“Everything there is to know about the Missouri River — almost.”

The Missouri River drains one sixth of the conterminous United States and is one of the world’s ‘Big Rivers.’  It holds clues to the climatic and tectonic history of the Western Interior.  It also defines processes bounding across the union of meandering and braiding.  Relatively little is known of this majestic river from direct study of its valley fill and floodplain deposits.  Over the span of decades of study, extensive mapping, and over 60 students in the field, we are finally unlocking some of the Quaternary secrets of the Missouri River.  The river reveals a complex history of incision and aggradation related to glacial cycles.  It shows the glacial forebulge had little to do with this incisional history, and is likely much farther south than thought.  Similarly, the Missouri River is the type example of a braided meandering river.  Detailed study of the river floodplain and bar processes has revealed the processes by which indeed a braided river can actually meander.  Lastly, our work shows the preservation potential of midchannel bars in the sedimentary record.  Detailed study of a 88km reach of the river over 30 years shows the average life span of a midchannel bar is about seven years, and only about a third are ultimately preserved in the floodplain.  These points will be elucidated in this summary of what we know of the Missouri River so far.

Dr. Holbrook Bio

John Holbrook is a Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at Texas Christian University.  He previously served as a Professor at University of Texas at Arlington and Southeast Missouri State University, and has held adjunct/guest professor positions at Enugu State University, Nigeria; St Petersburg State University, Russia; University of Texas at Dallas; and Hebrew University, Jerusalem.  His research interests are field oriented, focusing mostly on both modern and ancient fluvial-deltaic systems and physical stratigraphy.  Current interests include controls on permeability trends and connectivity of flow paths in sediments, quantifying fundamental sedimentary processes at small and large scales, preservation of modern processes in the stratigraphic record, and tectonic and climatic impact on rivers.  He applies his research widely across petroleum, geothermal, and environmental issues, and is well published, well cited (<5000), and active professionally in each of these fields.  He has thus far graduated 40 M.S. and four Ph.D. thesis students in these fields.  He gained his B.S. at the University of Kentucky, his M.S. at the University of New Mexico, and his Ph.D. at Indiana University, all in Geology.  He was PI for the NSF Research Coordination Network for research in geothermal energy from sedimentary basins. He has served on several committees at SEPM, GSA, and AAPG.  He is a past member of GSA Council, past Chair of the GSA Sedimentary Geology Division, past Chair of the GSA Publications Committee, and is a GSA Fellow.  He has served SEPM on SEPM Council and as President of Gulf Coast and Mid-Continent sections, and he teaches short courses and serves/chaired committees for AAPG.  He is a licensed Professional Geologist and served as Vice Chair of the Board of Geologist Registration in Missouri.   He works on numerous funded research projects globally and has sat proposal review panels for PRF, AAPG, NSF, and USGS.  He was an AAPG Distinguished Lecturer in 2015/2016, teaches AAPG short courses in fluvial and sequence stratigraphy, and won the Madsen Award for Best Oral Presentation at the annual meeting (ACE) in 2019.