SEN Datathon a Success!

On Sunday, December 11, 2016, we gathered a group of 11 sediment experimentalists on the campus of UC Berkeley for the first ever SEN DataThon. With the help of coffee and pizza (and Alex Bryk from UC Berkeley!), we spent the afternoon contributing entries to the SEN Knowledge Base (SEN-KB) experimental wiki and the SEAD (Sustainable Data Actionable Environment) data sharing platform. We also discussed ideas for improving the SEN-KB and SEAD resources in the future. Through our combined efforts, we added (or updated) 16 entries on the SEN-KB. We are looking forward to organizing a similar type of DataThon at the upcoming annual meeting of CSDMS (Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System) on May 23-25, 2017 at CU Boulder. If you are interested in attending this event, please see below in the newsletter for more information.

February Experimentalist of the Month: Leonard Sklar

February Experimentalist of the Month:

Leonard Sklar

San Francisco State University

1. How did you first get involved with SEN? I first got involved with SEN when Leslie Hsu asked me to consider serving on the steering committee. I’m glad I said yes! My unique contribution has been to be a test case for getting an old-school, dark-data-generating, non-socially-networked experimentalist to adopt the enlightened data management practices of the 21st century. 

2. What different types of experiments have you worked with? The types of experiments I’ve worked with include: erosion of real and simulated bedrock in flumes, rotating drums, and abrasion mills; gravel and sand bedload sediment transport in flumes of various sizes; channel meander migration in two laboratory basins; particle wear in anular flumes and rotating drums; fine sediment infiltration in gravel beds; gravel bed stabilization by net-spinning caddisfly larvae; and impact erosion of water ice at ultra-low temperatures.

3. What is a favorite memory of yours in the lab? A favorite memory from the lab was the first time we turned on the 4 meter diameter rotating drum when it was filled with as many cobble-sized particles as we thought we could fit in, which turned out to be about 2 tons of them. Our goal was to measure the rate of particle wear across as wide a range of drum sizes as possible, to develop a relationship for scaling particle wear rates from the lab to the field. When we hit the start button we didn’t really know if the wheel would turn, and keep turning without bursting or falling over or suffering some other calamity. But it performed flawlessly, turning at 1 meter per second tangential velocity, creating a deafening roar from the vigorous particle collisions.  As if they were as excited as we were, some particles leapt out of the drum and slammed into the support beam or the floor, showing that we had slightly overestimated the volume capacity of the drum. Looking back on that day, I’m pleased to say that the drum is still standing tall and spinning true, and we achieved our scientific goal, finding that wear rates scale as a power function of the rate of energy expenditure.

4. What do you hope SEN will help the experimental community to achieve? In addition to the excellent goals that SEN was created to achieve, I hope SEN can help the experimental community stand together as one to protect our scientific enterprise from the anti-science rhetoric and policies of the new administration in Washington, and find ways to share with non-scientists our fascinating stories of discovery and the important contributions we make to understanding our world.

EarthCube Tools webinar on Jan. 20th - CINERGI: Community Inventory of EarthCube Resources for Geoscience Interoperability

Check out this upcoming EarthCube Tools webinar being organized by the EarthCube Science Committee on CINERGI (Community Inventory of EarthCube Resources for Geoscience Interoperability):

"We are excited to continue the webinar series: Doing Geoscience with EarthCube Tools, on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, at 2 pm EST (11 am PST) with our guest Ilya Zaslavsky of the San Diego Supercomputer Center on CINERGI: Community Inventory of EarthCube Resources for Geoscience Interoperability. CINERGI is an EarthCube tool that enables and accelerates data discovery and access across multiple disciplines. It is currently being further developed to provide additional significant capability, and serves some important functions of the EarthCube Architecture being designed."

Find call and event details here and links to all tools webinars and resources here. The webinar is free and all are welcome.

More on the upcoming CINERGI presentation:

CINERGI: Community Inventory of EarthCube Resources for Geoscience Interoperability.

Discovering, interpreting and re-using data across geoscience domains is a core EarthCube challenge. Metadata is often inconsistent and incomplete; repositories follow different domain standards and semantics; many datasets aren’t registered in catalogs and exist on individual web sites – these are some of the key obstacles faced by researchers. CINERGI is an EarthCube Building Block project (http://earthcube.org/group/cinergi) to create technology components that enable cross-disciplinary data discovery. Metadata descriptions harvested from geoscience repositories and through community contributions are automatically enhanced, which includes generation of relevant keywords based on text analytics, derivation of spatial extents, and validation of organization names mentioned in the metadata. Automatic generation of keywords, in turn, is based on a cross-domain bridge ontology, which integrates several existing geoscience ontologies and controlled vocabularies, and on GeoSciGraph, a system for text parsing, vocabulary management and semantic annotation. Once processed, the metadata records are indexed and republished as ISO-19115/19139 documents with embedded semantic references to the ontologies integrated in CINERGI, along with provenance information for each record, and made available via a search portal and web service requests. The webinar will describe the main system components (the metadata augmentation pipeline; the underlying CINERGI ontology and semantic services; services and user interfaces for resource discovery and access; and accompanying provenance and validation services), present the current state of the system, and demonstrate its use in several cross-domain data discovery use cases.

