Short Biography

Current Research:
After receiving his Ph.D. in geology at UCLA in 1975, Bernard Hallet joined the Earth Sciences faculty at Stanford University. In 1981, he became a faculty member of the Department of Geological Sciences and the Quaternary Research Center at the University of Washington.

Hallet is fascinated by the processes that shape alpine and arctic landscapes. The strategy he prefers in his studies of diverse processes is a combination of sound theoretical analysis of the governing physics/chemistry with detailed field or laboratory work.

Much of his past and current work is directed at glacial erosion of bedrock, chemical processes active at the glacier bed, till deformation, and a more precise interpretation of the geological record of past ice sheets. More recently he has become interested in developing a sound physical basis for considering some of the textural and distributional properties of till and other glacial sediments.

Another major area of interest of Bernard Hallet is periglacial geomorphology. Over the last decade he and his students have studied the dynamics of patterned ground in western Spitsbergen. Through detailed field studies, including extensive instrumentation to document year-round activity (temperature, soil displacements, moisture, pore pressure, soil pressure, etc.), they are studying the dynamics of sorted circles. They have learned a lot about the thermal regime, heave/thaw characteristics and other dynamical aspects of very active sorted circles, including long-term circulatory motion of the soil. Another subject of considerable interest is frost weathering, more specifically the precise mechanism by which freezing leads to the propagation of fractures in rocks. This work has been largely theoretical in nature, but it has recently received considerable experimental support from studies of acoustic emissions emitted by crack propagation events due to sustained ice growth. Hallet has also recently joined Greg Dash, of the University of Washington condensed matter physics group, in a collaborative effort to elucidate the fundamental nature of water in porous media at subfreezing temperatures, which underlies a diversity of periglacial phenomena.
Recent Publications:
Hallet. B. Stone Circles: form and soil kinematics. Philosophical Transactions A, Royal Soc. London. RSTA-2012-0357. Accepted Feb. 14, 2013.

Headley, R.M., Enkelmann, E., and Hallet, B. An examination of the interplay between glacial processes and exhumation in the St. Elias Range, Alaska. Geosphere: First published online February 5, 2013. doi: 10.1130/GES00810.1

Koons P.O., Zeitler P.K., and Hallet B. 2013. Tectonic Aneurysms and Mountain Building. In: John F. Shroder (ed.) Treatise on Geomorphology, Volume 5, pp. 318-349. San Diego: Academic Press.

Headley, R., B. Hallet, G. Roe, E. Waddington, and E. Rignot. 2012. Spatial distribution of glacial erosion rates in the St. Elias range, Alaska, inferred from a realistic model of glacier dynamics, J. Geophys. Res., 117, F03027, doi:10.1029/2011JF002291.

Headley, R.M., Roe, G. and Hallet, B. 2012. Glacier longitudinal profiles in regions of active uplift. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 317�318, 354�362. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2011.11.010

Fernandez, R. A., J. B. Anderson, J. S. Wellner, and B. Hallet, 2011. Timescale dependence of glacial erosion rates: A case study of Marinelli Glacier, Cordillera Darwin, southern Patagonia, J. Geophys. Res., 116, F01020, doi:10.1029/2010JF001685.

Henck, A.; K.W. Huntington; J.O. Stone; D. R. Montgomery, and B. Hallet. 2011. Spatial controls on erosion in the Three Rivers Region, southeastern Tibet and southwestern China, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 303, 71-83, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2010.12.038

Hallet, B., Sletten, R S., and Whilden, K., 2011. Micro-Relief Development in Polygonal Patterned Ground in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. Quaternary Research. 75(2),347-355.

Hallet, B., Washburn, L.L., MacDonald, N.L., Benson, C.S., and Stuiver, M., Lincoln Washburn, a glimpse at the person: A prologue for this special issue. 2011. Quaternary Research. 75(2), 309-315.

Enkelmann, E.1, Ehlers, T.A., Zeitler P.K., and Hallet, B. 2011. Denudation of the Namche Barwa Antiform, Eastern Himalaya. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 307, 323�333