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SUMMARY:Hydrodynamic-driven morphological patterns in glacial and karst en
 vironments
DTSTART:20121002T161500
DTEND:20121002T171500
DTSTAMP:20260408T132617Z
UID:55553110b7771f443a74b19833c72fad2fa869961f04efc070e2570d
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Carlo Camporeale\, Department of Civil and Environmental En
 gineering\, Politecnico di Torino (IT)\nGlaciers and caves are fascinating
  environments representing  the last frontiers of the Earth exploration. 
 Although glacial and karst environments could appear very different to a f
 irst view\, the variety of patterns that they exhibit can be analyzed from
  a unified perspective with the same mathematical framework. Indeed\, in b
 oth cases water is able to shape formidabile structures with several geome
 trical and dynamical similarities: for instance\,  icicles and ice-ripple
 s\, i.e. regular surface undulations carved by  the action of a thin wate
 r film flowing on the ice\, look like crenulations on the surface of stala
 ctites and stalagmites\, namely ripplelike structures with a subcentimetri
 c wavelength. Likewise\, scallops are equally visible on the walls of engl
 acial conduits and  subterranean channels in carbonate aquifer. The reaso
 n of such similarities lays in the fact that both kinds of processes belon
 g to the class of water-induced morphodynamic phenomena\, where a deformab
 le boundary is subjected to the transport processes driven by hydrodynamic
 s. The only difference is that water uses two different tools in chiseling
  the two boundaries: thermodynamics and geochemistry\, respectively. In th
 is presentation we will focus on open-channel systems\, where the free sur
 face plays a key role\, and other resemblances arise with other well-known
  morphodynamic phenomena occurring in rivers.
LOCATION:GR A3 32 http://plan.epfl.ch/?room=GR%20A3%2032
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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