Susie P. Gonzalez

210-999-8406

susie.gonzalez@trinity.edu

 

Arizona Scientist To Discuss Floods And Climate Change

Oct. 28, 2002 – Victor R. Baker, Regents’ Professor and the head of the department of hydrology and water resources at the University of Arizona, will visit Trinity University on Monday, Nov. 11 to present a lecture titled “Superfloods.” His lecture, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Laurie Auditorium, is free and open to the public. It is the second in a series of 2002-03 Distinguished Scientist Lectures. Most people in South Central Texas are keenly aware of the danger and cost of major floods. Part of the reason for local and worldwide emergence of major floods or “superfloods” during recent decades is climate change. But the biggest contributor to these disasters has been our own actions. Building on floodplains, haphazard flood management, overburdened flood-control systems, and misunderstanding of climate variability has helped make flooding our nation’s major natural disaster. Geological evidence indicates “superfloods” so immense in the past that they may have been the basis of ancient flood myths. Particularly immense “superfloods” occurred in North America and Asia toward the end of the last ice age.  These floods produced short-term discharges of water comparable in magnitude to some ocean currents. Dr. Baker has worked as a hydrologist and geophysicist for the U.S. Geological Survey; as the city geologist of Boulder, Colo.; and as a research scientist for the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas. In addition, he has authored or co-authored more than 200 research papers and chapters, plus numerous reports,  reviews, and encyclopedia articles. Dr. Baker has received many awards, including the International Water and Science Award. Doors to Laurie Auditorium will open at 7 p.m. on the day of the lecture. The lecture series is made possible by an endowment gift from Mr. and Mrs. Walter F. Brown of San Antonio. Mr. Brown is a Trinity University Trustee. For more information, contact Trinity’s department of academic affairs at (210) 999-8201.

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Last updated on November 1, 2002 by the Office of Public Relations