September 2, 2025

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Speaker: Tim Goudge

Title: Remote Sensing of Sinuous Channels in the Solar System: From Meandering Rivers to Lava Channels

Abstract: Remote sensing data provide a landscape-scale view of the surface properties of planetary bodies, and offer unique insight into a wide array of geoscience problems. In this talk I will present results from two projects that showcase how remote sensing data can be used to characterize landscape evolution on Earth and other planetary bodies. The first project focuses on use of high-frequency, high-resolution lidar topography from a UAV (uncrewed aerial vehicle) to characterize the process of bank erosion in meandering rivers. This work provides insight into when river banks erode, and the evolution from short-term stochastic to long-term average behavior. The second project looks at the geometry of bends within three distinct classes of sinuous channels formed by fluid flow: meandering rivers (Earth), supraglacial channels (Earth), and sinuous volcanic channels (the Moon). This work aims to test whether sinuous channel geometry records diagnostic aspects of the formative process, or whether it is a universal outcome of confined fluid flow.