Staff profiles
Sam McCollEngineering Geology Team Leader
Biography
Sam is a quantitative geomorphologist who applies cross-disciplinary approaches to solve problems spanning natural hazards, agriculture, engineering, and environment, with primary expertise in landslide processes and hazards and Quaternary geomorphology. He is the Engineering Geology Team Leader at Earth Sciences New Zealand and the current President of the Geoscience Society of New Zealand. He has 20 years experience across research, tertiary teaching and supervision, and consultancy.
Qualifications
- BSc, Physical Geography
- PhD, Geology
Areas of expertise
- Engineering: Landslide investigation
- Engineering: Post landslide reconnaissance
- Business Development: Geotechnical slope stability software
- Business Development: UAV Pilot
- Geomorphology: Aerial photograph interpretation
- Geomorphology: Catchment-based erosion research
- Geomorphology: Digital photogrammetry
- Geomorphology: Flood and landslide hazard assessment
- Geomorphology: Geological and geomorphological mapping
- Geomorphology: Geospatial analysis
- Geomorphology: Hazard Assessment
- Geomorphology: Landscape evolution
- Geomorphology: Paleoenvironmental reconstruction
- Geomorphology: Soil erosion and conservation
- Geomorphology: Storm damage assessment
- Geology: Drillcore logging
- Geology: Earthquake-induced landslide estimates
- Geology: Engineering Geology
- Geology: Engineering Geomorphology
- Geology: Field mapping & compilation
- Geology: Landslide Hazard Assessment
- Geology: Team Leader / Project Management
- Engineering: Site investigations
Publications
Selection of major publications
- The age and potential causes of the giant Green Lake landslide, Fiordland, New Zealand, Landslides 20(5): p. 1883-1892. DOI: 10.1007/s10346-023-02075-x. p. 1883-1892
- A universal size classification system for landslides, Landslides 21(1): p. 111-120.. DOI: 10.1007/s10346-023-02131-6. p. 111-120.
- Disproportionate and chronic sediment delivery from a fluvially controlled, deep-seated landslide in Aotearoa New Zealand, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 47(8): p. 1972-1988. DOI: 10.1002/esp.5358. p. 1972-1988
- Alpine rockwall erosion patterns follow elevation-dependent climate trajectories, Communications Earth & Environment 3: article 21. DOI: 10.1038/s43247-022-00348-2. article 21
- Quantifying effectiveness of trees for landslide erosion control, Geomorphology 396: article 107993. DOI: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2021.107993. article 107993
- Landslide causes and triggers, Landslide hazards, risks, and disasters : p. 13-41. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-818464-6.00011-1. p. 13-41
- Badass gully morphodynamics and sediment generation in Waipaoa Catchment, New Zealand, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 45(15): p. 3917-1930. DOI: 10.1002/esp.5010. p. 3917-1930
- The anomalously old Bush Stream Rock Avalanche and its implications for landslide inventories in dynamic landscapes, Frontiers in Earth Science 8: article 103. DOI: 10.3389/feart.2020.00103. article 103
- Rock slope instability in the proglacial zone : state of the art, Geomorphology of proglacial systems : landform and sediment dynamics in recently deglaciated alpine landscapes : p. 119-141. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-94184-4_8. p. 119-141
- Origin and age of The Hillocks and implications for post-glacial landscape development in the upper Lake Wakatipu catchment, New Zealand, Journal of Quaternary Science 34(8): p. 685-696. DOI: 10.1002/jqs.3168. p. 685-696
- Large ice-contact slope movements : glacial buttressing, deformation and erosion, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 38(10): p. 1102-1115. DOI: 10.1002/esp.3346. p. 1102-1115
- Paraglacial rock-slope stability, Geomorphology 153-154: p. 1-16. DOI: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2012.02.015. p. 1-16
- The effect of glaciation on the intensity of seismic ground motion, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 37(12): p. 1290-1301. DOI: 10.1002/esp.3251. p. 1290-1301