Dr. Neil F. Humphrey
Emeritus Professor
Glaciology, Earth Surface Processes
Office Phone: (307) 314-2332
Office Room No: GE 320
Email: neil@uwyo.edu
➤ Personal Website
Education
Geology, PhD, University of Washington, 1987
Geology, MS, University of Washington, 1983
Geology, BS, University of British Columbia, 1978
Publications
For publications please see my personal web site.
Courses
GEOL2150 - Geomorphology
GEOL4880 - Surficial Processes
GEOL4888 - Glaciology
Current Graduate Students:
- Jon Prewett - MS Candidate
Research Statement
For current research projects, and more information, go to my personal web site.
My research has emphasized the study of cold regions, however undergraduate, graduate
and post-doctoral co-workers are studying a breadth of projects. Most of the projects
have received outside funding, and much of my research is collaborative with other
universities and is carried out at remote field sites.
Current major projects include:
- Measurement of in situ-stress and strain in glaciers involves a glaciological field
program in south central Alaska including the 3-D instrumentation of a 200m cube of
ice, and subsequent theoretical and analytical modeling of the ice rheology. This
is an ongoing project that requires field workers as well as work in computer/theoretical
analysis.
- An ongoing study of chemical denudation in cold assesses the contributions of alpine
and continental glaciations on the geochemical budgets of the Earth?s surface. Fieldwork
is primarily in Alaska.
- Modeling long-time scale and large-space scale interactions of rivers and landscapes
involves theoretical and numerical simulation of large-scale interactions of rivers
and the landscape, based on simplified kinematic and diffusion modeling of river behavior.
Very large scale Geomorphology!
- A study of sediment transport by river ice evaluates the prevalence, importance and
mechanisms of the creation of anchor ice and subsequent sediment transport events
in rivers of cold regions. Current work is in Wyoming
- Downstream fining of grain size in river systems by floodplain weathering is examined
by using a combination of field studies, tumbling mill experiments, and experiments
with radio tracking of river rocks.
- Analysis of rock glaciers for alpine climate records is a new project studying the
feasibility of obtaining ice cores from alpine rock glaciers in the Rocky Mountains
of Colorado and Wyoming for analysis of past climate. A pilot study is planned to
begin (with University of Colorado researchers) near Cody, Wyoming, in the summer
of 1997.
