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Larry Syu-Heng Lai, Ph.D.
I’m a field geologist, born and raised in Taiwan, passionate about the sediments, surface processes, and geological mechanisms that drive topographic evolution in mountains (erosional “source” of sediments) and form stratigraphy in sedimentary basins (depositional “sink” for sediments). When I’m not immersed in research, I enjoy hiking, playing basketball, and snowboarding!
Me on the main drainage divide of Taiwan
Everything I am studying in a nutshell!
I am currently working at the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin, where I collaborate with Dr. Zoltán Sylvester, Dr. Jacob Covault in the Quantitative Clastics Laboratory. My primary project involve developing softwares that can quantitatively analyze core, well-log, and outcrop data and offer a more reproducible and objective approach in stratigraphic correlation analysis, which is fundamental to geological resource exploration, energy transition, Earth science research in general. My works also investigate deep-water depositional processes, signals of slope instability (turbidites and mass-transport deposits), and their implications in paleoseismology. Area of interest currently:
Cascadia Subduction Zone (In collaboration with scientists at USGS & AK DGGS)
Gulf of Mexico/America
Taiwan Coastal Range, and (soon will include) offshore eastern Taiwan.
Lately, I had started collaborating with Dr. Xuesong Ding on develping a new numerical modeling framework to bridge landscape evolution and forward stratigraphic simulation. This project aims to better understand the role in how topography and sediment-production processes from the source mountain "translate" allogenic signals (e.g., tectonic & climate) into the deep-time sedimentary archive in the depositional sink. This may also offer a new way to predict first-order facies pattern in the stratigraphy by using relatively limited surface and subsurface data.
Additionally, I actively continue my geomorphic research on questions related to land-surface hazards (e.g., landslides), sediment productions from the Critical Zone, and how the delievery of these sediments affect morphological changes over time on the hillslopes and in the river channels. This is in part a continuation of my previous postdoc work at University of Washington with Dr. Alison Duvall to study landscape evolution in landslide prone area in the Northwest Pacific of the USA and the Tararua Range of the New Zealand. More recently, I participate in an international (USA & Taiwan) team that involve Critical Zone geochemists, sedimentologists, geomorphologists, and seismologists to collaboratively investigate the geological and geomorphic controls on the origin of the historical large landslides in the Central Range of eastern Taiwan, and the Ma-tai-an landslide-dam lake outbreak flood happened in September, 2025.
Expertise
Expertise
Sedimentology
& Stratigraphy
Sedimentology
& Stratigraphy
A study to understand the origin, transport, and deposition of sediments, and their spatio-temporal patterns and variations. It helps us to understand the net result of ancient surface processes, depict paleo-geography, and offer future predictions.
Sedimentary Basin
Analysis
Sedimentary Basin
Analysis
A synthetic geological study to understand the developement of sedimentary basins and related near-surface crustal dynamics. It provides the basis for geo-history research, geological resource exploration, and regional tectonic activities.
Tectonic
Geomorphology
Tectonic
Geomorphology
The study to understand the interplay between surface processes, climate change, and tectonic activities. It combines merits of field observation and numerical modeling to investigate the controls of landscape evolution in tectonically active regions.
Other Research Skills/Tools
Other Research Skills/Tools
Field Mapping & Observation
Field geological mapping and observations provide both quantitative and qualitative constraints of the real world and offer direct insights to the geospatial problems and relative chronology of the geohistory.
Rock Paleomagnetism
Magnetic properties and mineralogy of rocks and sediments, which provide archives of paleomagnetic polarity changes, depositional time, and particle alignment due to tectonic and sedimentological processes.
Calcareous Nannofossil
Calcareous Nannoplankton are tiny (2.5-30 μm) oceanic phytoplankton that emerge around late Triassic. Their skeletons are not only significant contributors of rock-forming processes but also valuable biostratigraphic age markers.
Topographic Analysis
Measurements and analyses of the geomorphic metrics using digital elevation models and other remote-sensing data. The measures of landform patterns provide information about governing surface processes and background allogenic controls (tectonic uplift, bedrock properties, climate changes) in this place.
Landscape Evolution Modeling
Computational simulation of landscape evolution at the surface of a rising terrain. The primary tool I adapt is Landlab, the open-source Python tool that allows investigating the sediment-modulated erosion processes and the long-term trend of topographic adjustments in response to variabilities of tectonics and climate.
Source-to-Sink Forward Stratigraphic Modeling
Source-to-Sink Forward Stratigraphic Modeling
Computational simulation can be used to study the development of deep-time sedimentary basins and their physical stratigraphic architecture. I am collaborating with my colleagues to adapt an open-source tool called goSPL, which integrates models for erosion in the source terrain and autogenic sedimentation in the sink. I am particularly interested in using this framework to track the variation of sediment flux and particle size throughout the entire source-to-sink system and understand how stratigraphic patterns form accordingly. The results of this research can inform field geological studies in deciphering signals of geohistory from sedimentary rocks.
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