Dr. Gloria I. López
Dr. Gloria I. López is a Colombo-Canadian Geologist and Geochronologist (Luminescence / OSL Dating and Portable Luminescence Profiling) with expertise in sedimentology, surface processes, analytical stratigraphy, coastal geology (morphodynamics and evolution), geomorphology, Quaternary geochronology, coastal geoarchaeology, petrophysics and mineralogy.
Aside from extensive laboratory experience (sedimentology, luminescence, petrophysics, including building and renewing lab facilities), Dr. López has extensive field and research experience along the coasts and some intra-mountain terrains of Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, West Coast of Canada, the Panhandle of Florida U.S.A., the Eastern Mediterranean, Gibraltar, Southern Spain, Portugal, Kenya and Sri Lanka. Her major research interests focus on the reconstruction of palaeoenvironmental histories and coastal evolution with applications to sea level change, understanding surface and sedimentological processes, tsunami identification, characterisation and recurrence, disaster risk reduction, and deciphering chronologies in both geological and archaeological settings.
Her chronologies and most recent hypotheses involve major known tsunami deposits around the World, both modern and ancient, such as those found within low-elevation coastal lakes and estuarine marshes (Vancouver Island, Canada), beaches and lagoons (Ecuador, Sri Lanka, Japan, Mexico, Indonesia), shallow continental shelf marine realm and coastal archaeological sites (Israel, Kenya), and dense tropical jungle and mangrove rainforests (Colombia).
Dr. López is interested in developing new sedimentological and luminescence proxies, combined with petrophysics, mineralogy and archaeometry, to be used as novel applications in palaeoseismology, extreme events research, sediment transport, petrophysics and geoarchaeology. Dr. López studies sand grains in 3 ways: 1) to date them & determine the age of sediments, soils, archaeological and heritage sites, faults, catastrophic events such as tsunamis, hurricanes, landslides, floods, etc.; 2) to understand the origin, formation & sudden/gradual changes/evolution of sedimentary systems & processes (mostly coastal); & 3) to identify & characterize deposits left by storms, tsunamis & ancient earthquakes in order to better understand their hazard & to improve risk reduction.
She received her B.Sc. degree (cum laude) in Geology (Coastal Geology) from EAFIT University (1993, Medellin, Colombia); a specialization in Marine Geology from U Concepción (1996, Chile); her M.Sc. in Geology (Palaeoseismology & Tsunami Sedimentology) from University of Victoria (2002, Canada); and her Ph.D. in Geology (Luminescence Dating) from McMaster University (2007, Canada). She later did two Post-Docs in Luminescence Dating and Geoarchaeology at the University of Haifa and the Geological Survey of Israel (2010-2013) and obtained a Diploma in Natural Disasters and Climate Change (2015, Mora Institute, Mexico).
Dr. López has been a Research Associate at RIMS since 2016, where she initiated the Portable Luminescence Laboratory, today headed by Dr. Joel Roskin. She was also the Head and Group Leader of the Luminescence Dating Laboratory at the CENIEH (National Research Center for Research on Human Evolution) in Burgos, Spain, from 2015 to 2020. Since 2017 she serves in the Board of Directors of the Colombian Geological Society (SGC).
Email: lopezgi.phd@gmail.com
Email: lopezgi@sci.haifa.ac.il
