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Eugene Domack
Eugene Domack
Professor of Geology Eugene Domack is quoted in a <i>Science</i> magazine article (August 20, 2002) on the demise of the Antarctic Peninsula's ice shelves, in particular the Larsen B ice shelf. In 1999, Domack's team, working on the U.S. National Science Foundation's Nathaniel B. Palmer collected ice cores in waters where a section of the Larsen B broke off. Based on the age of the glacial till under Larsen A, said Domack, "the erstwhile Larsen B was at least 11,000 years old, implying that the breakup [of the ice shelf] is now extending farther south than ever before in the Holocene." These findings suggest that ice shelves break up faster than anyone thought before, and global warming may be an important factor in this region.

Domack organized and Hamilton College recently hosted a conference, Antarctic Peninsula Climate Variability: A Historical and Paleoenvironmental Perspective. The goal of the conference was to develop an understanding of the forcing mechanisms behind the significant environmental changes taking place in the Antarctic Peninsula region, such as decay of ice shelves, decrease in sea ice cover and an increase in mean annual summer and winter temperatures. The National Science Foundation Office of Polar Program, the Hamilton College Environmental Studies Program and Colgate University sponsored the conference.

Domack has 23 years of Antarctic experience and has spent the last 14 in the Peninsula region. His interests lie in understanding the natural record of environmental variability locked in glacial marine sediments in fjords and inner coastal basins on both sides of the Peninsula. He currently is on the Distinguished Speaker List of the Ocean Drilling Program, serves on the Antarctic Research Vessel Oversight Committee, and is currently investigating the paleorecord of Antarctica's disintegrating ice shelves. Domack is a member of the Sedimentary Research Society, American Geophysical Union, International Glaciological Society, and the American Quaternary Association.

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