2025-01-11 Paul Bierman – When the Ice is Gone

THE LECTURE
Cold War Science and Engineering Today Reveals Greenland’s Fragility in an Overheating Climate

 

 

QGS hosted Paul at 4 PM on January 11, 2025

Paul’s lecture focused on how Greenland, a remote arctic island, holds in its ice enough water to raise sea level over six meters (20 feet). That is enough to flood every major coastal city and displace up to half a billion people. As he discussed, until recently we knew very little about the past comings and goings of this massive ice sheet. Through the lens of climate science, environmental history, and the stories of people who studied Greenland over the past century, Paul used the past to look into a warming future. He filled the talk with photographs, movies, and recordings from the 1930s onward, reviewed the science done by the international team that he led, and told stories from his book, When the Ice is Gone. A key finding of Paul and his fellow researchers is that the Greenland ice sheet appears to have melted away completely during a previous interglacial warm climate, which suggests it could do so again if today’s warmer climate continues. The talk was popular with those with an interest in science and history.

An additional resource to Paul’s lecture may be found on Youtube – CLICK HERE. You can find the featured book by Paul at this link: https://www.paulbierman.net/books/.

Paul’s lecture was ZOOM-only at 4 PM on January 11, 2025.

BIO

Paul Bierman, environmental science professor at the University of Vermont, develops methods to date ice and rocks. He has published in Science and Nature, with the findings covered by CNN, USA Today, and the Weather Channel. Paul is a 1993 graduate of the University of Washington (Seattle) where he earned his MS and doctorate in Geoscience after a BA at Williams College.

Paul lives in Burlington, Vermont and his passions include telling stories and solving the mysteries of our planet. He is equally at home in a dusty archive and a cleanroom without a speck of dust. A history and geoscience researcher by training and a teacher for over four decades, Paul looks at our planet with wonder and curiosity. His career has taken him to searing deserts and frigid ice sheets. Throughout, he has focused his energies on understanding the link between our Earth and human societies – what today we call sustainability. He enjoys education at all levels and is the author of three textbooks and a book for the general public, When the Ice is Gone.

2023-11-11 Washington’s fossils—Nesbitt and Williams

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 11, 2023

Co-authors Elizabeth Nesbitt and David B. Williams discussed their new book, Spirit Whales and Sloth Tales:  Fossils of Washington State. They provided background on what inspired them to write their book on fossils in Washington state, why they chose the fossils they did, and some of the new science that has allowed paleontologists to tease out the 500-million-year long story of life in this region. They connected the geology with fossils and illustrated how/why we have certain fossils, such as those brought in on accreted terranes and where our oldest fossils are located.

On Sunday, November 12th they presented a complementary version of this talk for the Port Townsend Marine Science Center at the Fort Worden Chapel. It  focused on the marine organisms, such as the whales, and faunas of methane seeps.

David B. Williams is an author, naturalist, and tour guide whose award-winning book, Homewaters:  A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound is a deep exploration of the stories of this beautiful waterway. He is also the author of Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle’s Topography, Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology, as well as Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City. Williams is a Curatorial Associate at the Burke Museum and writes a free weekly newsletter, the Street Smart Naturalist (https://streetsmartnaturalist.substack.com/ – by clicking the “No thanks” you may access the previous newsletters). More information about David’s books may be found at www.geologywriter.com

Liz Nesbitt is Curator Emerita of invertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum for Natural History and Culture, as well as, associate professor of Earth Science at the University of Washington. Her distinguished scientific contributions to the marine paleontology of the Pacific Northwest have earned many awards and honors, including having a tiny fossil snail and a fossil whale (Maiabalaena nesbittae) named for her, .

She is currently working with Burke colleagues on measuring the health of Puget Sound waters using microfauna in bottom sediments.

2023-07-08 Walk to the Rocks Field Trip

Geology of Tamanowas Rock and Peregrines Rock, Chimacum, WA

Tamanowas Rock aerial image

On Saturday, July 8, 2023, several QGS geologists led a 4-mile, 4-hour hike (12 PM—4 PM) from HJ Carroll County Park near Chimacum to the Tamanowas Rock Sanctuary, then up on top of Tamanowas Ridge to see Peregrine’s Rock. The elevation gain on the walk is about 300 ft. This is a repeat of our 2022 trip and includes a 13-page illustrated guidebook.

The upper part of the trail is moderately difficult but slow paced and the hike is tailored to agile citizen scientists who are knowledgeable about basic geologic principles and vocabulary. Subjects to be discussed include the glacial history of the Quimper Peninsula and Chimacum Valley, glacial erratics on the peninsula, and the geology of the underlying Eocene volcanic rock that forms Tamanowas Rock, which is a special part of this story and a sacred place of the S’Kallum people. Allie Taylor of the Jamestown S’Kallum Tribe described the history of the site and its importance to the Tribe.

Tamanowas Rock is a remnant of deposits from an explosive volcano that stood near here about 43 million years ago; it is comprised of adakite, an uncommon type of rock that forms when subducted oceanic plate melts. Aadakite requires unusually hot conditions in the mantle, which in this case occurred during establishment of the Cascades.

Conversely, Peregrine’s Rock is a glacial erratic named by Erik Nagle, a participant in our 2020 Great Erratic Challenge. It currently is the largest erratic documented on the Quimper Peninsula. We believe that it is greenstone (metamorphosed basalt) that originated to the north, perhaps in Canada.