Quimper Geological Society

THE LECTURE:  Cold War Science and Engineering Today Reveals Greenland’s Fragility in an Overheating Climate 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. Yet, 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 will use the past to look into a warming… Read more2025-01-11 Paul Bierman – When the Ice is Gone

LECTURE: Diamond:  A Multifaceted Gem Diamonds have been revered as precious stones for over 2000 years, yet they are composed simply of carbon, one of the most common elements on Earth. Their rarity arises from the fact that they form at extreme pressures deep in the Earth’s mantle and then are brought rapidly to the surface in CO2-rich explosive eruptions. No such eruptions have occurred in human history, but we know they occur only in the interiors of continents, where they produce narrow vertical ‘kimberlite pipes’ that are mined in Africa, Russia, and, more recently, Canada. Tiny diamonds with a… Read more2025-02-15 Jeff Tepper – Diamond: A Multifaceted Gem