Dr. Gloria I. López
About me
I am a Colombo-Canadian Geologist (U EAFIT Colombia 1993) with an M.Sc. in Palaeoseismology (U Victoria Canada 2002), a Ph.D. in Geochronology (U McMaster Canada 2007), & 2 Diplomas in Natural Disasters (Instituto Mora Mexico 2015) & in Public Policy (ESAP Colombia 2022). I am Colombia’s 1st expert in (palaeo)Tsunami Geology & Luminescence Dating. My interests include understanding how & when extreme events (tsunamis, hurricanes) & gradual environmental changes (sea level change, erosion, longshore drift, sediment transport) alter coastal systems, improving the understanding of different surface processes & geohazards, allowing the estimation of recurrence intervals to refine palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. I continue to look for new ways to improve disaster risk reduction along shores & on land. I am a true believer of Citizen Science if we are all to succeed the effects of Climate Change in the future: "One only protects what one loves. One only loves what one knows".
I am a Colombo-Canadian Geologist (U EAFIT, Colombia, 1993) with an M.Sc. in Palaeoseismology (U Victoria, Canada, 2002), a Ph.D. in Geochronology (U McMaster, Canada, 2007), and 2 Diplomas in Natural Disasters (Instituto Mora, Mexico, 2015) and in Public Policy (ESAP, Colombia, 2022). I am Colombia’s first expert in (palaeo)Tsunami Geology and Luminescence Dating (a method that determines the time elapsed since a grain of sand was last buried) and I am currently the Leading Scientist in the construction of both the 1st Luminescence Dating and the 1st Short-Lived Isotopes Dating laboratories in Colombia within the premises of the Colombian Geological Survey. Despite my >25 years of research experience in different temperate, tropical, and desert environments of South and North America, the Mediterranean, Asia, and Africa, I consider myself an eternal apprentice of nature and geological processes as well as the effects of human nature on the environment. My interests include understanding how and when extreme events (tsunamis, hurricanes) and gradual environmental changes (sea level change, erosion, longshore drift, sediment transport) alter coastal systems, improving the understanding of different surface processes and geohazards, allowing the estimation of recurrence intervals to refine palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. One of my proud achievements was the invention of new ways to differentiate tsunami-laid sands from those left behind by severe storms/hurricanes, using luminescence as proxy, in complex coastal and underwater settings (including archaeological sites) during my Postdoctoral Research in Israel. I continue to look for new ways to improve disaster risk reduction both along shores and on land. I am a true believer on Citizen Science and the need to involve more the public in the assessment and monitoring of their own physical environment, something needed if we are all to succeed the effects of Climate Change in the near future: "One only protects what one loves. One only loves what one knows".
I have lived and worked as a Research Scientist, Field Geologist and Sessional/Adjunct University Professor (undergraduate and graduate programmes) at different universities and research institutes in over 15 countries. Since 2016 I have been a Research Fellow at the Recanati Institute of Maritime Studies (U Haifa, Israel), am an active member (former Board of Directors) of the Iberoamerican Network Red Proplayas and UNESCO’s Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD, Colombian National Chapter), I also serve in the Board of Directors of the Colombian Doctoral Guild (GDC), was the previous Vice-President and current President of the Colombian Geological Society (SCG).
Degrees:
Mahan, S., Rittenour, T., Nelson, M.S., Ataee, N., Brown, N., DeWitt, R., Durcan, J., Evans, M., Feathers, J., Frouin, M., Heidari, M., Huot, S., Jain, M., Keen-Zebert, A., Li, B., López, G.I., Neudorf, C., Porat, N., Rodrigues, K., Sakai, S., Sawakuchi, A., Spencer, J., Thomsen, K., 2022. Guide for interpreting & reporting luminescence dating results. GSA Bulletin – Special Issue “Reporting & Interpretation of Geochronologic Data”. DOI: 10.1130/B36404.1
Giaime, M., Jol, H.M., Salmon, Y., López, G.I., Abu Hamid, A., Bergevin, L., Bauman, P., McClymont, A., Sailer-Haugland, E., Artzy, M., 2021. Using a multi-proxy approach to locate the elusive Phoenician/Persian anchorage of Tel Akko (Israel). Quaternary International 602, 66-81. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2021.06.008.
Moreno, D., Gutiérrez, F., del Val, M., Carbonelll, D., Jiménez, F., Alonso, M.J., Martínez-Pillado, V., Guzmán, O., Martínez, D., López, G.I., 2021. A multi-method dating approach to reassess the geochronology of faulted Quaternary deposits in the central sector of the Iberian Chain (NE Spain). Quaternary Geochronology 65, 101185. DOI: 10.1016/j.quageo.2021.101185.
