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SEVERINGHAUS, JEFFREY

Professor of Geosciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Director, Climate-Ocean-Atmosphere Program (COAP)

Degrees:

• B.A., Oberlin College, Ohio
• M.A., University of California, Santa Barbara
• Ph.D., Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Research Interests:

• Quantification of abrupt temperature changes using measurements of nitrogen and argon isotopes in ice cores
• Mechanisms of millennial-scale climate oscillations and climate bifurcations
• Pleistocene global carbon cycle variations deduced from oxygen and noble gas measurements in ice cores
• Reconstructing changes in atmospheric noble gas composition over the past million years from air trapped in glacial ice
• Radiocarbon of methane in late glacial-age ice as a test of the sedimentary methane clathrate degassing hypothesis.
• Isotopic fractionation of air in polar firn (snow) due to gravitational settling and thermal diffusion, with implications for gas age-ice age differences and leads and lags of climate versus greenhouse gases in ice core records

Courses Recently Taught:

• ESYS102: The Solid and Fluid Earth
• SIO 267: Biogeochemistry
• SIO144: Intro to Isotope Geochemistry
• SIO209: Special Topics
• SIO252A: Intro to Isotope Geochemistry
• SIO267: Biogeochemistry

Honors and Awards:

• Comer Science and Education Fellowship, 2002-2006
• David and Lucile Packard Fellowship, 2001-2005
• Distinguished Lecturer, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 1999
• Antarctic Service Medal of the United States of America, 1999
• NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship, 1995-1997

Mentoring:

• Baggenstos, Daniel (Graduate; 2008-2009)
• Orsi, Anais (Graduate; 2007-2009)
• Hamme, Roberta (Post Doc; 2006-2007)
• Yang, Wendy (Graduate; 2006-2009)
• Kawamura, Kenji (Post Doc; 2005-2006)
• Nemzer, Boris (Post Doc; 2004-2005)
• Caillon, Nicolas (Post Doc; 2003-2004)
• Chun, Cecily (Undergrad; 2001-2001)
• Headly, Melissa (Graduate; 2001-2008)
• Kobashi, Takuro (Graduate; 2001-2007)
• Petrenko, Vasilii (Graduate; 2001-2008)
• Grachev, Alexi (Graduate; 1998-2004)

Severinghaus, J.P., Sowers, T., Brook, E.J., Alley, R.B., and Bender, M.L., Timing of abrupt climate change at the end of the Younger Dryas interval from thermally fractionated gases in polar ice, Nature 391, 141-146 (1998).

Severinghaus, J. P., and Brook, E. J., Abrupt climate change at the end of the last glacial period inferred from trapped air in polar ice, Science 286, 930-934 (1999).

Severinghaus, J. P., Grachev, A., Battle, M., Thermal fractionation of air in polar firn by seasonal temperature gradients, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 2, paper number 2000GC000146 (electronic journal) (2001).

Severinghaus, J.P., Grachev, A., Luz, B., and Caillon, N., A method for precise measurement of argon 40/36 and krypton/argon ratios in trapped air in polar ice with applications to past firn thickness and abrupt climate change in Greenland and at Siple Dome, Antarctica, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 67, 325-343 (2003).

Grachev, A.M. and Severinghaus, J.P., Laboratory determination of thermal diffusion constants for 29N2/28N2 in air at temperatures from –60 to 0˚C for reconstruction of magnitudes of abrupt climate changes using the ice core fossil-air paleothermometer, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 67, 345-360 (2003).

Caillon, N., Severinghaus, J.P., Jouzel, J., Barnola, J.-M., Kang, J., and Lipenkov, V.Y. Timing of atmospheric CO2 and Antarctic temperature changes across Termination III, Science 299, 1728-1731 (2003).

Grachev, A.M. and Severinghaus, J.P., Determining the thermal diffusion factor for 40Ar/36Ar in air to aid paleoreconstruction of abrupt climate change, Journal of Physical Chemistry A 107, 4636-4642 (2003).

Grachev, A., and Severinghaus, J.P., A revised +10±4 C magnitude of the abrupt change in Greenland temperature at the Younger Dryas termination using published GISP2 gas isotope data and air thermal diffusion constants, Quaternary Science Reviews 24, 513-519 (2005).

Petrenko, V.V., Severinghaus, J.P., Brook, E.J., Reeh, N., Schaefer, H., Gas records from the west Greenland ice margin covering the last glacial Termination: A horizontal ice core, Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 865-875 (2006).

Severinghaus, J.P., and Battle, M., Fractionation of gases in polar ice during bubble close-off: new constraints from firn air Ne, Kr, and Xe observations, Earth Planet Sci. Lett..244, 474-500 (2006).

Kobashi, T., Severinghaus, J.P., Brook, E.J., Barnola, J.-M., Grachev, A., Precise timing and characterization of abrupt climate change 8,200 years ago from air trapped in polar ice, Quaternary Science Reviews 26, 1212-1222 (2007).

Kawamura, K., F. Parrenin, L. Lisiecki, R. Uemura, F. Vimeux, J. P. Severinghaus, M. A. Hutterli, T. Nakazawa, S. Aoki, J. Jouzel, M. E. Raymo, K. Matsumoto, H. Nakata, H. Motoyama, S. Fujita, K. Goto-Azuma, Y. Fujii, O. Watanabe, Northern Hemisphere forcing of climatic cycles in Antarctica over the past 360,000 years, Nature 448, 912-916 (2007).

Headly, M. A., and J. P. Severinghaus, A Method to Measure Kr/N2 Ratios in Air Bubbles Trapped in Ice Cores, and its Application in Reconstructing Past Mean Ocean Temperature, Journal of Geophysical Research –Atmospheres 112, D19105, doi:10.1029/2006JD008317 (2007).

Aciego, S.M., K.M. Cuffey, J.L. Kavanaugh, D.L. Morse, J.P. Severinghaus, Pleistocene ice and paleo-strain rates at Taylor Glacier, Antarctica, Quaternary Research 68, 303–313 (2007).

Petrenko, V. V., J. P. Severinghaus, E. J. Brook, J. Mühle, M. Headly, C. M. Harth, H. Schaefer, N. Reeh, R. F. Weiss, D. Lowe and A. M. Smith, A novel method for obtaining very large ancient air samples from ablating glacial ice for analyses of methane radiocarbon, Journal of Glaciology, 54, 233-244 (2008).

Kobashi, T., J. P. Severinghaus, J.-M. Barnola, 4±1.5°C abrupt warming 11,270 years ago identified from trapped air in Greenland ice, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 268, 397-407 (2008).