Education
PhD, University of Colorado
MS, University of Colorado
BS, Brown University
Biography
Andres Aslan, PhD, received his Bachelor of Science from Brown University and went on to earn his Master of Science and PhD from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Aslan is a professor of geology at Colorado Mesa University, where he teaches courses in Principles of Geology, Natural Hazards and Environmental Geology, Introduction to Field Studies and Applications of Geomorphology.
As a geomorphologist, Aslan studies the processes and histories of how landscapes evolved. He is especially interested in the histories of large rivers including the Colorado, Gunnison, Green, Yampa, Mississippi and Orinoco rivers.
Aslan has taught at CMU for 14 years and enjoys working with students on research projects. Past students have conducted studies of Grand Mesa, Colorado River terraces, the Browns Park Formation in northwestern Colorado and Oligocene River in southwestern Wyoming. Someday, Aslan hopes to have a Master of Science in Geology program at CMU.
Aslan is currently a principal investigator on a three-year National Science Foundation research grant to study the long-term evolution of the upper Colorado River system. He typically has three students with him on the project during the school year and over the summer. He and some of these students have gone to the University of Arizona to use the LASERCHRON lab to analyze detrital zircons form sediment samples from southwestern Wyoming and northwestern Colorado. Aslan is currently working on a publication of this research with geology student Marisa Boraas.
Selected Publications:
Aslan, A. Karlstrom, K.E., Kirby, E., Heizler, M.T., Granger, D.E., Feathers, J.K., Hanson, P.R., Mahan, S.A. 2019. Resolving time-space histories of Late Cenozoic bedrock incision along the Upper Colorado River, USA: Geomorphology, v. 347, p. 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2019.106855
Aslan, A. Boraas-Connors, M., Sprinkel, D., Becker, T.P., Lynds, R., Karlstrom, K.E., and Heizler, M. 2018. Cenozoic collapse of the eastern Uinta Mountains and drainage evolution of the Uinta Mountains region: Geosphere, v. 14, no. 1, p. 115-140.
Jarrin, D., Aslan, A., Mahan, S., and Hanson, P.R. 2017. New age constraints on Late Pleistocene glacial outwash deposits near Ridgway, Colorado, northern San Juan Mountains. In Karlstrom, K.E., Gonzales, D.A., Zimmerer, M.J., Heizler, M., and Ulmer-Scholle, D.S., eds., The Geology of the Ouray-Silverton Area, New Mexico Geological Society 68th Annual Fall Field Conference Guidebook, p. 179-186.
Potter-McIntyre, S., Boraas, M., DePriest, K., and Aslan, A. 2016, Middle Jurassic landscape evolution of southwest Laurentia using detrital zircon geochronology. Lithosphere. doi:10.1130/L467.1
Kimbrough, D.L., Grove, M., Gehrels, G.E., Dorsey, R.J., Howard, K.A., Lovera, O., Aslan, A., House, P.K., and Pearthree, P.A. 2015. Detrital zircon U-Pb provenance of the Colorado River: A 5 m.y. record of incision into cover strata overlying the Colorado Plateau and adjacent regions. Geosphere, v. 11, p. 1719-1748.
Aslan, A., Hood, W., Karlstrom, K.E., Kirby, E., Granger, D., Kelley, S., Crow, R., Donahue, M.S., Polyak, V., and Asmerom, Y. 2014. Abandonment of Unaweep Canyon (1.4 to 0.8 Ma), western Colorado: effects of stream capture on anomalously rapid Pleistocene river incision. Geosphere, v. 10, no. 3, p. 428-446.
Hood., W., Aslan, A., and Betton, C. 2014. Aftermath of a stream capture: Cactus Park lake spillover and the origin of East Creek, Uncompahgre Plateau, western Colorado. Geosphere, v. 10, no. 3, p. 447-461.
Rosenberg, R., Kirby, E., Aslan, A., Karlstrom, K.E., Heizler, M., and Ouimet, W. 2014. Late Miocene erosion and evolution of topography along the western slope of the Colorado Rockies. Geosphere, v. 10, no. 4, p. 641-663.
