Lester W. Strock Lecture Series

2025 STrOCK LECTURER: Dr. PAUL BIERMAN, UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT

Monday, April 7, 2025
5:00 p.m.
Palamountain Hall, Davis Auditorium 

Title: Why Greenland Matters to All of Us (hint, it’s the ice)

Abstract: The massive melt we identified happened about 400,000 years ago, a time when Earth’s climate was naturally about as warm as it is today, but carbon dioxide levels were far lower. When ice on Greenland melts, water flows into the ocean raising sea level as much as 25 feet and flooding coastal zones around the world. If we let that happen again, much of Boston, New York, and Miami will be under water so will Jakarta and Mumbai. Greenland’s real value is its ice.

Past Lectures -

• 2024- Dr. Mike Cleveland '06 "Earthquake or explosion? History and future of geophysical nuclear explosion monitoring."
• 2023- Dr. Victor Guevara, "Surficial or Deep: what drives extreme rates of mountain building in the western Himalaya?"
• 2022 - Dr. Daniel Ibarra, "The Rise and Fall of Ancient Lakes in Western North America"
• 2021 - Dr. Tadesse Alemu, "Uncovering ICONS (IntraCONtinental Sags) of the Pan-African Belt: the Ethiopian Testimony”
• 2020 - cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
• 2017 - Dr. Darren Gravley "Unraveling the mystery behind the largest volcanic eruptions on earth"
• 2016 - Maya Tolstoy - Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, "Pulses of Seafloor Volcanism: Exploring Links to the Rhythms of Long-term Climate Change"
• 2015 - Paul Mann - University of Houston, “Tectonics and Geology of Lake Nicaragua:  Potential Impacts on the Nicaraguan Canal Project”
• 2014 – Darby Dyar – Mount Holyoke College, “A Year in the Life of Curiosity on Mars: New Discoveries from the Red Planet”   
• 2013 – Jason P. Briner - University at Buffalo, “The response of ice sheets to abrupt climate change”
• 2012 – Chuck Ver Straeten – New York State Museum – “Geology of the Marcellus “Shale”: Dynamic Deposition in an Oxygen-Poor Devonian Sea”                                         
• 2011 – Ellen Wohl – Colorado State University, "Seeing the forest and the trees: wood in streams of the Colorado Front Range"          
• 2010 – Steven Squyres – Cornell University "Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity and the Exploration of the Red Planet”  
• 2009 –
• 2008 –
• 2007 – Milan J. Pavich - United States Geological Survey, “Some Inconvenient Truth about Predicting Climate: A Geologic Perspective”
• 2006 – Robert Young - Western Carolina University, "Atlantic Hurricanes: Hot New Science, Same Old Policy”
• 2005 – David Finkelstein – Indiana University – “Life on the Edge of Hydration – Using alkaline lakes and geothermal springs as possible analogues for paleolakes on mars?”
• 2004 – Paul Bierman – University of Vermont, "15,000 Years of New England Landscape History - From Glaciers to Clear-Cuts and Mega-Storms"
• 2003 - Ellis Yochelson – United States Geological Survey – “Charles Doolittle Walcott (1850-1927) An Empire State Boy Makes Good: Discovery of the Cambrian Burgess Shale fossils of British Columbia and investigations into the Paleontology of Saratoga Springs, New York”
• 2002 - Arthur Palmer – SUNY Oneonta – “Hydrogen sulfide as a geologic agent: Effect on cave origin, petroleum reservoirs, aquifers, and ore deposits”
• 2000-2001 – John Holloway – Arizona State University – “Mid-Ocean Ridge Black Smokers: Biogeochemical Cauldrons on the Seafloor”
• 1999-2000 – John B. Reid, Jr. –Hampshire College – “Enslaved Africans From the New York African Burial Ground: Using Tooth 87SR/86SR to Reconstruct Their Birthplaces and Migrations”
• 1998-1999 – Reinhard A. Wobus – Williams College – “Tracking Ancient Bolcanic Rocks by Their Geochemical Footprints”
• 1997-1998 – Craig A. Johnson – US Geological Survey - “Finding Ore Deposits, Tracking Past Climates, Fingering Polluters: Stable Isotope Applications in Geological and Environmental Science”
• 1996-1997 – Anthony R. Philpotts – University of Connecticut “Can Basaltic Magmas Differentiate, And If So, How?”
• 1995-1996 – Donald I. Siegel – Syracuse University – “Wetlands and Congress: The National Controversy In Their Characterization and Control”
• 1994-1995 – Philip C. Whitney – New York State Geological Survey – “Wollastonite and the Mystery of the Adirondack Mountains”
• 1993-1994 – Nancy Rodrieguez Black – University of North Carolina – “Fluid Seeps and the Geology of the Atlantic Continental Margin”
• 1992-1993 – Lauret E. Savoy – Mount Holyoke College – “Imagined Territory: Encounters With American Landscape” 
• 1991-1992 – P. Jay Fleisher – SUNY at Oneonta – “Glaciation in New York State: Perspectives from Southeast Alaska”
• 1990-1991 – Charlotte J. Mehrtens – University of Vermont – “The Cambrian of Northwestern Vermont: An Ancient Analogue of the Bahamas Platform?
• 1989-1990 – Yngvar W. Isachsen – New York State Geological Survey – “Geology of the Adirondack Mountains: Their Birth, Death and Resurrection”
• 1988-1989 – Richard P. Major – Texas Bureau of Economic Geology – “Marine Diagenesis of Inorganic Calcite: Examples From the Upper Quaternary of the Florida-Bahamas Platform” 
• 1987-1988 - William B.F. Ryan – Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory – “New Imagery of the Ocean Floor” 
• 1986-1987 – George W. Putman – SUNY Albany – “The Mineral Springs of Saratoga”
• 1985-1986 – William B. Heroy, Jr. – Southern Methodist University – “Adventures in Applied Geophysics” 
• 1984-1985 – Gerald M. Friedman – Rensselaer Center for Applied Geology – “Recognition of Reefs: An Experience in Frustration” 
• 1983-1984 – Marion E. Bickford – University of Kansas – “Radiogenic Isotopes in Petrogenesis and Geochronology” 
• 1982-1983 – Steven R. Bohlen – SUNY – Stony Brook – “Pressure, Temperature and Fluid Composition of Adirondack Metamorphism: A Model for Petrologic Processes in the Lower Crust”