Dr Thomas M. Cronin - QMplus - Queen Mary University of London

School of Geography
Distinguished Visitor Lecture 2015
Arctic Sea Ice and Climate Change
Dr Thomas M. Cronin
United States Geological Survey
Chair: Professor Dave Horne
School of Geography, Queen Mary University of London
Thursday 19 March 2015 6pm
Arts Two Lecture Theatre
Arts Two Building
Queen Mary University of London
Mile End Road
London E1 4NS
A wine reception will follow the lecture.
Free Event
Arctic Sea Ice and Climate Change
Dr Thomas M. Cronin
Thursday 19 March 2015 6pm
To make a booking for
this free event, click on
the button below
@QMULGeography
Synopsis
This lecture will
look at our current
understanding of
Arctic Ocean sea ice,
temperature, and
climatic history, and discuss how it can be used
as a framework for understanding future manmade changes to the climate in the Arctic.
Sea-ice history reconstructed from fossils
preserved in Arctic Ocean sediments is revealing
its significant sensitivity to relatively small-scale
changes in the climate. New studies reveal
substantial variations in sea-ice cover during the
last several million years. For example, periods
of seasonally sea ice free conditions in at least
some regions of the Arctic include the early
Holocene (about 7,000–10,000 years ago), the
last interglacial period (~125,000 years ago),
Marine Isotope Stage 11 (~400,000 years ago)
and the middle Pliocene (~3 million years ago).
Arctic sea-ice, past, present and future will be the
focus of this public lecture at QMUL.
Biography
Tom Cronin has been a research geologist at the
US Geological Survey since 1978, conducting
research in paleoclimatology, sea-level change,
biostratigraphy, geochemistry and ecosystem
history, in continental shelf, estuarine and
deep-sea environments. He participated in
the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program ACEX
expedition to central Arctic Ocean in 2004.
More recently he has been Project Chief for
the ‘Abrupt Climate Change: Eastern US’
project and a contributor to the ‘South Florida
Ecosystem Project’. He is the author of more
than 180 journal articles and an excellent book,
Paleoclimates: A Context for Climate Change
(Columbia University Press, 2010). He also
worked with the Clinton Administration on the
Kyoto Climate Treaty. In 2009 Tom was awarded
the Brady Medal of The Micropalaeontological
Society in recognition of his achievements.
Two particular research are highlighted here.
Tom’s 1997 Nature paper, co-authored with
Maureen Raymo, showed for the first time that
the diversity of deep ocean benthos has varied
on geological timescales related to glacialinterglacial cycles and ultimately linked to the
41,000 year obliquity cycle. Secondly, Tom
recognised and developed the potential of the
marine ostracod Acetabulastoma arcticum
as a proxy for sea ice cover, supporting the
idea that much of the Arctic was seasonally
ice-free only 7,000 years ago during an early
Holocene thermal maximum. This research has
informed concerns about the rapid melting and
disappearance of Arctic sea-ice over the past
decade.