Breadcrumb

Office: SEEC S209
Bio
Interactions of weathering and erosion to shape the architecture of the critical zone; surface water hydrology
Suzanne has been at the University of Colorado and a member of INSTAAR since 2003. She studied chemistry as an undergraduate. The eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1980, which exploded at a personal inflection point in her life, turned her onto geosciences as a discipline. She was pulled into the field of geomorphology by the dynamic groups of students and faculty in geomorphology, periglacial processes, and glaciology at the University of Washington, and completed an MS thesis in geological sciences at UW on permafrost in 1986 under the supervision of Bernard Hallet. After a brief stint working in Sam Epstein's stable isotope lab at Caltech and teaching at Pasadena City College, she moved to Santa Cruz, California and began a PhD at UC Berkeley. Her dissertation on chemical geomorphology (a term Suzanne coined) was one of several that came out of the Coos Bay project, supervised by Bill Dietrich and Keith Loague. Suzanne then merged her interests in glaciers and weathering in an NSF Earth Sciences post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Wyoming, where she worked with former UW colleague Neil Humphrey and with geochemist Tim Drever. Suzanne has been involved in critical zone science since the inception of the Critical Zone Exploration Network, and has directed the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory since 2007. She co-authored the textbook Geomorphology: The Mechanics and Chemistry of Landscapes with her husband Bob Anderson in 2010.
Education
- PhD: University of California, Berkeley, 1995
- MS: University of Washington, 1987
- BS cum laude: University of Puget Sound, 1979
Awards
- Fellow, American Geophysical Union, 2021
- G.K. Gilbert Award in Surface Processes, American Geophysical Union, 2020
- Fellow, Geological Society of America, 2019
- Certificate of Recognition, International Association of GeoChemistry, 2012
Research
Earth is a rocky planet, whose outer surface is burnished over time by physical and chemical weathering at the rock/atmosphere boundary.
My research interests lie in understanding the effects of weathering, and the processes that drive weathering. These topics lie at the heart of geomorphology and surface process research, as rock weathering sets the stage for the landscape sculpting processes of erosion. Like a dog chasing its tail, feedbacks between process and form make it difficult to identify a starting point. The movement of water and actions of weathering and erosion processes set the architecture of the interface between the atmosphere and the rocky lithosphere, which in turn affects water flow and erosion. Chemical alteration of rock in surface environments contributes to geochemical cycles, connecting the local—even on a miniature scale—to the global. Soils accumulate where the balance between weathering and erosion builds capital of this life-supporting residue.
The notion that intertwined actions of surface energy inputs, rock decay, gravitational pull, and living organisms shape the Earth’s surface is articulated by defining the surface as the “critical zone”. I have worked for more than a decade to define critical zone science as an integrative approach to understanding habitable environments (Anderson et al., 2004, Eos Transactions, AGU 85 (28): 265,269; Anderson et al., 2007, Elements 3: 315-319). I led a successful bid for one of the original Critical Zone Observatories (CZO) funded by the National Science Foundation in 2007. The Boulder Creek CZO involved some 15 faculty and senior researchers in interdisciplinary research understanding the architecture, function, and future of the critical zone, using the Colorado Front Range as a natural laboratory for this exploration (http://criticalzone.org/boulder/).
Research areas
Within the framework of critical zone science, my research has three branches:
Water is required for chemical alteration of rock to proceed. Chemistry of stream runoff would seem to be a straightforward means of measuring on-going chemical weathering processes. The picture is clouded somewhat by the fact that water flow paths contributing to runoff vary with changing discharge. Thus, interpreting chemical weathering from runoff involves analyzing watershed hydrology. The Gordon Gulch watershed in the Boulder Creek CZO provides an excellent laboratory in which to examine changing hydrologic conditions and their connection to hydrochemistry. The stream channel runs east-west, and thus the catchment is dominated by north and south-facing aspect hillslopes. At ~2500 m altitude in the Colorado Front Range, the differing energy balance on these pole and equator facing hillslopes translates into a difference in winter solar radiation of nearly a factor of 3 and consequently entirely different snow regimes (Anderson et al., 2014, Procedia Earth and Planetary Science). We have also found that water flowed rapidly through the soil matrix on north-facing slopes during snowmelt, while water flow was episodic and dominated by preferential flowpaths on south-facing slopes (Hinckley et al., 2014, Hydrol. Process.), and that heterogeneity continues to dominate hydrologic behaviors on both slopes during summer rains as well. Modeling these flow regimes, Langston et al. (2015, Earth Surf. Process. Landfms.) concluded that greater water delivery to the bedrock weathering front was accomplished on north-facing slopes.
