Temporal and spatial patterns of sedimentation within the batture lands of the middle Mississippi River, USA

Another cool article led by our collaborator Jon Remo at SIU as part of our Mississippi River flood ring project. It explores the spatiotemporal patterns, rates, and volume of sedimentation within the batture lands along the middle Mississippi River (MMR; between the confluence of the Missouri and Ohio rivers) using several approaches including dendrogeomorphological methods.   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.02.010  

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Bucks Pocket

  James and I went up to Bucks Pocket State Park to sample white oak for flood scars for the Tennessee River paleoflood project we are part of. It was just what you would expect in July in Alabama-hot and sweaty! But we made a great collection that is going to result in some really interesting research results.

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The search for Fort Armstrong: Dendroarchaeology of the Williamson “Snow Hill” Plantation, Cherokee County, Alabama, USA

Discussed this project in an earlier post. Matt Gage from the UA Office of Archaeological Research and I carried out some tree-ring dating on three historical log buildings in northeastern Alabama to determine if any of the structures could have been associated with historic Fort Armstrong. Fort Armstrong was constructed near Cedar Bluff, Alabama by militia members under the ultimate command of Andrew Jackson to support actions against the “Red Stick” faction of Creeks during the First Creek War in 1813. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dendro.2017.02.001

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Cane Creek Canyon

  Took my physical geography class up to Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve and had about the best hike of my entire life thanks to Dr. Jim Lacefield. Jim and wife Faye are the owners of Cane Creek and Jim is the author of the most amazing book on Alabama geology (Lost Worlds in Alabama Rocks). I cannot express enough gratitude to Jim and Faye for inviting us up. If you have any interest in the natural world I highly […]

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Ancient Red Cedar

Went up to sample on Redstone Arsenal for our Tennessee River flood project and found some fantastic old Red Cedar (Juniperous virginiana). This sample was 0ver 330 years old when it died (note all the sapwood is gone). Who knows how long it has been sitting here perched on these rocks. perhaps centuries. Once we hopefully get it dated we’ll know. We also sampled quite a few post oaks (Quercus stellata) and chinquapin oaks (Q. muehlenbergii). The post oaks are […]

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Big Bur!

One of the best trips I took this summer was to Columbia Missouri to see my good buddy Mike Stambaugh and take a sample from the huge Bur Oak cross section they have in their lab. This tree was the National Champion Bur Oak until it died in the early 1950s. It had been growing in Big Oak Tree State Park in the Bootheel of MO. This site is one of the only virgin bottomland hardwood forests left in MO, […]

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