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Geophysics Seminar – Eric Steig, “Climate forcing of the Antarctic Ice Sheet”

February 13 @ 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm

The polar ice sheets are losing mass and contributing to sea level rise. In Greenland the reason for this is relatively straightforward: the air is getting warmer, melting the ice from above. In Antarctica, the ice is melting from below, from ocean heat delivery to the underside of floating ice shelves. How much heat is delivered depends on the complex interplay among winds, sea ice, and ocean currents. It is not yet clear whether increased melt in Antarctica can be linked to anthropogenic climate change. This talk will review our current understanding of this question, with an emphasis on the role that records from ice and sediment cores have played in advancing our knowledge.
Eric Steig, the Department of Earth and Space Sciences Chair, is a glaciologist and isotope geochemist who studies how the climate behaved in the past to learn what it can tell us both about the effects of climate change today, and how it will change in the future. He uses ice core records to study climate variability over thousands of years. He works on the geological history and dynamics of ice sheets, as well as on aspects of atmospheric chemistry, and develops novel laboratory research tools in isotope geochemistry. He is the founding co-director of ISOLAB, a state-of-the art isotope geochemistry facility involving research ranging from climate, atmospheric chemistry and neotectonics, to geobiology, aquatic science and fisheries. In addition to his research and teaching, he is committed to fostering greater public understanding of the effects of climate change, and is a founding member of RealClimate.org.

Venue

Mitchell Earth Sciences, 350/372