COLDEX Seminar Series

COLDEX seminars are typically held on the first Monday of each month, usually at 11 am Pacific (though times may be adjusted for international speakers). We feature talks about ice core science from scientists within and beyond COLDEX. These seminars are open to the public - please email Managing Director Danielle Whittaker (whittdan at oregonstate dot edu) for the Zoom link.

Upcoming seminars:

  • Monday, March 3, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm PT: Gavin Piccione, Brown University

  • Monday, April 7, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm PT: Allie Balter-Kennedy, Columbia University

  • Monday, May 5, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm PT: James Rae, University of St. Andrews: Continuous CO2 reconstruction across the MPT from boron isotopes informs mechanisms of glacial CO2 change

All Upcoming Events

All times are Pacific

May
5

COLDEX Seminar: James Rae

Note special time!

James Rae, University of St. Andrews: Continuous CO2 reconstruction across the MPT from boron isotopes informs mechanisms of glacial CO2 change

The Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT) represents a fundamental shift in the operation of Earth’s climate system, yet as this interval extends beyond the current reach of continuous ice core records, the role of CO2 in this transition is uncertain.  Prior to the MPT, the climate system was paced by the ~40 kyr obliquity cycle, with available CO2 reconstructions, temperatures, and ice volume all coupled to orbitally forced changes in solar energy at high latitudes.  Following the MPT, this relationship breaks down, with Northern Hemisphere ice sheets persisting through obliquity maxima in a series of “skipped terminations”, leading to longer glacial periods with larger ice sheets.  Here we examine the role of CO2 over the MPT, using high resolution boron isotope data from 3 sediment cores, spanning the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.  These records show excellent agreement with the ice core record in their younger portions, and striking consistency between sites, supporting the robustness of our reconstruction of atmospheric CO2.  We find that CO2 and ice volume remain largely coupled through the MPT, with limited CO2 rise during the skipped terminations around MIS 36 and 34, notably low CO2 during the deep glaciation of MIS 22 (the “900 ka event”), and notably high CO2 during the “super-interglacial” of MIS31.  This underscores the key role of CO2 in glacial and interglacial climate states.  In addition, it highlights that the mechanisms governing glacial-interglacial CO2 change, which are thought to be largely centred on the Southern Ocean, are not forced by orbital changes alone, but must be linked to land ice volume, as the only feature of the climate system with the inertia to persist through orbital insolation peaks.  This implies the existence of teleconnection between Northern Hemisphere ice volume and Southern Ocean CO2 storage, and we outline two potential mechanisms by which this might be achieved.

See COLDEX Slack Workspace, COLDEX Google Calendar, or email invitation for Zoom link, or email whittdan@oregonstate.edu

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Dec
18

Knowledge Transfer Monthly Meeting

The Knowledge Transfer group usually meets the fourth Wednesday of every month; this meeting is being held at a special time due to the holidays.

See COLDEX Slack Workspace, COLDEX Google Calendar, or email invitation for Zoom link, or email whittdan@oregonstate.edu

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Dec
6

Education & Leadership Monthly Meeting

The Education & Leadership group normally meets the fourth Friday of every month; this month’s meeting is rescheduled due to the holidays.

See COLDEX Slack Workspace, COLDEX Google Calendar, or email invitation for Zoom link, or email whittdan@oregonstate.edu

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Nov
4

All-Hands Meeting: Who decided what room temperature is comfortable for "All-Hands"? A discussion of professionalism and how this impacts the COLDEX community.

Professionalism is deeply rooted in the workplace. However, there are many systemic issues that discriminate against people from the historical non-majority with this social concept. In this interactive workshop, we will think about how we each learned about professionalism and about some of the deep-rooted biases that still lead to discrimination of workers today. We will work to answer the questions: 

  1. Who made the norms/rules? 

  2. Why do we still follow some of the norms/rules? 

  3. How can we reimagine what professionalism norms are for our polar science community?

Please note this workshop will touch on the topics of race, racism, gender, sex, sexual orientation, and white supremacy. We hope everyone can come to this workshop with a growth mindset.

See COLDEX Slack Workspace, COLDEX Google Calendar, or email invitation for Zoom link, or email whittdan@oregonstate.edu

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Oct
18

Bystander Intervention Training

COLDEX is organizing a field-focused workshop for Bystander Intervention concepts to follow-up from the introduction at the Annual Meeting. This is an especially important training course for all members of COLDEX and is highly encouraged for anyone deploying to the field this season. This training will occur on Friday, October 18th from 8am – 12:30pm PT / 11am – 3:30pm ET. Please be advised that is important to be present for the whole training and that active breakout rooms will be used to practice scenarios. If you plan to attend, please RVSP here by Wednesday, October 16th  to receive the Zoom meeting link and any course materials.

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Aug
5

COLDEX Seminar

COLDEX 2024 REUs will give presentations about their summer projects.

See COLDEX Slack Workspace or email invitation for Zoom link, or email whittdan@oregonstate.edu

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Jul
1

COLDEX Seminar

Dr. Carlos Martin Garcia, British Antarctic Survey: Climatic imprint in the optical and mechanical properties of ice sheets: polarimetric radar as a tool for oldest ice exploration

See COLDEX Slack Workspace or email invitation for Zoom link, or email whittdan@oregonstate.edu

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