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Water has the power to shape our planet from the steepest of mountains to the most tranquil of coasts. Come along and explore how we can use rivers to unravel the mysteries of past environments and how we can work with nature to sustain the future of our coastlines. This night is kindly sponsored by the Cardiff University School of Earth and Ocean Sciences.
Saltmarsh secrets – our natural coastal defence
Dr Emma McKinley
(Research Fellow in School of Earth and Ocean Sciences)
Investigate the secrets of our saltmarshes! We demonstrate the role of saltmarshes in buffering wave energy, the importance of sediment for coastal erosion and the value of working with nature. Through the use of two mini-wave tanks and using a 'Lego' village coastal community, this talk will allow you to 'control the tides' and to become the 'wave makers'. We can then examine the benefits we get from salt marshes, including their positive effects on health and wellbeing, and examine how natural ecosystems can be better managed.
Forensic landscape-ology: using rivers to snoop on the past
Dr Daniel Hobley
(Lecturer and Research Fellow in School of Earth and Ocean Sciences)
River erosion controls the shape of landscapes, the kind of rocks you find within them, and how fast those landscapes change. That means that you can use the information you find by looking at rivers in a particular place to work out what that place was like in the past. In this talk, I’ll take you on a whistle-stop tour of some of the things that we can work out based on the shape of a river and the rocks and sand that it carries. In particular, I’ll try to convince you that it’s possible to predict how often earthquakes might happen in a place just by counting pebbles...!
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