A major missing component in our Gordon Gulch watershed observations is data from the riparian zone that will connect the hillslope observations with streamflow. This connectivity is currently being studied by Kamini Singha (Colorado School of Mines) and Mike Gooseff (CU CEAE). In this semi-arid climate, water use by vegetation also plays important roles in water flow. Snow and water use by trees was investigated by BcCZO post-doc Dave Barnard with Holly Barnard (CU Geography) and Noah Molotch (CU Geography). Integration of these various focused projects into a broader understanding of the hydrology and hydrochemistry of Gordon Gulch is an important goal in the next several years. Furthermore, I hope to use this understanding to build models that can be used to investigate changes in water and solute fluxes under changing climate regimes.
Two boundaries are important in the interface region between the lithosphere and the atmosphere: the lower boundary between fresh rock and weathered rock—the weathering front, and the upper boundary between ground and air—the surface topography. While we can measure surface topography in exquisite detail with LiDAR, imaging the deep weathering front is much more difficult. Consequently, understanding how the deep weathering front propagates is a frontier in critical zone science. Seismic refraction imaging in the Boulder Creek CZO (led by faculty member Anne Sheehan and grad student Kevin Befus) showed that the depth to fresh rock is ~2 m greater under north-facing slopes than under south-facing slopes in Gordon Gulch (Befus et al., 2011). The apparent slope-aspect control on weathering front depth (Anderson et al., 2014, Procedia Earth and Planetary Science) has inspired investigation of processes that may be responsible. As the weathering depths are on the order of 10 m, and total denudation rates are ~30 m/Myr, the full depth of the weathering profile integrates over a period of ~300,000 years (Foster et al., 2015). This timescale implies evolution during Quaternary glacial climates, and consequently I have explored (with Bob Anderson and Greg Tucker) a frost-cracking model for weathering front propagation (Anderson, RS et al., 2013, Earth Surf. Process. Landfms). Analysis of soil pits and shallow rock cores shows minor chemical alteration of the rock, and detectable differences in rock strength by slope aspect (Anderson et al., 2020). More work can be done examining the chemical alteration of rock in Gordon Gulch, particularly with a deep core that would extend into unaltered rock.
The connection between weathering and erosion in shaping critical zone architecture was a major theme of the Boulder Creek CZO. A significant feature in the Boulder Creek watershed is the canyon Boulder Creek has carved through crystalline rock in the Front Range. We hypothesize that the canyon resulted from upstream migration of a knickpoint in the river, spawned by exhumation of the Plains (Anderson RS, et al., 2006; Anderson et al., 2012, Comptes rendus- Geoscience). Hillslopes lining Boulder Canyon tend to be steepest, and the canyon is narrowest, near the knickpoint. Downstream, the canyon widens, the canyon walls are less steep, and are increasingly dissected by ephemeral channels. Examining the downstream evolution of these slopes is a subject of ongoing research. An examination of landsliding and debris flows in the 2013 "storm of the century" that ravaged the Colorado Front Range showed that landslides and debris flows were produced exclusively from the steep (>25°), colluvium-mantled slopes lining the canyons, rather than the more rocky locations (Anderson, SW et al., 2015, Geology). Consequently, the production of colluvium on rocky slopes stands as an important precursor step to landsliding and debris flow generation. Moreover, Rossi et al. (2020; Geophys. Res. Lett.) found that storm runoff in the Front Range is not only controlled by storm characteristics (which vary with elevation), but also by watershed characteristics, e.g. rockiness (which presumably vares with elevation as well). Distinguishing where slopes are rocky, and where they are soil mantled will have utility in predicting flash flood hazard (from rocky areas) and landslide hazards (from soil-mantled areas) in regions beyond our Front Range landscape.
