Dr Dave’s Homepage

David Harbor at Zion National Park

David Harbor walking down a Jurassic dune slipface in Zion National Park

Research Interests

Regenerative agriculture, soil health/carbon, plucking, streams and landscapes

Teaching (active courses, see menu above)

  • EEG100 (lab course): Introductory Geology with Field Emphasis
  • EEG 247 (lab course): Geomorphology
  • EEG 260 (lab course): GIS and Remote Sensing
  • Geol 105 (spring term): SAND! (2022)
  • EEG 373 (spring term): Regional Geology of Iceland (2024)

Student Research with Dr Dave
– 160 student projects
– 48 thesis students including19 honors theses
– 42 independents studies
– 118 summer research and thesis students
– 53 meeting presentations with students
– 11 publications with W&L students
– 13 former research students with Geology PhDs
Click here to see the research you can do now and what’s been done before

Recent Meeting Abstracts (student coauthors underlined)

  • Nguyen, Michelle, Jonathan Carranza Cortes, Brayton Johnson, Danny Morales Bautista, Taylor Williams, Nabil Youssef, Mohsen Takhtravan, Michael Gardner,  2023, Field and Laboratory Experiments for Exploring the Drivers of Hydraulic Plucking, AGU Annual Meeting, San Francisco, EP11C-1747.
  • Jo, Wonjun, Abid Jeem, David Harbor, Kumudu Gamage, 2023, Ground Temperature Modeling for Proper Sizing of Ground Source Heat Pumps, AGU Annual Meeting, San Francisco, H53P-1538.
  • Gardner, Michael  & Harbor, David, 2023,Considering Plucking as a Block-Fluid System Requires a New Look at Contributing Factors, AGU Annual Meeting, San Francisco, EP13A-04
  • Williams, Madison, Grant, Claire, Knag, Phoebe, McCaffery, Natalie, Ozboyd, Mark, Tuchler, Matthew, Harbor, David, 2022, Comparing soil health under regenerative and conventional pasture management on varying landscape morphology in the southern Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol xx, No. xx, 2022. DOI:
  • Kutsanzira, Michael, Mulkern, Alec S., Harbor, David, Smith, Laws, Kriss, Stevan, Erickson, Jonathan and Wilkinson, Clare, 2021, River Erosion by Plucking Illuminated in Lab and Field Studies, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol 53, No. 6, 2021. DOI: 10.1130/abs/2021AM-370146
  • Larkin, Katherine, Iosso, Chantal, Harbor, David, Hinkle, Margaret and Lyon, Eva C., 2021, Channel Morphology Change and Legacy Sediment Mobilization Following Dam Removal on the Maury River, Virginia, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol 53, No. 6 DOI: 10.1130/abs/2021AM-370963
  • Brown, Michael, Harbor, David, Khalifa, Moataz, 2020, Estimating soil carbon content of grazing lands in Rockbridge County, Virginia using statistical and machine learning techniques, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol 52, No. 6, 2020. DOI: 10.1130/abs/2020AM-355742. https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2020AM/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/355742

for complete list of publications & activities, see my vita.

Recent Publications (undergraduate student coauthors underlined)

  • Barnhart, WD, RD Gold, HN Shea, KE Peterson, RW Briggs, DJ Harbor, 2019. Vertical Coseismic Offsets Derived from High‐Resolution Stereogrammetric DSM Differencing: The 2013 Baluchistan, Pakistan Earthquake. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JB017107
  • Rahl, JM, Harbor, DJ, Galli, CJ, P O’Sullivan, P, 2018. Foreland basin record of uplift and exhumation of the Eastern Cordillera, northwest Argentina
    Tectonics 37 (11), 4173-4193 https://doi.org/10.1029/2017TC004955
  • Wilkinson, C., Harbor, D.J., Helgans, E., and Kuehner, J.P., 2018, Plucking phenomena in nonuniform flow: Geosphere, v. 14, no. 4, p. 1– 15, https://doi.org/10.1130/GES01623.1
  • Busch, J., Greer, L., Harbor, D., Wirth, K., Lescinsky, H., Curran, H.A. and de Beurs, K., 2016. Quantifying exceptionally large populations of Acropora spp. corals off Belize using sub-meter satellite imagery classification. Bulletin of Marine Science, 92(2), pp.265-283. DOI: 10.5343/bms.2015.1038
  • Pazzaglia, F. J., Carter, M., Berti, C., Counts, R., Hancock, G., Harbor, D., Harrison, R., Heller, M., Mahan, S., Malenda, H., McKeon, R., Nelson, M., Prince, P., Rittenour, T., Spotila, J., and Whittecar, R., 2015, Geomorphology, active tectonics, and landscape evolution in the Mid-Atlantic region: Field Guides, v. 40, p. 109-169. (GSA Baltimore Meeting) doi:10.1130/2015.0040(06)

for complete list of publications & activities, see vita.

Education

  • Ph.D. Earth Resources, 1990, Colorado State University, Advisor: Stanley A. Schumm
    Dissertation: Adjustment of alluvial river morphology and process to localized active tectonics
  • M.S. Geology, 1985, Pennsylvania State University, Advisor: Thomas W. Gardner
    Thesis: Hydrology of surface-mined land: A determination of minesoil control on infiltration capacity and runoff modeling of disturbed watersheds
  • B.A. Geology, with honors, 1981, Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana

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