More on the EarthCube Tools series:

The EarthCube Tools webinar series, organized by the Science Committee of the NSF-sponsored EarthCube program, provides practical demonstrations of how EarthCube projects can help you to collect, access, share, and visualize geoscience data.  Each webinar begins with a showcase of an EarthCube funded project followed by ample time for questions and conversation.  Wary of EarthCube jargon?  Presenters will describe their projects in plain English for scientists in all disciplines who may be unfamiliar with EarthCube.  Here’s a chance for you (and your colleagues, team members, and students) to learn about EarthCube and how it can help to advance your scientific work.  More information on the webinar series is available here.  Archived video will be available on the website about one week after the webinar.

SEN DataThon this Sunday at UC Berkeley

In collaboration with SEAD (Sustainable Environment Actionable Data), the NSF EarthCube-sponsored (Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN) will be hosting a "DataThon" this Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016, at UC Berkeley to advance the cause of data sharing and reproducibility. A core group of early-career and more senior scientists, we will spend the afternoon uploading our datasets to SEAD 2.0 project spaces and describing our datasets and methods on the SEN Knowledge Base (SEN-KB). Let's make open data a reality!

More SEN and EarthCube events at AGU 2016

If you are attending the AGU 2016 Fall Meeting, here are some events in addition to the SEN-related presentations we recently posted.

• Raleigh Martin of SEN will be at the EarthCube booth #509, Wednesday 11:30a-12:30p if you'd like to chat about sediment experiments and the tools and resources we are trying to share.

 

• There is an AGU Data Fair with several relevant sessions on earth science data, data skills, data management, and more: http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2016/agu-data-fair/

• EarthCube has compiled a page of EarthCube-related sessions: https://www.earthcube.org/2016-earthcube-at-agu

SEN-related presentations at the 2016 Fall AGU Meeting

An incomplete listing of SEN related presentations at the 2016 Fall AGU Meeting. We tried to crowdsource this, but ended up searching the AGU Fall Meeting Schedule by ourselves and simultaneously (1) got a headache and (2) was amazed at all of the experimental work going on.

Is your presentation missing? Email sedimentexp@gmail.com.

Monday

AM

• 8:00, V11C-2794 Experimental Determination of Bed Conditions in Concentrated Pyroclastic Density Currents, Amelia Winner et al.,  8:00, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 11:35, EP12B-06 Controls of Ice Cover on Arctic Delta Morphodynamics and Depositional Processes, YeJin Lim et al., 11:35, Moscone West 2003

PM

• 13:40, OS13C-1833 Formation of Cyclic Steps due to the Surge-type Turbidity Currents in a Flume Experiment, Miwa Yokokawa, 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 13:40, OS13C-1838 Break-of-slope linked to unexpected downstream grain size coarsening in experimental and natural turbidites, Florian Pohl et al., 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall

Tuesday

AM

• 8:00, EP21C-0890 Towards an Analytical Model for the Seismic Signal Generated by Debris Flows, Maxime Farin et al., 8:00, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 8:00, EP21C-0903 Debris Flows in a Changing Climate: Experimental and Field Investigations of the Influence of Changes in Moisture on Matrix Properties, Interparticle Interactions, and Subsequent Debris Flow Behaviors, Kimberly Hill et al., 8:00, Moscone South Poster Hall

PM

• EP23D-01 Experimental Exploration of Particle-Scale Bed Load Transport and Near-Bed Fluid Velocities, 13:40, Siobhan Fathel et al., Moscone West 2007

• 13:40, EP23A-0929 Grain Size Variation, Discharge Rate, and Delta Island Formation, Indre Altman and Wonsuck Kim, 13:40 Moscone South Poster Hall

• 13:40, GC23D-1271 Experimental Investigation of River Avulsion and Land-Loss on a Backwater-Influenced Delta Undergoing Sea Level Rise, Kirby Sikes et al., Moscone South Poster Hall

• 15:12, IN23F-07 Understanding Geomorphological Processes on the Earth’s Surface from Laboratory Experiments and the Role of Communities of Practice in Generating Reusable Data, Leslie Hsu, 15:12, Moscone West 2002

Wednesday

AM

• EP31A-0927 Particle Size Reduction in Geophysical Granular Flows: The Role of Rock Fragmentation, 8:00, Gionata Bianchi and Leonard Sklar, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 11:20, EP32C-05 Bedform stability in steep gravel-bedded streams from field and flume data, Marisa Palucis et al., 11:20 Moscone West 2005

