Advisor: Ellen Wohl
Email: Katie.Larkin@colostate.edu
Previous Education: B.S. in Geology from Washington & Lee University (2022)
M.S. in Geosciences from Colorado State University (2025)
About Me: I am a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but my interest in geology was cultivated in my younger years through trips to Arizona and Utah with my family. Hikes to Water Holes Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, and other places inspired a deep fascination with the erosive power and beauty of water, which continues to (for lack of a better phrase) feed my fire to this day. It wasn’t until college, however, that I was truly exposed to the wonderful world of fluvial geomorphology. In particular, my participation in a project through the Keck Consortium in the Summer of 2021 solidified my desire to get involved in research. Using the data collected for that project, I investigated long-term change in channel morphology and sediment dynamics following a dam removal for my undergraduate thesis. Following my graduation, I worked as a geologist for an environmental consulting firm based out of Virginia, where I was able to build on my field skills through participation in numerous groundwater and soil remediation efforts.
Nowadays, you can usually find me eating a bowl of microwaved peas in the fluvial office.
Research Focus:
My Master’s research sought to understand the driving mechanisms of flux attenuation, or functionality, in river beads (wide, vegetated, and typically valley-bottom storage reaches) in mountain headwaters streams of the Front Range, CO. For my PhD, I am still studying beads but with expanded objectives and study areas. I’m examining regional controls (glacial history, lithology, drainage morphology) on bead geometry and distribution in the Front Range and the Appalachians. I will also center on systems in the Front Range to study how well valley-bottom extraction methods and hydrologic routing models are able to respectively characterize the presence and storage implications of beads. I am also interested in headwaters channel systems and how we can better map and understand them.