Welcome to
legaci lab
Landscape evolution, geomorphology, tectonics, biodiversity, applied cosmogenic isotopes
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ABOUT ME
When asked about the geologic past, many of us, if not most, will think of fossils and rocks. Instead, I think about landscapes as windows to the geologic past. I am a geologist from the Amazon region in Brazil and I investigate the processes that shape the awe-inspiring landscapes around the world, how they evolve through time, and what mechanisms control their evolution.
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I was born and raised in Manaus, a 2+ million people city in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. As a native of the Amazon region, one of my career goals is to contribute to the fundamental understanding of the formation and evolution of its landscapes. I believe that understanding how the Amazon system fundamentally evolves can help us protect it.
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I also actively look for ways to contribute to decreasing the underrepresentation of ethnic and gender groups in the Geosciences. The DELTA H initiative is one of these efforts.
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I welcome people from all backgrounds, ethnicity, nationality, especially BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, women, people with disabilities, and otherwise underrepresented groups to come work with me. My group maintains a safe environment where all are free to talk about their barriers and difficulties specific to their backgrounds. We also discuss how to improve Equity, Diversity, Inclusion in the Geosciences.
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Visit the links below to learn more about me, my group, and my work. If you are interest, don't hesitate to reach out.
research
• How tectonics and climate compete to control the shapes, heights, and masses of mountain ranges?
• Why are landscapes in continent interiors so geomorphically active even when there is no external perturbation mechanism such as tectonics, dynamic topography, or changes in climate?
• Why are the same geomorphically active (but tectonically inactive) landscapes so biodiverse?
• What are the rates and the impacts of soil erosion in the degradation of the Amazon rainforest?
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I investigate the interactions between rock type, tectonic, climatic, and surface processes and their individual contributions to the evolution of mountain ranges and continent interiors. The landscapes I study work as ideal natural laboratories to dive into the physical processes that shape the Earth's topography. I then combine these observations with numerical models - where all boundary conditions are known and prescribed - to understand more about the underlying processes controlling those landscapes.
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Landscapes also form the dynamic tapestry over which the biosphere evolves and I investigate how landscape dynamics influence the generation, maintenance, and extinction of Amazonia's unparalleled biodiversity.
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Currently, my work is focused on the Andes mountains, the Amazon lowlands, and the Paraná basin.
Community
Equity
Diversity
Inclusion
The DELTA H initiative
Representation of Brazilians and South Americans in the international geoscientific community is poor, even more so in the Geomorphology community. To improve this scenario and to build a diverse Landscape Evolution community in Brazil, I created and now coordinate the DELTA H initiative alongside colleagues and co-leaders Daniel Peifer and Nelson Fernandes and co-organizers Marcilene dos Santos and Fabiano Pupim (see deltahbrasil.com).
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Through DELTA H, we are working on building a more balanced, diverse, and inclusive community and a safe environment for interactions between undergraduates, graduates, and leading scientists in the international field of Landscape Evolution and Geomorphology.