Melanie Froude

SSP Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology

The 2014 Outstanding Student Poster (OSP) Award is awarded to Melanie Froude for the poster/PICO entitled:

Sedimentary structures formed under water surface waves: examples from a sediment-laden flash flood observed by remote camera (Froude, M. J.; Alexander, J.; Cole, P.; Barclay, J.)

Click here to download the poster/PICO file.

Melanie is a NERC funded PhD student in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, UK, under the supervision of Prof. Jan Alexander, Prof. Jenni Barclay and Dr Paul Cole (University of Plymouth). Her research focuses on the dynamics of sediment-laden flash floods (lahars) occurring in the Belham River Valley, Montserrat, West Indies. Specifically, the work links flow observations by remote camera with sedimentary structures in deposits from the observed event. Her poster presented observations of lahars triggered by Tropical Storm Rafael in October 2012 and an analysis of sediments deposited prior to (by previous lahars) and during the October event. Time-lapse camera images captured the development of trains of water surface waves at multiple channel locations during different flow stages. Atleast 90% of the deposit was interpreted as upper flow regime origin, containing a number of lenticular facies, characteristic of those formed under water-surface-waves in the flume. Critically, her work has been conducted in a natural environment and contributes a modern example of architectural elements formed under upper flow regime conditions that may be referenced to assist in the interpretation of ancient sequences.