My efforts in Boulder Creek on the erosion-weathering connection are complemented by a collaborative effort with Marin Clark (U Michigan) to examine the role of weathering on rock strength and landslide susceptibility during earthquakes. Our initial work was supported by pilot funding from the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP grant, 2015). We examined weathering depth, rock strength, and weathered character of similarly aged basalt flows across a climate gradient on the Kohala peninsula of the big island of Hawaii. We are planning our next steps over the coming year.
Collectively, these efforts in understanding hydrology, weathering front advance, and weathering-erosion connections build toward development of a comprehensive model of the evolution of the Earth’s surface.
Publications
For additional publications, see Suzanne's ResearcherID profile.
Water-table response to extreme precipitation events
Publication Date: 2023-02-24
Type: Journal Article
Geomorphic imprints of lithospheric flexure in central Australia
Jansen JD; Sandiford M; Fujioka T; Cohen TJ; Struck M; Anderson SP; Anderson RS; Wilcken K; Egholm DL...
- Jansen JD
- Sandiford M
- Fujioka T
- Cohen TJ
- Struck M
- Anderson SP
- Anderson RS
- Wilcken K
- Egholm DL
Publication Date: 2022-03-10
Type: Journal Article
Modeling Aspect-Controlled Evolution of Ground Thermal Regimes on Montane Hillslopes
Publication Date: 2021-08-01
Type: Journal Article
Signatures of Hydrologic Function Across the Critical Zone Observatory Network
Wlostowski AN; Molotch N; Anderson SP; Brantley SL; Chorover J; Dralle D; Kumar P; Li L; Lohse KA; Mallard JM...
- Wlostowski AN
- Molotch N
- Anderson SP
- Brantley SL
- Chorover J
- Dralle D
- Kumar P
- Li L
- Lohse KA
- Mallard JM
Publication Date: 2021-03-01
Type: Journal Article
Controls on Streamflow Densities in Semiarid Rocky Mountain Catchments
Publication Date: 2021-02-01
Type: Journal Article
Is This Steady State? Weathering and Critical Zone Architecture in Gordon Gulch, Colorado Front Range
Publication Date: 2021-01-01
Type: Chapter
Orographic Controls on Subdaily Rainfall Statistics and Flood Frequency in the Colorado Front Range, USA
Publication Date: 2020-02-28
Type: Journal Article
Water within, moving through, and shaping the Earth's surface: Introducing a special issue on water in the critical zone PREFACE
Publication Date: 2019-11-08
Type: Journal Article
Breaking it Down: Mechanical Processes in the Weathering Engine
Publication Date: 2019-08-01
Type: Journal Article
Climate driven coevolution of weathering profiles and hillslope topography generates dramatic differences in critical zone architecture
Publication Date: 2019-01-01
Type: Journal Article
Alpine catena response to nitrogen deposition and its effect on the aquatic system
Publication Date: 2018-11-01
Type: Journal Article
Ideas and perspectives: Strengthening the biogeosciences in environmental research networks
Richter DD; Billings SA; Groffman PM; Kelly EF; Lohse KA; McDowell WH; White TS; Anderson S; Baldocchi DD; Banwart S...
- Richter DD
- Billings SA
- Groffman PM
- Kelly EF
- Lohse KA
- McDowell WH
- White TS
- Anderson S
- Baldocchi DD
- Banwart S
Publication Date: 2018-08-15
Type: Journal Article
Strong variation in weathering of layered rock maintains hillslope-scale strength under high precipitation
Publication Date: 2018-05-01
Type: Journal Article
Designing a network of critical zone observatories to explore the living skin of the terrestrial Earth
Brantley SL; McDowell WH; Dietrich WE; White TS; Kumar P; Anderson SP; Chorover J; Lohse KA; Bales RC; Richter DD...
