16.08.2007
One of the world's largest rivers is set to inform a groundbreaking international research project, led by geographers from the University of Brighton.
Professor Phil Ashworth, in the School of the Environment and Technology, is the lead partner in the international research group which will investigate the dynamics of the sixth largest river in the world, the Rio Paraná, Argentina (pictured right).
Rio Paraná is among one of the world's 10 largest rivers which drain almost one fifth of the global continental land area and deliver about one third of the earth's sediment to oceans.
Up until now relatively little is known about how these large rivers function because of the difficulty in taking any representative measurements in channels 10km wide, 10m deep and in water thick with sediment.
Professor Phil Ashworth is pictured here (on the left) logging the Rio Paraná bank section.
A grant of over £1m has been awarded by the Natural Environment Research Council, ExxonMobil and other partners to a research group led by the university, along with colleagues from Birmingham, Leeds, Durham and Exeter, as well as two institutions in Argentina.
The group will use the latest multi-beam echo sounder technology from boats to map how large channels change over time and use shallow seismic techniques on land to view how big rivers build sediments up over 1000s of years. The project will deliver a numerical model that shows how the world's largest rivers operate and preserve their sediments in the rock record. The three-year grant, which is one of the largest grants the university has received from a research council, will begin in January 2008.
Contact: Marketing and Communications, University of Brighton, 01273 643022
