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Overview

Professor Alexander Densmore

Professor / Deputy Head of Department


Affiliations
AffiliationRoom numberTelephone
Professor / Deputy Head of Department in the Department of Geography233+44 (0) 191 33 41879
Professor / Deputy Head of Department , Catchments and Rivers233+44 (0) 191 33 41879
Professor / Deputy Head of Department , Hazards and Surface Change233+44 (0) 191 33 41879

Biography

I'm interested in the way in which mountains are built through tectonic activity, and in the erosional processes that tear them back down again. The spark behind much of this work came from growing up on the tectonically-active west coast of North America. I received a PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and held lectureships at Trinity College Dublin and ETH Zurich before joining Durham University in 2006. My current research projects include the long-term impacts of earthquakes on mass wasting and sediment transfer in Nepal and China; the use of scientific information to prepare for earthquake- and monsoon-triggered hazard chains, with a particular focus in Nepal; and efforts to understand sediment routing systems both in the field (northern India) and through numerical modelling.

Research Projects

  • Community Earthquake Disaster Risk Reduction in China (CEDRRiC)
  • Earthquakes without frontiers: a partnership for increasing resilience to seismic hazard in the continents

Awarded Grants

  • 2021: RF150498 Preparedness and planning for the Mountain Hazard and Risk chain in Nepal: GCRF UKRI Multi-hazard and Systemic Risks, Natural Environmental Research Council, £1202819.21
  • 2017: Carbon export by erosion of the biosphere: the role of earthquake triggered landslides(£401021.00 from Natural Environmental Research Council)
  • 2017: Earthquake triggered landsliding in Nepal: NERC / DFID SHEAR
  • 2016: Review of the Nine Minimum Characteristics of A Disaster Resilient Community in Nepal(£76160.00 from Department for International Development)
  • 2014: Durham International Fellowships for research and Enterprise - DIFeREns(£23434.59 from European Commission)
  • 2012: Earthquakes without frontiers: a partnership for increasing resilience to seismic hazard in the continents(£658030.50 from NERC - Natural Environment Research Council)
  • 2012: The structure and dynamics of groundwater systems in north-western India under past, present and future climates(£183558.80 from NERC - Natural Environment Research Council)
  • 2010: Building rural resilience in seismically active regions(£22573.86 from NERC - Natural Environment Research Council)
  • 2009: Rapid assessment of sediment dynamics on an active debris-flow fan(£27604.27 from NERC - Natural Environment Research Council)
  • 2008: RIVER DYNAMICS AND HAZARD ASSESSMENT(£51007.76 from British Council)
  • 2008: SURFACE RUPTURE(£19632.44 from NERC - Natural Environment Research Council)

Media Contacts

Available for media contact about:

  • Tectonics: Earthquakes
  • Geological hazards: Earthquakes
  • The Earth: Rocks & natural forces: Earthquakes
  • Landscape systems: Landslides and debris flows
  • Geological hazards: Landslides and debris flows
  • The Earth: Rocks & natural forces: Landslides and debris flows

Publications

Chapter in book

Journal Article

Working Paper

Supervision students