Lazear, G., Karlstrom, K.E., Aslan, A., and Kelley, S. 2013. Denudation and flexural isostatic response of the Colorado Plateau and southern Rocky Mountains region since 10 Ma, Geosphere, v. 9, no. 4, p. 792-814. http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/GES00836.1
Donahue, M.S., Karlstrom, K.E., Aslan, A., Darling, A., Granger, D., Wan, E., Dickinson, R., and Kirby, E. 2013. Incision history of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado, over the past ~1 Ma inferred from dating of fluvial gravel deposits. Geosphere, v. 9, no. 4, p. 815-826. http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/GES00847.1
Karlstrom, K.E., Beard, L.S., House, K., Young, R.A., Aslan, A., Billingsley, G., and Pederson, J. 2012. Introduction: CRevolution 2: Origin and Evolution of the Colorado River System II. Geosphere, v. 8, no. 6, p. 1-7.
Darling, A.L., Karlstrom, K.E., Granger, D.E., Aslan, A., Kirby, E., Ouimet, W.B., Lazear, G.D., Coblentz, D., and Cole, R.D. 2012. New incision rates along the Colorado River system based on cosmogenic burial dating of terraces: Implications for regional controls on Quaternary incision. Geosphere, v. 8, no. 5, p. 1020-1041.
Karlstrom, K.E., Coblentz, D., Dueker, K Ouimet, W., Kirby, E., Van Wijk, J., Schmandt, B., Kelley, S., Lazear, G., Crossey, L.J., Crow, R., Aslan, A., Darling, A., Aster, R., MacCarthy, J., Hansen, J., Stachnik, J., and the CREST working group. 2012. Mantle-driven dynamic uplift of the Rocky Mountains and Colorado Plateau and its surface response: toward a unified hypothesis. Lithosphere, v. 4, p. 3-22.
Aslan, A., Karlstrom, K.E., and Darling, A. 2011. Origin of the Ancestral Colorado and Gunnison Rivers and Post-10 Ma River Incision Rates in Western Colorado. In Beard, L.S., Karlstrom, K.E., Young, R.A., and Billingsley, G.H., eds., 2011, CRevolution 2 - Origin and evolution of the Colorado River system, workshop abstracts: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2011-1210, 300 p., available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2011/1210/.
Sandoval, M. M. Karlstrom, K.E., Darling, A., Aslan, A., Granger, D., Wan, E., and Noe, D., and Dickinson, R. 2011. Quaternary Incision History of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado. In Beard, L.S., Karlstrom, K.E., Young, R.A., and Billingsley, G.H., eds., 2011, CRevolution 2 - Origin and evolution of the Colorado River system, workshop abstracts: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2011-1210, 300 p., available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2011/1210/.
Darling, A., Karlstrom, K.E., Aslan, A., and Granger, D. 2011. Differential incision rates in the upper Colorado River system: implications for knickpoint transience. In Beard, L.S., Karlstrom, K.E., Young, R.A., and Billingsley, G.H., eds., 2011, CRevolution 2-Origin and evolution of the Colorado River system, workshop abstracts: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2011-1210, 300 p., available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2011/1210/.
Karlstrom, K., Coblentz, D., Ouimet, W., Kirby, E., Van Wijk, J., Schmandt, B., Crossey, L., Crow, R., Kelley, S., Aslan, A., Darling, A., Dueker, K., Aster, R., MacCarthy J., Lazear, G., and the CREST working group. 2011. Evidence from the Colorado River system for surface uplift of the Colorado Rockies and western Colorado Plateau in the last 10 Ma driven by mantle flow and buoyancy. In Beard, L.S., Karlstrom, K.E., Young, R.A., and Billingsley, G.H., eds., 2011, CRevolution 2 - Origin and evolution of the Colorado River system, workshop abstracts: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2011-1210, 300 p., available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2011/1210/.
Aslan, A., Karlstrom, K.E., Crossey, L.J., Kelley, S., Cole, R., Lazear, G., and Darling, A. 2010. Late Cenozoic evolution of the Colorado Rockies: Evidence for Neogene uplift and drainage integration, in Morgan, L.A., and Quane, S.L., eds., Through the Generations: Geologic and Anthropogenic Field Excursions in the Rocky Mountains from Modern to Ancient: Geological Society of America Field Guide 18, p. 21-54.