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Quaternary and glacial geology of the Arctic • Ice-ocean interactions

Quaternary and glacial geology of Arctic areas, with a particular interest in the areas around Iceland, Greenland, and NE Canada.

I use sediment properties, such as grain-size and X-ray diffraction determined mineralogy, to gain an understanding of ice/ocean interactions. My research centers on abrupt events, such as Heinrich events, and high-resolution studies of changes in Baffin Bay, the Labrador Sea, and the Nordic Seas over the last 12,000 cal yr. A research emphasis is on marine sediment archives and the use of X-ray diffraction analysis to detect changes in sediment provenance.

My work also centers on the northern marginal seas which link the North Atlantic Ocean to the Arctic Ocean. Hence my currently NSF-funded research is focused on the Iceland and Greenland Seas, the Irminger Basin, Baffin Bay, and the Labrador Sea. My temporal interest is broad—the last 2-3 Ma, but in practical terms my main interest is the last 12,000 years at a century scale, and the last glacial cycle at a millenial scale. I am particularly interested in the records that span the interval between the Younger Dryas cold event and the so-called Heinrich events numbers 1 to 4. A current research interest is how these are associated with abrupt climate events within Baffin Bay and which are associated with the Innuitian and Greenland ice sheets, and the NE Laurentide Ice Sheet. A significant fraction of my research is coordinated with my colleague Anne Jennings.

My research is frequently in cooperation with national and international researchers. In particular I have strong ties with researchers in Canada, especially the GETOP group at UQAM and GSC-Atlantic. I am currently working with Dennis Darby (Old Dominion University) on a project with Anne Jennings on the drift ice history across the Denmark Strait. This project also involves German researchers (Ruediger Stein and Matthias Moros) and a transect of cores at 73°N from NE Greenland. In the future I hope to work on materials collected from E and W Greenland by Camilla Andresen from the Geological Survey of Greenland.

Education

• DSc: Nottingham University, 1978
• PhD: Nottingham University, 1965
• MSC: McGill University, 1961
• BA: Nottingham University, 1959

Awards

• Penrose Medal, Geological Society of America, 2016
• Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2011
• Fellow, American Geophysical Union, 2006