Introduction

Thank you for your interest in our program here at Lehigh University. The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) has 15 full-time faculty that cover a broad range of disciplines in Geology, Ecology, and Environmental Science. I am a geologist and geomorphologist specifically interested in the long-term evolution of landscapes, the fluvial response to active tectonics, and how tectonic, climatic, and autogenic processes conspire to build stratigraphy.  In these respects, I am very interested in re-learning how to read the stratigraphic, and soil stratigraphic record in terms of the processes that created it.  EES has active research programs in all of these areas and we are aggressively recruiting outstanding graduate students to build the graduate program in these and related disciplines. The faculty I collaborate and interact with most closely here are Ken Kodama (paleomagnetism, rock magnetics, and cyclostratigraphy), David Anastasio (structural geology), Peter Zeitler (geochronology), and Steve Peters (aqueous geochemistry).  We have some great expertise in environmental change in our Department and I maintain close research ties to many other researchers around the world. Visit my research page to learn more about active and on-going research collaborations and projects.  Research in surficial processes is broadly represented in EES. 

Solid Earth Research Group        Environmental Change Research Group             Geomorph Facilities

OK, OK!!!  This is not the view from the University (wish it was).  But this place is real close by!  It is the view looking northeast at the Lehigh water Gap near Palmerton, PA.  This, and the nearby Wind Gap are places where W. M. Davis and company struggled to understand the origin of transverse drainages.  Lehigh University is actually located on the northern flank of Pennsylvania’s Blue Ridge (South Mountain) and has a commanding view of the Lehigh Valley (Great Valley) and Ridge and Valley of the Appalachians to the northwest. This is the landscape of Davis and Hack. It is where the great geomorphic discourses on long-term landscape evolution were born and continue to be lively debated. Far from a "dead" orogen, the Appalachians have a complicated post orogenic exhumational history and stand as one of the best studied orogens in the decay stage of its evolution. These studies, some of which are now ongoing funded research projects in the EES Department, are investigating the causes of late stage rock-uplift and exhumation through the relatively new technique of He/U-Th thermochronology. Over a distance of only 250 km, one can travel from the subsided Tr-J rift-flank uplift buried under a wedge of Coastal Plain sediments, across the Fall Zone, a flexurally-maintained hinge of the isostatically-rising continent and subsiding Coastal Plain, through the high grade metamorphic heart of the formerly Andean-scale late Paleozoic Appalachians on the Piedmont, to a continental rift basin formed during a time when the area around Lehigh looked like the Basin and Range, into the Ridge and Valley, the fold and trust belt of the late Paleozoic Appalachians, and finally, the Allegheny Plateau, the seaward facing escarpment marking the present-day location of the drainage divide in its slow, but methodical westward march.

In addition to the exciting orogen-scale tectonic geomorphology research in the Appalachians, the setting is well suited to studying climatic, ground water, and coastal processes. A wide range of glacial and periglacial deposits in central and eastern Pennsylvania preserve a rich record of the effects of past climate changes on landscapes. Ground water geomorphology is well-expressed in the numerous karst systems underlying Pennsylvania’s carbonate valleys. And easy access to beaches on the Atlantic coast provide a hands-on experiences of coastal processes and change.

The research and graduate program for geomorphology students is decidedly field-intensive and designed to afford opportunities to learn about the geomorphology in Lehigh’s own backyard, as well as the individual's location of study. Current research is motivated by three primary interests:

• Long-term landscape evolution at the orogen scale and the dynamic feedbacks between the deep earth processes which act to uplift rocks and the surficial processes which act to exhume rocks.
• The processes responsible for the formation and preservation of fluvial terraces and the reconstruction of high-resolution fluvial stratigraphic records through the use of soil geomorphology, numeric age dating, palynology, and cosmogenic profile dating.
• Reading the stratigraphic and soil stratigraphic record to decipher the processes that constructed them.  In order to do this, we use rock magnetic-based cyclostratigraphy to develop high-resolution age models, and compare the age model to what we can observe in the lithostratigraphy, and what we can measure in terms of climate or sedimentary process proxy data.  Specifically for soils, we are assembling a data base of soil iron chemistry of paleosols in the mid-Atlantic region and elsewhere that we interpret in terms of the paleoenvironmental conditions that drove pedogenesis.
  

• Observation, organization, and correct geologic interpretation of geomorphologic field-based data. This will include, for many projects, the completion of a detailed geologic map.
• Quantification of the landscape and watersheds through the acquisition, manipulation, and application of digital elevation models. This will include, for many projects, a firm understanding of GIS and several GIS software packages.
• Understanding of the pertinent geomorphologic processes in their study in quantitative terms. This may include for some studies, the construction of a physically-based numeric model and/or flume-based models.
• Effective writing and communication of the subject matter as published papers. M.S. students will be guided in the process of preparing a single manuscript that will also serve as their M.S. thesis. Ph.D. students should be prepared to submit three manuscripts, the integrated sum of which will constitute the dissertation.

Recent and current geomorphologic and related research projects include the studies of these students:

Josh Gonzales completed his M.S. work in the spring of 2019.  Josh has developed a model of the response times for streams in the Piedmont of southeastern PA, and is applying that to test hypotheses of crustal deformation driven by the Reading-Lancaster seismic zone.  Josh has recently competed an appointment with the National Park Service in Arizona, and is now pursuing a graduate degree in Civil Engineering at UNLV.

Ethan Kurak completed his MS in the spring, 2021.  Ethan was funded by the PA Geological Survey and EDMAP.  He worked along the Youghiogheny RIver in SW PA, mapping and dating terraces.  See his results in the research pages.   Ethan is now pursuing employment in his home state of Minnesota. 

Ben Bliss completed his MS in the spring, 2021.  He worked on cyclostratigraphic models of deltas at small, medium, and large scales.  Ben was funded as part of the NSF-TESPRESSO project.  See some of his results on the research pages.  Ben is now employed in the geotechnical field in Vermont.

James Fisher completed his MS in the spring, 2021.  He was co-advised by Dave Anastasio.  James pursued numerical modeling of fluvial topography in the northern Apennines.  He developed a number of Matlab codes that are now served out from GitHub.  James is pursuing employment or a Ph.D.

I encourage you to contact these folks for a candid assessment of EES and working with me as an advisor.  Please also visit the research pages to learn more about research project opportunities.

 Part of the river terrace map of the South Anna River, completed by Helen Malenda.

A reasonable measure of what prospective students might expect out of a graduate degree from Pazzaglia's program at Lehigh is to know what former students are now doing.  Keeping in mind that these folks have driven their own success, here's a list of the current activities of former students where I was the major advisor (more or less in the order of their graduation):