Dr. Ken Adams

Title: Associate Research Professor
Affiliation: Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences
Location: DRI Reno
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Phone: 775.673.7345

Professional Interests

Dr. Adams' research interests lie in the fields of Quaternary geology, geomorphology, and landscape dynamics. More specifically, he is interested in how different geomorphic systems, including fluvial, lacustrine, and alluvial, respond to changes in climate and active tectonic deformation. Recent research has focused on the geologic, geomorphic, and hydrologic histories of Lake Lahontan and other pluvial lake basins in the western United States and South America. The sediments and landforms in these basins archive detailed records of active faulting, isostatic rebound, the response of rivers to base-level change, and rapidly changing hydrologic and environmental conditions. The tools used in this work include geologic mapping, geomorphic and stratigraphic analysis, geochronology, remote sensing and spatial analysis, and paleohydrologic modeling. This research has important implications concerning the rates and magnitudes of hydrologic and landscape responses to climatic perturbations that have occurred in the past and that may occur in the future. The results of this work also provide important contextual details about the changing environmental conditions and distribution of resources that confronted the first Americans and their descendents over the last 14,000 years.

Research Areas

• Quaternary geology
• Quaternary geochronology
• Geomorphology
• Paleoenvironmental reconstruction
• Geoarchaeology
• Active tectonics
• River and stream assessment
• Remote sensing
• Spatial analysis

Research Projects

• Response of the Truckee and Walker Rivers to base-level changes
• Dynamics of the Black Rock Playa: Relationships between Recreational Use, Physical Processes, and Biological Environments
• Quantifying Paleo-Water Depth Estimates from Lacustrine Sedimentary Features
• Characterizing the latest Quaternary landscape of the China Lake basin in support of cultural resource management
• The Great Basin Paleoenvironmental Database
• Late Holocene hydrologic fluctuations in the western Great Basin