Assistant Professor of Mathematics,
Colgate University
"The Formation of Karst Pinnacles"
Oct 10, 2022, Schedule:
- Nespresso & Teatime ( 417 DSL - Commons )
- 02:00 to 02:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
- Colloquium - F2F ( 499 DSL ) / Virtual ( Zoom )
- 02:30 to 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Meeting # 942 7359 5552
Abstract:
Recent experiments demonstrate how dissolution, in conjunction with gravitationally-induced convective flows, can create sharp geometric features. These laboratory-created structures give insight into geological features known as karst pinnacles. A new computational approach, specially tailored to the hyberbolic nature of the underlying PDEs, reveals convergence to a morphological attractor with high, yet finite, tip curvature. These results reverse previous hypotheses on shock formation (i.e. finite-time blowup of tip curvature), agree well with laboratory experiments, and enable simple estimates for the age of geological structures.
