Dr. Joseph Myre is awarded an NSF Earth Science Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a research and education plan at the University of Arkansas - Fayetteville. Dr. Myre will construct a computational fluid dynamics model to investigate the relationship between surface roughness and the physicochemical mechanisms which cause dissolution in soluble bedrock settings. This model will be used to simulate the development of a common cave feature, scallops, in different flow, chemical, and bedrock conditions. These simulations will incorporate measured surfaces from natural settings: Copperhead Cave, Fitton Cave, and Parks Ranch Cave. The model produced by this study will be widely applicable for studying cave formation and feature creation and evolution, ultimately aiding in the overall understanding of karst aquifers and their records of past landscape evolution and paleoclimate.
Additionally, Dr. Myre will act as an educational mentor to undergraduate students through classroom teaching and by directly involving them in discrete portions of the project to gain research experience in data collection, data management, computational experiments, and data analysis.
