zhou and her students also gave presentations (virtual) at national
and international conferences in 2020, such as the Annual Meeting of the AEG (Association of Environmental & Engineer-
ing Geologists), the world tunnel congress – WTC2020 and 46th General Assembly, and the 3rd Conference of the Arabian
Journal of Geosciences. In addition, (1) Ph.D. student Ashton Krajnovich received the USDOT (US Department of Transpor-
tation) Outstanding Student of the Year award in January 2020 at an award ceremony in Washington DC; (2) and Ph.D. stu-
dent Stephen Semmens won 1st place award (tied) at the 2020 Colorado Statewide 3MT (Three-Minute Thesis) Competi-
tion.