Gutiérrez, F., Moreno, D., López, G.I., Jiménez, F., del Val, M., Alonso, M.J., Martínez-Pillado, V., Guzmán, O., Martínez, D., Carbonell, D., 2020. Revisiting the slip rate of Quaternary faults in the Iberian Chain, NE Spain. Geomorphic & seismic-hazard implications. Geomorphology 363, 107-233. DOI:10.1016/j.geomorph.2020.107233.
López, G.I., Goodman-Tchernov, B.N., Porat, N., 2018. OSL Over-Dispersion: a pilot study for the characterisation of extreme events in the shallow marine realm. Sedimentary Geology 378, 35-51. DOI: 10.1016/j.sedgeo.2018.09.002 (Special Issue Sedimentary Evidence of Geohazards: Challenges & Advances).
Porat, N., López, G.I., Lensky, N., Elinson, R., Avni, Y., Elgart-Sharon, Y., Faershtein, G., Gadot, Y., 2018. Using portable OSL to obtain a time scale for soil accumulation & erosion in archaeological terraces, the Judean Mountains, Israel. Quaternary Geochronology 49, 65-70. DOI: 10.1016/j.quageo.2018.04.001
Velasco, E.R., López, G.I., 2016. Marco Conceptual para Investigaciones Tsunamigénicas: Caso Litoral Pacífico Colombiano. Boletín de Geología 38, 79-106.
Rodrigues, K., Rink, W.J., Collins, M.B., Williams, T.J., Keen-Zebert, A., López, G.I., 2016. OSL ages of the Clovis, Late Paleoindian & Archaic Components at Area 15 of the Gault Site, Central Texas, U.S.A. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 7, 94-103. DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.03.014
López, G.I., Thompson, J.W. 2012. OSL & sediment accumulation rate models: understanding the history of sediment deposition. Quaternary Geochronology 10, 175-179. DOI: 10.1016/j.quageo.2012.02.026
Ramírez-Herrera, M.T., Lagos, M., Hutchinson, I., Kostoglogodv, V., Machain, M.L., Caballero, M., Gogichaisvili, A., Aguilar, B., Chague-Goff, C., Goff, J., Ruiz-Fernández, A-C., Ortiz, M., Nava, H., Bautista, F., López, G.I., Quintana, P. 2012. Extreme wave deposits on the Pacific coast of Mexico: tsunamis or storms? A multi-proxy approach. Geomorphology 139-140, 360-371. DOI: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2011.11.002
López, G.I., 2011. Evidence for Mid to Late Holocene Palaeotsunami Deposits, Kakawis Lake, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Natural Hazards, 60, 43-68 (Invited contribution to Special Publication “Tsunami Risk & Impacts on Coastlines”). DOI: 10.1007/s11069-011-9952-z
Preusser, F., Porat, N., Arnold, L., de Witt, R., Duval, M., Falguères, C., López, G., Reimann, T., Liping, Z., 2022. 16th International Conference on Luminescence & Electron Spin Resonance Dating, 13-17 September 2021. Editorial to Special Issue under the same title. Quaternary Geochronology 73, 101404. DOI: 10.1016/j.quageo.2022.101404.
EDITORSHIP OF BOOKS & EDITED VOLUMES
López, G.I. (Editor), 2012. Tsunami – Analysis of a Hazard: from geological interpretation to human impact. Open Access InTech, Rijeka (ISBN: 979-953-307-835-8) (DOI: 10.5772/2614).
ENCYCLOPAEDIA ENTRIES
López, G.I., 2016. Grain Size Analysis. In: Goldberg, P. & Gilbert, A. (Eds.) Encyclopaedia of Geoarchaeology. Series Title: Encyclopaedia of Earth Science Series, Springer, The Netherlands, pp. 341-348.
López, G.I., 2015. Tsunamigenic Sediments. In: Rink, W.J. & Thompson, J.W. (Eds.) Encyclopaedia of Scientific Dating Methods. Series Title: Encyclopaedia of Earth Science Series, Springer, The Netherlands, pp. 827-832 (DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-6304-3_199).
López, G.I., 2015. Walther’s Law of Facies. In: Rink, W.J. & Thompson, J.W. (Eds.) Encyclopaedia of Scientific Dating Methods. Series Title: Encyclopaedia of Earth Science Series, Springer, The Netherlands, pp. 957-958 (DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-6304-3_30).