Geologic History of the Himalaya: A Sand Perspective

The Vineyard Haven Public Library is pleased to welcome geologist Barra Peak, PhD, for a presentation on the impact of tectonics and climate on the eastern Himalayan landscape. This event will be held at 6:00 PM on Wednesday, November 4th, at the Vineyard Haven Public Library, located at 200 Main Street in Vineyard Haven. Free and open to the public. No registration required.

The Himalayan mountain range famously contains the highest terrestrial mountains on Earth and is also one of the fastest-eroding landscapes on Earth: what goes up must come down. But erosion rates are not the same everywhere and have changed over time. What drives these changes? Using sand eroded from the mountains over the last 10 million years as a record, we can look back in time to try to answer this question. This talk will present preliminary results and implications for how tectonics and climate have impacted the eastern Himalayan landscape. Free and open to all, no registration required.

Barra Peak grew up on Martha's Vineyard and attended the Tisbury School and MVRHS. She has a PhD in geology from the University of Colorado Boulder and now works as a research associate at the Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University in the UK.

For more information, please contact the library at vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org or (508) 696-4211.