Catherine Riihimaki

Office: Hall of Sciences 100, Phone x3349

criihimaki at drew.edu

personal website

Professor Riihimaki is a geomorphologist who teaches Earth sciences courses at Drew. She received a B.A. in Geosciences and Mathematics from Williams College , and a Ph.D. in Earth Science from University of California , Santa Cruz . Her doctoral dissertation focused on the evolution of mountain landscapes through river and glacier erosion, in response to climate change and plate tectonics. She was a Keck Teaching Postdoctoral Fellow at Bryn Mawr College before joining the Drew faculty in 2008.

Dr. Riihimaki's research focuses primarily on the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming, Colorado , and Montana . She uses a variety of tools, from GIS and numerical modeling, to new geochemistry methods for dating landforms, to real-time data logging. Most recently, she has worked on two projects: understanding the role of climate in the frequency of natural coal fires in Wyoming and Montana over the last million years, and documenting environmental changes at Grinnell Glacier in Glacier National Park since 10,000 years ago.

On the personal side.

Catherine is a soccer player, coach, and fan. She also enjoys trail running and hiking. The Adirondacks and coastal California are two of her favorite places to visit.

Riihimaki, C. A., Reiners, P. W., and Heffern, E. L. (in review), Quaternary coal fires correlate with climate fluctuations, Powder River basin, Wyoming and Montana , Geology .

Riihimaki, C. A., and Libarkin, J. C. (2007), Terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides as paleoaltimetric proxies, Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, 66 , 269-278.

Riihimaki, C. A., Anderson, R. S., and Safran, E. B. (2007), Impact of rock uplift on rates of late Cenozoic Rocky Mountain river incision, Journal of Geophysical Research, Earth Surface, 112, F03S02, doi:10.1029/2006JF000557.

Riihimaki, C. A., Anderson, R. S., Safran, E. B., Dethier, D. P., Finkel, R. C., and Bierman, P. R. (2006), Longevity and progressive abandonment of the Rocky Flats surface, Front Range, Colorado, Geomorphology, 78 , 265-278.

Stock, G. S., Riihimaki, C. A., and Anderson, R. S. (2006), Age constraints on cave development and landscape evolution in the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming, USA, Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, 68 , 76-84.

Anderson, R. S., Riihimaki, C. A., Safran, E. B., and MacGregor, K. R. (2006), Facing reality: Late Cenozoic evolution of smooth peaks, glacially ornamented valleys and deep river gorges of Colorado 's Front Range , GSA Special Publication, 398 , 397-418.

Riihimaki, C. A., MacGregor, K. R., Anderson, R. S., Anderson, S. P., and Loso, M. G. (2005), Sediment evacuation and glacial erosion rates at a small alpine glacier, Journal of Geophysical Research, Earth Surface, 110 , F03003, doi:10.1029/2004JF000189.

MacGregor, K. R., Riihimaki, C. A., and Anderson, R. S. (2005), Spatial and temporal evolution of sliding velocity on a small alpine glacier: Bench Glacier, Alaska 1999 and 2000, Journal of Glaciology, 51 , 49-63.

Anderson, R. S., Anderson, S. P., MacGregor, K. R., Waddington, E. D., O'Neel, S., Riihimaki, C. A., and Loso, M. G. (2004), Self-defeating unsteady sliding of an alpine glacier, Journal of Geophysical Research, Earth Surface, 109 , F03005, doi:10.1029/2004JF000120.