Research geologist to explain scientific adventure of climat

Some Inconvenient Truth about Predicting Climate: A Geologic Perspective, is the title of this spring's Lester W. Strock Lecture, to be presented Thursday, Feb. 15, by Milan J. Pavich, research geologist with the U.S. Geologic Survey. Free and open to the public, the talk will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Davis Auditorium of Palamountain Hall.

Pavich will focus on how complex natural cycles make climate prediction a scientific adventure. He explains that current climate models link global warming with carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning. While it is clear that atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the interpretation of warming is complicated by factors such as solar cycles, land clearing and ocean circulation. Geologic information provides a longer-term perspective on the interpretation of natural variability in complex systems, he maintains.

Pavich's main research interest is the dating of Quaternary deposits and landforms and the response of landforms to climate tectonics. He received his doctoral degree in 1974 from Johns Hopkins University.

Skidmore's Lester W. Strock Lecture was endowed by geochemist Lester Strock, a well-known authority on Saratoga's mineral springs. Strock, who died in 1982, spent much of his career in research at MIT and at the Sylvania Electric Co. The Department of Geosciences sponsors the Strock Lecture.