Research Interests

• Behavior of unfrozen water in frozen soils
• Frost heaving
• Soil physics
• Slope stability in frozen ground
• Thermal analysis of engineered structures over frozen ground

Selected Funded Research Projects

• PI. Landslide Collides with Highway: Measuring Its Impacts to Inform Future Mitigation. For this project, we installed instrumentation in the abandoned Dalton Highway embankment to monitor and measure its collision with FDL-A. Funding Agency: Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities ($243,500).
  

  Peyton Presler (BS student, Geological Engineering) wires in the solar panel for an automated data acquisition system (left), and checks out an exposure of infiltration ice (right).

• Co-PI (PI Tong Qiu, Penn State). Collaborative Research: NNA Track 2: Planning for Infrastructure Resiliency and Adaptation to Climate Change amid Increasing Mass-Movement Risks across the Cryosphere. This project will facilitate two workshops to identify gaps in our understanding of mass movement risks across the cryosphere. Funding Agency: NSF ($249,882).

• PI. The Long-Term Effects of Earthquakes: Using Geospatial Solutions to Evaluate Heightened Rockfall Activity on Critical Lifelines. The multi-institutional project team will analyze a series of ground-based LiDAR datasets collected before and after the 2018 Anchorage Earthquake to develop practice-oriented seismic rockfall stability guidelines and predictive tools for transportation agencies. Funding Agency: PacTrans ($60,000).
  

  Example of dangerous rockfall area on the Alaska highway system (left). Daisy Herrman (BS student, Geological Engineering) sets up the ground-based LiDAR to collect data.

• Co-PI (PI Scott Rupp, UAF). Arctic Environmental and Engineering Data Design and Support System. The multi-agency team will develop a web-based system to provide historical observations, and climate data and projections to aid in engineering decisions related to Alaska and cold regions. Funding Agency: U.S. Department of Defense ($1,825,482).

• PI. 2020 Frozen Debris Lobe Monitoring. This project supported the annual monitoring of eight FDLs, including repeat LiDAR acquisition. Funding Agency: Alyeska Pipeline Service Company ($55,881).

• PI. Landslides in the Fairbanks North Star Borough: Establishing Extent and Timing via Surficial Geologic Mapping and LiDAR Analysis. This project provides support to a graduate student to produce a landslide inventory map of the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Funding Agency: U.S. Geological Survey ($17,499).
  

  
  Jaimy Schwarber (MS student, Geological Engineering) observes the stratigraphy of a landslide deposit (left), and measures the residual soil strength (right).

• PI. Wickersham Dome Landslides Assessment and Monitoring (2019, 2020). For these projects, we conducted reconnaissance of two landslides, determining their rates of movement post-fire. Funding Agency: Alyeska Pipeline Service Company ($44,339 total combined budget).
  
  
• PI. Pipeline Milepost (PLMP) 87 Retrogressive Thaw Slump (2017, 2018, 2019). This project consists of yearly assessing and monitoring the stabilization of a retrogressive thaw slump through subsurface soil and temperature, and snow analysis. Funding Agency: Alyeska Pipeline Service Company ($109,694 total combined budget).
  
  
• PI. CONTACT: Measuring the Impact of a Landslide on Transportation Infrastructure to Improve Mobility and Safety, Phase I. (2017-2019). Through this research, we will measure the subsurface changes ahead of a landslide collision with the Dalton Highway embankment, in order to acquire knowledge to develop appropriate mitigation techniques, and we will develop a back-pack LiDAR system technique for quick and inexpensive assessment of surface deformation. Funding Agency: PacTrans ($60,000).
  
  

  Jaimy Schwarber (MS student, Geological Engineering) takes DGPS measurements (left), and points out infiltration ice exposed on the left flank of FDL-A (right).

• PI. Monitoring and Analysis of Frozen Debris Lobes using Remote Sensing. (2014-2016). Employed remotely-sensed data using multiple data acquisition methods to monitor and analyze FDLs at different temporal scales, thereby increasing the understanding of rates and episodes of movement of these potential geohazards. Funding Agency: US Department of Transportation ($500,000).
  
  

  Nora Gyswyt (BS student, Geological Engineering) participates in field work on frozen debris lobes (left), and presents her results at UAF’s Undergraduate Research Day in April 2016.

  
  

  Ryan McCoy (BS student, Geological Engineering) records surface measurements of frozen debris lobes regardless of the season.

• PI. CAREER: Mobility of Unfrozen Water in Frozen Soil. (2012-2017). Investigated the mass fraction and mobility of unfrozen water in frozen soil, using state-of-the-art measurement techniques such as NMR, XRD, and ESEM. Funding Agency: National Science Foundation ($402,954)
• PI. Monitoring and Analysis of Frozen Debris Lobes, Ph. I. (2012). Ph. 1B. (2014-2015). A slow-moving landslide (termed Frozen Debris Lobe-A (FDL-A)) is approaching the Dalton Highway near MP219. This research project included a drilling/sampling and monitoring program to better understand its direction and rate of movement and the nature of its shear zone. Phase 1 Funding Agencies: Alaska University Transportation Center and Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities ($100,000). Phase 1B Funding Agency: US Department of Transportation ($136,062).
  
  Jocelyn Simpson (MS student, Geological Engineering) checks drill cuttings while installing instrumentation in FDL-A (left), and lays out geophones for a seismic survey of the slow-moving landslide in the Brooks Range, Alaska (right). (Photo by M. Darrow)

Graduate Students Advised

• Jaimy Schwarber - MS Geological Engineering
  Research Topic: Landslides in the Fairbanks North Star Borough – Initial Mapping and Assessment of Engineering Properties. Expected graduation date: 2021.
• Rui Guo – MS Geological Engineering
  Project: Analysis of Cation-treated Clay Microstructure Using Zeta Potential and X-ray Diffraction.
  Graduated: December 2018.
• Javed Miandad – MS Geological Engineering
  Thesis: Landslide Mapping using Multiscale LiDAR Digital Elevation Models.
  Graduated: August 2018.
• Aaron Kruse – MS Geological Engineering
  Thesis: Analysis of Unfrozen Water in Cation-Treated, Fine-Grained Soils Using the Pulse Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (P-NMR) Method.
  Graduated: December 2016.
• Jocelyn Simpson – MS Geological Engineering.
  Thesis: Site Investigation, and GIS and Slope Stability Analysis of a Frozen Debris Lobe, South-Central Brooks Range, Alaska. Graduated: August 2015.
• David Jensen – MS Geological Engineering.
  Thesis: Performance of an Air Convection Embankment over Ice-rich Permafrost: Instrumentation, Monitoring, and Modeling. Graduated: May 2015.
• Kyle Obermiller – MS Geological Engineering.
  Thesis: Investigation of a Landslide in Discontinuous Permafrost near Chitina, Alaska.
  Graduated: December, 2011.