Sculpting with Flow: Mudballs, Meteorites, and Candy Landscapes

In recent years in the NYU-Courant Applied Math Lab, we've ventured into the field of geomorphology, which seeks to describe the changing face of the Earth, its structures, landforms and landscapes. In such problems, solids are reshaped by processes such as erosion/deposition, dissolution/solidi cation and melting/freezing and flows are inevitably present. I will discuss a few case studies, starting with how an erodible body is robustly reshaped by flow into a peculiar shape. I will also point out an unexpected connection to the flight of meteoroids, which are carved into unique shapes by ablation during atmospheric flight. Lastly, I'll mention some very recent work on dissolving boundaries and how the flows naturally present during dissolution tend to carve otherworldly "landscapes" out of candy.