PM

• 13:40, EP33C-1003 Sediment and Vegetation Controls on Delta Channel Networks, Rebecca Lauzon et al., 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 13:40, EP33A-0965 Winnowing and Flocculation in Bio-physical Cohesive Substrate: A Flume Experimental and Estuarine Study, Yeiping Le et al., 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 13:40, EP33D-1011 Sensing fluid pressure during plucking events in a natural bedrock channel and experimental flume, Clare Wilkinson et al., 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 14:30, NH34B-03 Impact of Diverse Hydrologic Pathways, 3D Failure Geometries, and Unsaturated Soil Suctions on Shallow Landsliding, Mark Reid et al., 14:30, Moscone South 306

Thursday

AM

• 8:00, ED41A-0765 Bed structure and bedload transport: Sediment grain reorientation in response to high and low flows in an experimental flume, Megan Gurer et al., 8:00, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 10:20, EP42A: Integrating Experimental, Numerical, and Theoretical Studies of Suspended-load and Bedload Transport I, 10:20, Moscone West 2005

• 11:20, EP42A-05 Testing and Modeling Particle Excursion Lenghts for a Wide Range of Flow Conditions, Suleyman Naqshband and Brandon McElroy, 11:20, Moscone West 2005

PM:

• 13:40, NH43B-1854 Standard geological samples of tsunami deposits made in a large wave flume, Takumi Yoshii et al., 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall

Friday

AM

• 8:00, EP51A-0881 Whole-field velocity measurements of flow around interacting barchan dunes in a novel flume environment, Nathaniel Bristow, 8:00, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 8:00, EP51A-0862 Numerical and Physical Experiments on the Effect of Variations in Channel Width on Gravel-Bed River Morphodynamics, Jacob Morgan and Peter Nelson, 8:00, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 8:00,  PA51A-2255 Promoting Art through Technology, Education and Research of Natural Sciences (PATTERNS) across Wyoming, A Wyoming NSF EPSCoR Funded Project, Brandon Gellis and Brandon McElroy, 8:00, Moscone South Poster Hall

PM

• 13:40, EP53G-01 Variation in Sediment Mobility and the Active Width in Gravel-bed Braided Rivers, Sarah Peirce, Moscone West 2005
• 13:40, EP53A-0920 Decoupling flood and interflood deposits for delta island formation and channel bifurcation, Max Sasha Daniller-Varghese and Wonsuck Kim, 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall
• 13:40, EP53C-0989 Evaluating 2D models for fluvial bedform morphodynamics using flume experiments with profiling ADVs over a mobile sand bed, Robert Mahon et al., 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall
• 13:40, EP53E-1031 Scaling and normalization of river bathymetry spectra and bedform velocity, Michele Guala et al., 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall
• 13:40, EP53E Integrating Experimental, Numerical, and Theoretical Studies of Suspended-load and Bedload Transport II Posters, 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall
• 13:55, EP53G-02 Spatio-temporal evolution of alluvial sand beds under unsteady flow, 13:55, Annie Ockelford et al., Moscone West 2005
• 14:10, EP53G-03 Hydrograph Shape Controls Channel Morphology and Organization in a Sand-Gravel Flume, Laura Hempel et al., 14:10, Moscone West 2005
• 15:25, EP53G-08 How Do River Meanders Change with Sea Level Rise and Fall?, Julianne Eileen Scamardo and Wonsuck Kim, 15:25, Moscone West, 2005

Experimentalist of the Month: Joel P. Johnson

SEN is starting up a new segment with featured experimentalists!

This month:

Joel P. Johnson

Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin

Joel with first-generation smartrocks in 2009

How did you first get involved with SEN?

I first attended a SEN-organized workshop a few years ago which was excellent!

What different types of experiments have you worked with?

Working in many cases with students, I have conducted experiments on bedrock erosion, flash flood sediment transport and sorting, tsunami deposition of suspended sediments, disequilibrium gravel transport and step-pool experiments, hillslope diffusion experiments that didn't entirely work, and of course debris flow experiments with smartrocks. I am currently working with a Masters student on experiments to compare dissolution vs. abrasion of bedrock rates and erosional morphologies. 

What is a favorite memory of yours in the lab?

Building a flume-within-a-flume, modifying a shopping cart to catch sediment, and throwing my first smartrocks into experimental debris flows with Leslie Hsu.

What do you hope SEN will help the experimental community to achieve?

We as a community have been both lazy and selfish about sharing data, and that should change.  Making sharing data the expectation, and also incentivizing doing so, is important.

--
Thanks for being part of SEN, Joel!

Send nominations for featured experimentalists to sedimentexp@gmail.com.