Mariel D Nelson

Mariel D Nelson
B.A., Geophysics, University of California, Berkeley, 2018



Co-supervisors


Hi! I'm a geomorphologist and second year PhD student in the Department of Geological Sciences. I'm co-advised by David Mohrig (sedimentology) and Tim Goudge (remote sensing). I study the shape of landscapes and seek process-based descriptions of how they change over time.

For my graduate research, I conduct repeat lidar surveys of river banks using uncrewed aerial vehicles to understand when and how they erode. I have one project studying sedimentary bank failures along the Trinity River, the longest river with a watershed located entirely in Texas. I'm also working on a collaborative project with a hydrology graduate student studying rockfalls along the limestone bedrock Pedernales River in the Central Texas Hill Country. At both field sites I'm interested in how vegetation limits or enhances bank erosion.

In Fall 2021 I was on a research assistantship doing fieldwork mapping fluviolacustrine sandstone deposits around Moab, Utah and processing them into 3D digital models for sedimentology teaching and research.

I have an undergraduate degree in geophysics and a GIS minor from the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at UC Berkeley. I wrote my undergraduate thesis under Bill Dietrich on shallow landslides caused by the 2017 California floods. During and after my undergraduate degree, I worked for Larry Hutchings at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab processing geothermal data and installing seismometers in Taiwan. I then spent two years working as a hydrologic field technician and data wrangler for Daniella Rempe at the Eel River Critical Zone Observatory.

I love to chat; send me an email!

Graduate Seed Grant - National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (2022)

Graduate Research Fellowship Program Honorable Mention - National Science Foundation (2022)

GeoAllies Program Field Outreach Grant - National Science Foundation (2022)

Graduate Fellowship - Jackson School of Geosciences (2020 - 2021)