Nicholas Rodgers defends Masters Thesis

Masters candidate Nicholas Rodgers successfully defended his Masters degree in Earth Sciences on July 3rd, 2019. He is advised by Chris Paola of the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory and Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Minnesota. 

Congratulations Nick!

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Thesis title: Complex retreat behavior in experimental barrier island response to base level rise

Nicholas Rodgers, Masters Candidate in Earth Sciences
Advisor: Chris Paola, Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences and St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, University of Minnesota

We studied the segregation and depositional behaviors of TSRU tailings, a fine-grained waste material produced in the Alberta Oil Sands refining process, toward the long-term goal of faster, more effective environmental restoration. The research used both surrogate material and real tailings material. We will briefly present similarities between the flow, segregation, and depositional behaviors of these two materials that have also been reported in other, natural prograding deltas, and also some distinct differences in the behaviors of the TSRU tailings relevant to environmental restoration issues.