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Rachel N Sortor, PhD

(She/her)

Rachel N Sortor is a Physical Scientist for the USGS, Central Midwest Water Science Center, Statistical Hydrology and Water Availability group located in Urbana, Illinois.

 

Rachel joined the USGS in 2022 in the Statistical Hydrology and Water Availability section. She works on projects related to sediment and phosphorus source tracking in Illinois, and harmful algal blooms on the Illinois River. Prior to joining the USGS, Rachel completed her PhD in glacial geomorphology and cosmogenic nuclide geochemistry at Tulane University. She focused on dating the oldest glacial periods in the Alaska Range and Colorado Front Range. Before her PhD, she worked in environmental consulting in Michigan, where she collected soil, water, and soil gas samples for multiple Superfund projects.

Professional Experience

  • 2022-Present, Physical Scientist, USGS, Statistical Hydrology and Water Availability Group, USGS Central Midwest Water Science Center, Urbana, Illinois

  • 2012-2015 Environmental Scientist at TRC Companies, Inc.

Education and Certifications

  • Ph.D., Earth and Environmental Sciences, Tulane University 2022

  • M.S., Geological Sciences, University of Michigan 2012

  •  B.S., Environmental Geology, University of Michigan, 2009

  • A.S., Science, Monroe Country Community College, 2006

Science and Products

Early Pleistocene climate-induced erosion of the Alaska Range formed the Nenana Gravel

The Pliocene-Pleistocene transition resulted in extensive global cooling and glaciation, but isolating this climate signal within erosion and exhumation responses in tectonically active regimes can be difficult. The Nenana Gravel is a foreland basin deposit in the northern foothills of the Alaska Range (USA) that has long been linked to unroofing of the Alaska Range starting ca. 6 Ma. Using 26Al/1
Authors
Rachel Sortor, Brent Goehring, Sean Bemis, Chester A. Ruleman, Marc Caffee, Dylan Ward
By
Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Non-USGS Publications**

Sortor, R.N. and D.C. Lund (2011) No evidence for a deglacial intermediate water Δ14C anomaly in the SW Atlantic. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 310, 65-72, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2011.07.017

**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.

Lower St. Croix River Steady State Hydraulic Inputs for FluOil Workshop

This data release contains steady-state hydraulic input files for the FluOil model (Zhu and others, 2022) that describe the lower St. Croix River between St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, and Stillwater, Minnesota. These files are derived from the results of a steady-state one dimensional (1D) hydraulic model of the river reach at three discharges (10,000, 20,000, and 35,000 cubic feet per second (cfs))
By
Central Midwest Water Science Center

Models, Inputs, and Outputs for Estimating the Uncertainty of Discharge Simulations for the Lake Michigan Diversion Using the Hydrological Simulation Program - FORTRAN Model

This data release contains the models and their inputs and outputs needed to reproduce the findings for the publication by Soong and Over (2022), "Effect of Uncertainty of Discharge Data on Uncertainty of Discharge Simulation for the Lake Michigan Diversion, Northeastern Illinois and Northwestern Indiana." These data were developed in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago Dist
By
Central Midwest Water Science Center

Science and Products

Early Pleistocene climate-induced erosion of the Alaska Range formed the Nenana Gravel

The Pliocene-Pleistocene transition resulted in extensive global cooling and glaciation, but isolating this climate signal within erosion and exhumation responses in tectonically active regimes can be difficult. The Nenana Gravel is a foreland basin deposit in the northern foothills of the Alaska Range (USA) that has long been linked to unroofing of the Alaska Range starting ca. 6 Ma. Using 26Al/1
Authors
Rachel Sortor, Brent Goehring, Sean Bemis, Chester A. Ruleman, Marc Caffee, Dylan Ward
By
Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Non-USGS Publications**

Sortor, R.N. and D.C. Lund (2011) No evidence for a deglacial intermediate water Δ14C anomaly in the SW Atlantic. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 310, 65-72, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2011.07.017

**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.

Lower St. Croix River Steady State Hydraulic Inputs for FluOil Workshop

This data release contains steady-state hydraulic input files for the FluOil model (Zhu and others, 2022) that describe the lower St. Croix River between St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, and Stillwater, Minnesota. These files are derived from the results of a steady-state one dimensional (1D) hydraulic model of the river reach at three discharges (10,000, 20,000, and 35,000 cubic feet per second (cfs))
By
Central Midwest Water Science Center

Models, Inputs, and Outputs for Estimating the Uncertainty of Discharge Simulations for the Lake Michigan Diversion Using the Hydrological Simulation Program - FORTRAN Model

This data release contains the models and their inputs and outputs needed to reproduce the findings for the publication by Soong and Over (2022), "Effect of Uncertainty of Discharge Data on Uncertainty of Discharge Simulation for the Lake Michigan Diversion, Northeastern Illinois and Northwestern Indiana." These data were developed in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago Dist
By
Central Midwest Water Science Center