- Brantley SL
- McDowell WH
- Dietrich WE
- White TS
- Kumar P
- Anderson SP
- Chorover J
- Lohse KA
- Bales RC
- Richter DD
Publication Date: 2017-12-18
Type: Journal Article
Critical zone properties control the fate of nitrogen during experimental rainfall in montane forests of the Colorado Front Range (vol 132, pg 213, 2017)
Publication Date: 2017-08-01
Type: Journal Article
Colloidal transport in the Gordon Gulch catchment of the Boulder Creek CZO and its effect on C-Q relationships for silicon
Publication Date: 2017-03-01
Type: Journal Article
Critical zone properties control the fate of nitrogen during experimental rainfall in montane forests of the Colorado Front Range
Publication Date: 2017-01-01
Type: Journal Article
Colloid Mobilization and Seasonal Variability in a Semiarid Headwater Stream
Publication Date: 2017-01-01
Type: Journal Article
Optimizing Available Network Resources to Address Questions in Environmental Biogeochemistry
Hinckley E-LS; Anderson SP; Baron JS; Blanken PD; Bonan GB; Bowman WD; Elmendorf SC; Fierer N; Fox AM; Goodman KJ...
- Hinckley E-LS
- Anderson SP
- Baron JS
- Blanken PD
- Bonan GB
- Bowman WD
- Elmendorf SC
- Fierer N
- Fox AM
- Goodman KJ
Publication Date: 2016-04-01
Type: Journal Article
Designing a suite of measurements to understand the critical zone
Publication Date: 2016-01-01
Type: Journal Article
Decoding potential effects of climate and vegetation change on mineral weathering in alpine soils: An experimental study in the Wind River Range (Wyoming, USA)
Publication Date: 2015-10-01
Type: Journal Article
Evidence for climatic and hillslope-aspect controls on vadose zone hydrology and implications for saprolite weathering
Publication Date: 2015-07-01
Type: Journal Article
Exhumation by debris flows in the 2013 Colorado Front Range storm
Publication Date: 2015-05-01
Type: Journal Article
The Role of Critical Zone Observatories in Critical Zone Science
White T; Brantley S; Banwart S; Chorover J; Dietrich W; Derry L; Lohse K; Anderson S; Aufdendkampe A; Bales R...
- White T
- Brantley S
- Banwart S
- Chorover J
- Dietrich W
- Derry L
- Lohse K
- Anderson S
- Aufdendkampe A
- Bales R
Publication Date: 2015-01-01
Type: Chapter
Variation in critical zone processes and architecture across slope aspects
Publication Date: 2014-08-18
Type: Conference Proceeding
Pages
Teaching
Courses
- GEOL 4241: Principles of Geomorphology
- GEOL 3090: Science Writing
- GEOL 1170: Our Deadly Planet
- GEOL 1010: Exploring Earth
Current students and postdoc
- Cole Cochran, MS in progress
- Claudia Corona, PhD expected 2022 (co-advised with Shemin Ge)
- Marisa Repasch, Postdoctoral Scholar

Former students
- Lauren Salberg, MS 2021
- Coupling field data and a flow model to characterize the role of groundwater in a montane, semi-arid watershed, Gordon Gulch, Colorado
- Noah Hoffman, MA 2019
- Lithogenic mixing model approach identifies saprolite as the source of inorganic colloids in a granitoid catchment
- Joe Mills, PhD 2016, Geography
- Water chemistry under a changing hydrologic regime: Investigations into the interplay between hydrology and water-quality in arid and semi-arid watersheds in Colorado
- Chris Mavris, Postdoc 2012-13
- Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, Global warming induced vegetation changes and their effects on mineral weathering in a cold-dry and alpine environment (Wind River Range)
- Eve-Lyn Hinckley, Postdoc 2009-11
- NSF Earth Sciences Post-doctoral Fellow, An integrated approach to study the interactions between hydrologic response and nitrogen biogeochemistry
- Patrick Kelly, MA 2012
- Subsurface evolution: Characterizing physical and geochemical weathering in bedrock of Gordon Gulch, Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory
- Susan Riggins, PhD 2010, Geography
- The production and evolution of mobile regolith: Modeled soil production and measured chemical weathering.
- Zanden Frederick, MA 2008, Geography
- Water and solute export from the Yukon River and its tributaries
- Cynthia Cacy, MS 2006, Environmental Studies
- Chemical weathering in the loess-mantled landscape of the Matanuska Valley, Alaska
- Matt Rossi, Postdoc 2016-2018 with EarthLab
- On precipitation extremes and landscape evolution. Now EarthLab Research Associate.
Outreach
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