Dr. Alan F. Arbogast, the chair of Michigan State University’s Geography Department, will discuss “The Evolution of Coastal Dunes along the Eastern Coast of Lake Michigan” during a free talk at Muskegon Community College on Wednesday, Oct. 1.
Part of the MCC Lecture Series, the event, which is open to the public, begins at 7 p.m. in Stevenson Center Room 1100.
“We all love the dunes, but I am really interested in how they got there and how we can keep them,” said Andy Wible, MCC instructor and Lecture Series coordinator. “Evolution, sand, and time are all central to the Days of Our Lives.”
Arbogast, a physical geographer and geomorphologist, has focused his current research on the geomorphic history of sand dunes, both in Michigan’s interior and along its Lake Michigan shoreline.
He has worked on the evolution of stream valleys in the state, specifically in the Manistee and Muskegon watersheds. His work in Michigan has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the State of Michigan.
Arbogast earned his PhD from the University of Kansas, where he studied the geomorphology of the Great Bend Sand Prairie in the south-central part of that state. His work was supported with a NASA Global Climate Change Fellowship.
He authored the textbook Discovering Physical Geography, which is published by John Wiley and Sons, Inc. This text is in its 2nd Edition and currently being used by over 60 colleges and universities around the country. He has authored or co-authored numerous papers about these dunes in journal,s such as