A return to Mount Meager—this time focusing on risk reduction, sediment hazards, and what can be done to protect downstream communities. Jeff talks with resilience researcher Veronica Woodruff about sediment‑rich rivers, engineered logjams, and the human side of hazard mitigation.

Whimsical Wavelengths: deep‑dive conversations where a working scientist unpacks how we know what we know, one paper, one idea, or whimsical detour at a time.

Two weeks ago, Dr. Glyn Williams‑Jones walked us through Meager’s eruptive history and why the mountain is unstable due to geothermal alteration, permafrost melt, and retreating glaciers. It's the the site of Canada’s largest recorded landslide.

Today, we shift from volcanic behaviour to risk reduction, exploring what can be done to protect downstream communities like Pemberton from increasing sediment loads, changing river dynamics, and rising flood hazards.

Our guest, Veronica Woodruff—environmental professional, resilience researcher, and UVic alum—joins Jeff to discuss how hazards, sediment, and human decision‑making intersect in the Lillooet River system. Veronica’s work focuses on the human side of natural hazards: communication, community resilience, and the challenge of turning scientific data into meaningful action.

We dig into how the 2010 landslide dramatically increased sediment supply, creating braided channels, altering flow paths, and raising flood risk. With climate‑driven changes to snowpack, melt timing, and extreme rainfall, these challenges are only growing.

A major focus of this episode is mitigation—what can actually be done. We explore a range of strategies, from behavioural changes to engineered solutions, including one of the most promising tools: engineered logjams (ELJs). These structures mimic natural wood accumulations, slowing water, trapping sediment, and helping stabilize channels without over‑engineering the landscape. ELJs are emerging as a key approach for reducing long‑term flood hazards in sediment‑rich rivers like the Lillooet.

Topics Covered

• Mount Meager’s instability and geologic setting
• The 2010 landslide and its long‑term impacts
• Sediment hazards, braided rivers, and flood risk
• Human modifications to river systems
• Risk communication and community resilience
• Engineered logjams as a mitigation strategy
• How to advocate for proactive hazard reduction

Guest Veronica Woodruff — environmental professional, resilience researcher, and advocate for community‑driven hazard mitigation.

Veronica's book: "BLIND DRUNK A sober look at our boozy culture"

Links

Previous episode

Veronica & Glyn’s Whistler talk

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Canada has volcanoes — and one of the most hazardous sits just 150 kilometres north of Vancouver.

In this episode of Whimsical Wavelengths, host Jeffrey Zurek is joined by volcanologist Dr. Glynn Williams-Jones, Professor of Earth Sciences at Simon Fraser University, for an in-depth look at Mount Meager, one of Canada’s most active — and least understood — volcanic systems.

Mount Meager is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, the same tectonic chain that includes Mount St. Helens and Mount Baker. Subduction zones don’t stop at international borders, and neither do volcanic hazards. Together, we unpack why Mount Meager qualifies as a Cascade volcano, how magma is generated beneath western Canada, and why this system deserves far more public attention than it receives.

The episode explores Meager’s most recent eruption approximately 2,400 years ago, an explosive event comparable in style (though smaller in magnitude) to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. That eruption produced ash columns, pumice falls, lava domes, and fast-moving pyroclastic density currents that travelled into the Lillooet River valley.

One of the most striking outcomes was a natural damming of the river by volcanic deposits, creating a temporary lake that later failed catastrophically. The resulting outburst flood left lasting geological evidence still visible in the landscape today — a reminder that volcanic hazards don’t end when eruptions stop.

But eruptions aren’t the only concern.

Mount Meager is also the site of Canada’s largest recorded landslide, which occurred in 2010 and involved roughly 53 million cubic metres of rock. Volcanic alteration, steep topography, glaciers, and climate-driven instability combine to make landslides one of the most immediate risks associated with the volcano — even during periods of volcanic quiet.

We discuss how scientists monitor Mount Meager today, including seismic networks, satellite measurements, and visual observations, as well as why many Canadian volcanoes remain under-instrumented compared to similar systems elsewhere in the world.

Along the way, the conversation touches on scientific mentorship, the realities of academic research, and why understanding volcanic risk is less about fear and more about preparedness, communication, and informed decision-making.

If you think Canada doesn’t have dangerous volcanoes, this episode may change your mind.

Besure to check out the center for natural hazards at SFU

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This is a reflective, end-of-year historical deviation. From wandering stars and stubborn philosophers to lost planets, national rivalries, and Pluto’s demotion, this episode explores how we learned what the planets are and why the process matters as much as the answer.

You see every once in a while, Whimsical Wavelengths takes a historical deviation. This is one of those episodes.

Instead of cutting-edge research, this solo episode steps back to ask a bigger question: how did we actually figure out what the planets are, and what does that process tell us about how science works?

From the wandering lights tracked by Babylonian astronomers over 3,000 years ago, to Greek ideas of moving stars, to the long-lived geocentric universe of Ptolemy, we trace how humanity slowly built models of the solar system. Along the way, we meet Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton, and see how new tools, better measurements, and sometimes better messengers reshaped our understanding of the cosmos.

This episode also digs into one of science’s most fascinating detective ensure stories: the discovery of Neptune. Using nothing but mathematics and Newton’s laws, astronomers predicted the existence of a new planet before anyone had ever seen it. The result was a mix of brilliance, nationalism, bruised egos, and a controversy that still makes historians uncomfortable.

From there, we follow the trail to Pluto, Planet X, and the lingering idea that the solar system might still be hiding something. We look at how bad data can lead to compelling but wrong conclusions, why Pluto never solved the problem it was meant to, and how modern observations have resurrected the question in the form of Planet Nine.

