Jiabao Zhang, bachelor student at the University of Geosciences in Wuhan, China, visited the Basin Genesis Hub for a month in September 2016 to practice numerical modelling in geomorphology under the supervision of Dr Gilles Brocard and Dr Tristan Salles.Since she started studying Earth Sciences, Jiabao developed a strong interest in sedimentary basin analysis. During earlier internships she discovered field work and how to measure paleoriver flow in continental sedimentary basins. She analysed paleocurrent directions in terrigenous clastic rocks of the Liantuo Formation in China by measuring depositional structures of indicatory significance. She also analysed the petrography of terrigenous clastic rocks in the field and in the lab, inferring sediment provenance discrimination diagrams.
During her internship in the BHG, Jiabao ran Badlands, a numerical model developed for the BGH, which simulates the erosion of mountain ranges and the transfer of erosion products to sedimentary basins. She extracted river profiles and chi-plots from a numerical model of the Sierra de Chuacús-Sierra de las Minas in Guatemala, a mountain range studied by Dr. Gilles Brocard. The goal of these extractions was to segment river profiles in a succession of reaches along which the governing laws of river erosion and sediment transport differ markedly. These data will be used in an upcoming publication that describes how these characteristics reflects the spatial and temporal changes in erosion rates documented by situ produced detrital 10Be, and low-temperature thermochronology (AHe and Zhe).
