Julie Laity e-mail: julie.laity@csun.edu Office: Sierra Hall, Room 130-H Office phone number: (818) 677-3523

Office Hours	Crs	Class	Course Name	Rm	Day	Time
Tue & Th	101	14321	The Physcl Envirn	SH106	TR	1230-1345
11:00am-12:00pm	101	14322	The Physcl Envirn	SH106	TR	1400-1515
	366	14687	Environ Hazards	SH160	TR	0930-1045
Or by appt	490	14793	Senior Project	SH106	R	1530-1815

 

Academic Background

• Ph.D, 1982, University of California, Los Angeles
• MA, 1976, University of California, Los Angeles
• BA, 1973, University of California, Los Angeles

Instruction

I teach a wide range of courses including Physical Geography (101), Weather (103), The Atmosphere (311), Geomorphology (365), Hydroclimatology (414), Arid Environments (467), Senior Thesis (490) and numerous undergraduate seminars in physical geography.

I am active in the graduate program, serving on the Graduate Committee, advising graduate students, and teaching numerous seminars. Classes have focused on such diverse topics as physical geography, climatology, climate change, hydrology, and the nature of arid environments. The seminars commonly incorporate a field component and research project, as well as advanced reading in the literature.

I actively serve on graduate committees and enjoy working with graduate students. Two students that I mentored in desert studies have been recipients of the Judith Presch Scholarship (California Desert Studies Center): Tim Boyle (1995) and Jennifer Whitney (1997).

Research

My research has principally involved the study of aeolian, fluvial, and groundwater systems in deserts. My first area of interest was groundwater sapping processes on the Colorado Plateau and Mars. My recent research has focused on wind erosion, rock abrasion, and the human impact on deserts, including problems of dune encroachment and dust generation. One project involves the study of ongoing processes of abrasion and ventifact formation, for which a fully automated weather station has been established in the Little Cowhole Mountains of the Mojave Desert. This work has been in conjunction with Tim Boyle, a graduate student in our department and the department Weather Observer. A second study examines wind erosion and climate change during the past 10,000 years in the southwestern United States. A third area of research is environmental degradation and groundwater overdraft in the Lower Mojave Valley, which has resulted in the death of native vegetation, the reactivation of ancient dune systems, and problems associated with blowing sand. Additionally, I have investigated the location, timing and frequency of dust events in this region.

Selected Publications

Laity, J.E., 1980, Sapping processes in Martian and terrestrial valleys: EOS, Transactions American Geophysical Union, v. 61, no. 17, p. 286-287. (abstract)

Laity, J.E., 1983, Diagenetic controls on groundwater sapping and valley formation, Colorado Plateau, revealed by optical and electron microscopy: Physical Geography, v. 4, no. 2, p. 103-125.

Laity, J.E. and M.C. Malin, 1985, Sapping processes and the development of theater headed valley networks on the Colorado Plateau: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 94, no. 2, p. 203-217.

Laity, J.E., 1986, The role of groundwater sapping in valley evolution on the Colorado Plateau: Proceedings and field guide for the NASA Groundwater Sapping Conference, p. 116-131.

Laity, J.E., 1987, The Colorado Plateau in Planetary Geology Studies: In Geomorphic Systems of North America (Chapter 8, The Colorado Plateau, (W.L. Graf, Ed.), Decade of North American Geology Volume, Geological Society of America, p. 288-297.

Laity, J. E., 1987, Topographic effects on ventifact formation, Mojave Desert, California: Physical Geography, v. 2, p. 113-132.

Laity, J.E., 1990, Case study: Theater-headed valleys of the Colorado Plateau Groundwater Geomorphology, Geological Society of America Memoir 252, p. 240-244.

Laity, Julie E., 1992. Ventifact evidence for Holocene wind patterns in the east-central Mojave Desert. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie, Suppl.-Bd. 84, p. 73-88.

Laity, Julie E., 1994 Landforms of aeolian erosion. In A. Abrahams and A. Parsons (Eds.) Geomorphology of Desert Environments, London: Chapman & Hall, 506-35.

Laity, Julie E., 1995. Wind abrasion and ventifact formation in California. In V.P. Tchakerian (Ed.) Desert Aeolian Processes. London: Chapman and Hall, 295-321.

Breed, C.S., J.F. McCauley, M.I. Whitney, V.P. Tchakarian and J.E. Laity, 1997. Wind erosion in drylands. In D.S.G. Thomas (Ed.), Arid Zone Geomorphology (2nd Edition). Chichester: Wiley, 437-464.

Laity, Julie E., 2000. Yardangs. In Thomas D. and A. Goudie (Eds.), The Dictionary of Physical Geography, Blackwell Publishers Ltd., Oxford p. 537.

Laity, J.E., 2002. Desert Environments. In Physical Geography of North America (A.R. Orme, Ed.), Oxford University Press, p. 380-401.

Greeley, R., N.T. Bridges, R.O. Kuzmin, and J.E. Laity, 2002, Terrestrial analogs to wind-related features at the Viking and Pathfinder landing sites on Mars. Journal of Geophysical Research (Planets), V.107, No. E1, p. 5-1 to 5-21.