Public Seminar by Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (EOAS) Thrust, Function Hub, HKUST (GZ) - Rapid Changes of Asian River Derived Materials to the Sea

10:00am - 11:30am
W2-201 (Meeting ID: 973 6355 4132 Password: 20240719)

Recent studies indicate that in the past 50 years, the flow of water and sediments from the world's major rivers has changed markedly. Particularly in Asia, sediment discharge from most major rivers has decreased by 80-90% due to increased human activities (such as building dams, overusing water, and sand mining) and climatic changes. Many of these river deltas, including the Yellow, Red, Mekong, Chao Phraya, and Indus, have been experiencing severe subsidence and coastal erosion. Consequently, most of these deltas have transitioned from a constructive, growing mode to a destructive, declining mode; for instance, the Mekong Delta has exhibited an overall negative net land gain since 2005. Our studies further reveal that not only are the deltaic shorelines retreating, but also some deltas' subaqueous portions are undergoing significant erosion, as observed in the Yangtze, Mekong, Chao Phraya, and Indus rivers.

 

Case studies on the fates of the world's major rivers, such as the Yangtze, Mekong, and Irrawaddy, including the Ebro River, show that most of these sediments have been transported along the continental shelf, extending 300-800 kilometers away from their river mouths and forming distinctive distal depocenters, some up to 60 meters thick.

 

In contrast, recent studies have shown that rivers at higher latitudes, such as those in Greenland, have experienced exponential increases in sediment discharge, accounting for 8% of the global river sediment fluxes. Our recent survey in one of Greenland's fjords indicates that strong incisions are occurring on the seafloor due to the increased melting discharge.

讲者/ 表演者:
Dr. Paul Liu
North Carolina State University

Dr. Paul Liu is a full professor at North Carolina State University and Director of International Affairs at College of Sciences. Dr. Liu is a renowned coastal geologist who specializes in the study of world river-delta-ocean systems. Dr. Liu received his bachelor’s degree from Ocean University of China in 1992 and his master’s degree from the Institute of Oceanology in Qingdao in 1995. After earning his Ph.D. from Prof. John Milliman at the College of William and Mary, Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) in 2001, Dr. Liu went to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) as a postdoc.

 

In the past 20 years, Dr. Liu has served as the chief scientist for more than 30 research cruises in global oceans, he has extensively studied more than 12 river-dominated ocean margins, for example, the Yellow River delta in the Bohai Sea, the Yangtze in the East China Sea, the Pearl in the South China Sea, the Choshui in the Taiwan Strait, the Lanyang near the Okinawa Trough, the Red in the Gulf of Tonkin, the Mekong in the Vietnam East Sea, the Irrawaddy in the Andaman Sea, the Salween in the Gulf of Martaban, the Indus, and the Nile margins. Most recently, he has been working on the glacial-derived river-delta systems in Greenland. Dr. Liu has published more than 90 papers and received over 8,600 citations. https://meas.sciences.ncsu.edu/people/jpliu/

语言
英文
适合对象
教职员
研究生
本科生
主办单位
Function Hub, HKUST(GZ)
联系方法

For enquiries, please contact Miss Phoenix Li (phoenixwfl@hkust-gz.edu.cn).

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