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On Oct. 27, Alexander Hare ’14 and Isabelle “Izzy” Weisman ’15 sailed to Antarctica to continue ongoing research initiated by Eugene Domack, the J.W. Johnson Family Professor of Geosciences and director of Larsen Ice Shelf System – Antarctica (LARISSA), a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded and Hamilton College supported initiative. Domack’s former student, Amelia Shevenell ’96, is serving as chief scientist on this cruise.

Six Hamilton Geoscience students participated in a National Science Foundation- and University of Tasmania-supported short course from  June 27 to June 29 in Hobart, Tasmania. The course was focused on teaching the introductory steps in processing continuous global positioning system (GPS) data strings from the U.S. Antarctic LARISSA cGPS network. This network was installed in the last four years as part of the LARsen Ice Shelf System Antarctica project and was, in part, installed with the assistance of Hamilton students.

Research conducted on a 57-day expedition along the Antarctic Peninsula in 2010 led by Eugene Domack, the J.W. Johnson Family Professor of Geosciences, was the focus of a Dec. 12 article in the journal Nature. “Polar research: Trouble bares its claws” provided an overview of the changing ecological balance in the waters off Antarctica due to warming waters, highlighting Domack’s measurement of temperature changes during the last three decades.

Hamilton students are now pursuing their studies on all seven continents. On Oct. 10, Chief Scientist Eugene Domack, the J. W. Johnson Family Professorship of Environmental Studies, began an 18-day cruise to Antarctica along with two Hamilton students and two alumni. Students are writing blog updates about their trip each day.

National Public Radio science reporter Richard Harris interviewed Eugene Domack, the Joel W. Johnson Family Professor of Geosciences, for a segment on All Things Considered on Aug. 22 titled “Humans’ Role In Antarctic Ice Melt Is Unclear.”  Domack’s research, published in the journal Nature in 2005, provided evidence that the break-up of Antarctica’s Larsen B ice shelf was caused by a combination of long-term thinning over thousands of years and short term cumulative increases in surface air temperature that have exceeded the natural variation of regional climate during the Holocene period.

Joel W. Johnson Family Professor of Geosciences Eugene Domack presented “LARISSA: LARsen Ice Shelf System, Antarctica; an Interdisciplinary/International Observing and Monitoring Study of a Critical Antarctic Region” on July 19 at the SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) and Open Science Conference in Portland, Ore.

"Witness to an Antarctic Meltdown - Scientists Trek to Collapsing Glaciers to Assess Antarctica’s Meltdown and Sea-Level Rise," an article that appeared in the Scientific American’s July issue, focused on research performed during the 2010 LARISSA (LARsen Ice Shelf System, Antarctica) expedition for which Hamilton Geosciences Professor Eugene Domack served as Principal Investigator. Writer Douglas Fox, who accompanied the 30 scientists on the two-month expedition, described the researchers’ efforts to determine how fast the continent is melting and what that might mean for sea-level rise.

Eugene Domack, the Joel W. Johnson Family Professor of Geosciences, has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant of $182,453 for the project “Continuation of the LARISSA Continuous GPS Network in View of Observed Dynamic Response to Antarctic Peninsula Ice Mass Balance and Required Geologic Constraints.”  The award is effective July 1, 2012 and expires June 30, 2017.

The Antarctic Sun, a publication of the U.S. Antarctic Program, featured research performed by Eugene Domack, the J.W. Johnson Family Professor of Environmental Studies, and Associate Professor of Biology Michael McCormick as part of the LARISSA (LARsen Ice Shelf System Research, Antarctica) Project.  Domack is the principal investigator on the LARISSA program and, while at Hamilton, has conducted marine geology expeditions to Antarctica for the last 25 years.

Eugene Domack, the J.W. Johnson Professor of Environmental Studies, attended a planning meeting for the Araon cruise on May 21-24.  The LARISSA Antarctic team will participate in the Araon cruise during the next Antarctic season with 20 Korean marine scientists. Hamilton students will also be aboard the RVIB Araon, the new Korean research icebreaker.