Assistant Professor; Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz, 1998.

Coastal geomorphology; large-scale coastal behavior; barrier island evolution; linkages between coastal processes and climate change; extreme coastal events

257 Clark Hall
434-924-6995
ljmoore@virginia.edu

My research focuses on the large-scale geologic and modern evolution ofcoastal environments with a particular interest in understanding theimpacts of climate change on modern coastal systems. Given that themajority of the world's population lives along the coast, sea level isrising, and hurricane frequency and intensity are predicted to increasewith global warming, it has become more important than ever tounderstand large-scale coastal behavior and the mechanisms driving it.There are three primary themes within my research program: 1)understanding linkages between coastal evolution and climatevariability, 2) quantifying and understanding patterns of shorelinechange, and 3) deciphering sedimentological proxies for extreme coastalevents. Recent projects include modeling the Holocene and potentialfuture evolution of barrier islands in the Outer Banks of NorthCarolina, exploring a possible threshold crossing in the ChandeleurIslands of Louisiana resulting from Hurricane Katrina and a pilot effortto distinguish storm overwash deposits from tsunami deposits on theisland of St. Croix, USVI. To carry out my research I use a combinationof geophysical tools, sedimentological field and lab methods, remotesensing, geographic information systems and computational modeling.