Along the way, this episode touches on:

• Why ancient astronomers called planets “wandering stars”
• How telescopes changed everything, and why early ones were still not enough
• Why stellar parallax took centuries to measure
• How people, politics, and pride shape scientific progress
• Why Pluto was discovered, celebrated, and eventually reclassified
• And why the idea of a missing planet refuses to die

This is not just a story about planets. It’s a story about how science moves forward: imperfectly, collaboratively, and sometimes reluctantly, as better data forces us to let go of comfortable ideas.

If we want a thriving future scientific community, we first need to understand why people choose — or don’t choose — careers in STEM.

This week on Whimsical Wavelengths, we turn the telescope around and look not at stars, but at the people who choose to study them. What shapes a scientist’s identity? Why do some students pursue STEM — and astronomy in particular — while others drift away? And how do mentorship, representation, and community determine who sees themselves as “belonging” in science?

To explore these questions, I’m joined by Dr. Zachary Richards: a researcher whose path moved from physics into science education, now a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History and a faculty member at York College, City University of New York. His recent work examines how scientists form professional identity, how students imagine themselves in scientific roles, and how educational environments influence those choices.

In this episode, we discuss:

• how early experiences shape STEM career decisions
• the role of mentorship and representation in building scientific identity
• why astronomy offers a unique lens for studying belonging in STEM
• parallels between challenges in astronomy and fields like geoscience, where enrollment and workforce sustainability are pressing issues
• what institutions can do to attract and support the next generation of scientists

Whether you’re a scientist, an educator, or simply curious about how people end up devoting their lives to understanding the universe, this episode offers a thoughtful look at the human side of STEM.

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In this episode of Whimsical Wavelengths, we explore how machine learning is opening new possibilities in geophysical imaging and inversion workflows. Like image segmentation! We look at how modern computational tools can help interpret what we cannot observe directly beneath the surface.

Our guest, Johnathan Kutti, joins us to break down how machine learning approaches can assist with geophysical inversion, improve subsurface models, and support decision-making in exploration and environmental studies. With experience both in the field and in building mathematical tools, he brings a grounded perspective on how these methods work in practice.

We start by outlining what geophysics actually is—using physics to study the Earth’s structure and processes—and why inversion methods are so central to the field. Because we cannot directly measure physical properties everywhere inside the Earth, geophysical inversion works backward from measurable data such as magnetics, gravity, or electromagnetic responses to estimate what the subsurface must look like.

The conversation then moves into:

• Why geophysical inversions have infinite possible solutions
• How physical assumptions and constraints narrow those solutions
• Where machine learning and image segmentation can help
• Examples of integrating AI into geoscience workflows
• Practical realities from years spent collecting data across remote terrain

If you've ever wondered how AI and scientific modeling intersect—or how we “illuminate the void” geophysically—this episode offers both clarity and depth.

UBC Geophysical Inversion Facility: https://gif.eos.ubc.ca/

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We’re heading back through deep time on Whimsical Wavelengths — but this time, we’re not walking with dinosaurs, we’re flying with them! Flight has evolved at least four separate times in Earth’s history, and today’s episode focuses on one of the earliest masters of the skies: pterosaurs.

Host Jeffrey Zurek is joined by Dr. Adele Pentland, palaeontologist and lead author of the paper describing Haliskia peterseni, a newly discovered anhanguerian pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Australia. The research, published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, sheds new light on prehistoric ecosystems and the diversity of Australia’s flying reptiles.

Adele discusses the discovery process, what makes Haliskia special, and how Australia fits into the global pterosaur record. We also touch on the art of science communication — from museum exhibits to fossil-inspired stamps and children’s books.

Links from the episode:

Research Paper: Haliskia peterseni in Scientific Reports

Adele Pentland’s Website

Book Mentioned Nature People by Cesar Puechmarin

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Plastic and the environment and what you think you know. A discussion about science which honestly misses the mark but a useful discussion. Understanding the good is just as important to the bad

The first fully synthetic plastic was developed in 1907. What they needed was an electrical insulator. Thanks to alternating current (covered in season 1 too with Nikola tesla!) electricity was being wired to new places creating a problem of how to insulate these wires. With that success companies began to research and explore what other plastics could be made. WW II created more demand for synthetic substitutes. Resources were scarce. Needed things at scale. Plastic could do that.

Shortly after WWII, some thought of plastic and created an almost utopian vision of a future with abundant material wealth thanks to an inexpensive, safe, sanitary substance that could be shaped into anything. How disappointed they would be with today… The 1960’s brought about environmentalism with plastic debris starting to collect on beaches, the sea and the environment. The 70’s saw the leaded gasoline come to final phase out plan, CFC’s were next. But plastic stayed. There has been some regulatory push particularly more recently.

Outside of the intro and outro, I feel I failed at digging into more nuance in the discussion. But it is definitely an interesting discussion. Today's guest has published a book and has made the podcast circuit to bring to light that plastic is not necessarily an enemy.

One of Dr Chirs DeArmett's book can be found for free here :https://plasticsparadox.com/

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Diving straight into the deep end of the universe: supermassive black holes!

An episode with enough gravitational pull that you can’t help but get sucked in.

Host Dr. Jeffrey Zurek welcomes Dr. James Chan, a postdoctoral researcher at the American Museum of Natural History and City University of New York, to explore the strange physics and luminous surroundings of the darkest objects in the cosmos.

At the center of the conversation is Dr. Chan’s recent paper in The Astrophysical Journal:

“Reverberation Mapping of Lamp-post and Wind Structures in Accretion Thin Disk.”

Together, they discuss how light echoes and flickers around black holes can reveal their inner geometry — from the “lamp-post” models of X-ray emission to the chaotic winds that shape accretion disks. It’s a look into how we can study what can’t be seen, using timing, modeling, and a dash of cosmic detective work.

Paper at the center of the episode: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.15669

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