Hamilton College senior Gemma Kirkwood received an Outstanding Student Paper Award for her presentation, "Solar vs. Tidal Forcing of Centennial to Decadal Scale Variability in Marine Sedimentary Records from the Western Antarctic Peninsula," at the 2004 fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. She was in competition with Ph.D. candidates as well as undergraduate students for this honor. The Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Focus Group selected only two out of 169 student papers.
Kirkwood's research focused on the periodic forcing mechanisms in cores from the Antarctic Schollaert Drift. This is the first time that a Hamilton student has won an award in a competition with Ph.D. students in any of the sciences.
She was one of seven undergraduates who participated in a research expedition to Antarctica led by Hamilton College Professor of Geology Eugene Domack in April 2004 and is currently one of three Hamilton students participating in a research expedition to Antarctica which began on Feb. 11 and ends on March 11. This current expedition is also led by Hamilton College professor Eugene Domack and funded by a National Science Foundation grant. For more information on their journey please visit www.hamilton.edu/antarctica. A photo journal will be updated daily on that site.
Kirkwood continues to investigate the natural climate variability of the Antarctic Peninsula, identifying strong periods of variability within a 5000-year record from the Schollaert Drift. This project is important because a greater understanding of climate variability is necessary for a comprehensive evaluation of current and future conditions. Kirkwood said, "An interesting result of this research is a clear deviation in magnetic susceptibility data from the natural variability of this profile during the last 25 years. In addition to natural forces, other factors such as global warming may be acting on the Schollaert Drift record."
Professor Domack, who has taken more than 100 undergraduates to Antarctica since 1987, plans to study the paleohistory of the Larsen Ice Shelf during this month's expedition and will continue to investigate the cause for the 2002 collapse of a massive ice sheet, known as Larsen B. The team of researchers hope to understand whether such a collapse is unique or part of a cycle that extends over hundreds of thousands of years.
These expeditions are among the very few that include undergraduate student researchers. Domack was awarded $851,941 from the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs in 2004.
