PROFILE Profile of Lonnie G. Thompson ithin the bustling campus Virginia or Ohio, I may have ended up of Ohio State University there because I did really enjoy it.’’ (Columbus, OH) rests one Thompson entered Marshall Univer- of the most extensive ar- sity (Huntington, WV) in 1966, unde- Wchives of the Earth’s history chronicling cided as to which scientific field to the past 700,000 years. Visually, this re- pursue. He started studying physics and pository may not appear impressive: no met his future wife, Ellen Mosley, who fossils or pottery fragments, just ice— was the only woman majoring in physics lots and lots of ice. Over 7,000 m (Ϸ4.2 at that time. After doing well in an in- miles) of glacial ice, to be exact, have troductory geology class during his been collected from some of the most junior year, however, Thompson was imposing mountaintops of the world: the invited by the instructor to help out in Andes, the Himalayas, even the snows a project making mineral sets for West of Mount Kilimanjaro. Trapped and Virginia’s state parks. Working on the preserved within these frozen cylindrical sets and discussing geology with the cores, however, lies the true beauty of other students convinced Thompson these specimens: small flecks of dust that earth science was the path to fol- and oxygen isotopes that provide a his- Lonnie G. Thompson low, and he graduated with a bachelor’s torical record of trends and shifts in the degree in geology in 1970. earth’s climate. At the time, Thompson’s career ambi- At first glance, the geologist who led in a recent National Research Council tions swayed toward the practical side. the way in stockpiling this vast frozen report that Thompson helped review ‘‘I think that, like many people, when I library, Lonnie Thompson, University (3), the ratios of oxygen isotopes in vari- started out, I was looking for what I could Distinguished Professor at Ohio State ous ice cores show that the current tem- train myself in so I could get a job and University’s School of Earth Sciences, peratures in many tropical regions are receive a paycheck,’’ he says. ‘‘Then, I also appears unassuming. But, starting the warmest they have been in millennia think, if you’re lucky, as you go down that with a 1974 reconnaissance mission to and are now threatening many of these route, somewhere along the line, you find the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru, Thomp- glaciers with extinction. This alarming your purpose.’’ For his financial goals, son has led 50 expeditions to remote trend has turned Thompson into both a Thompson applied to Ohio State Univer- highlands in 15 countries, braving howl- scientist and an advocate for the cause sity with the aim of studying with J. ing winds, frostbite, rockslides, and alti- to protect these precious commodities, William Schopf, a well known coal expert tude sickness in his quest to collect and and his effort on both fronts earned him who worked for the U.S. Geological Sur- analyze these valuable ice cores. Consid- an election to the National Academy of vey. If there was one thing that was plenti- ful in West Virginia, it was coal. Once ered the founder of tropical alpine Sciences in 2005. Although Thompson Thompson arrived in Columbus, however, paleoclimatology, Thompson had the wants his repository to be a place where he was exposed to the then-new field of foresight to understand the importance scientists can analyze ice samples from polar paleoclimatology, which examines of ice in tropical latitudes when most all over the world, he does not want it eyes were focused exclusively on polar the physical and chemical properties pre- to become a museum that holds the last served in layers of ice and snow to under- latitudes. But even he did not realize vestiges of these glaciers. just how valuable his ice-core collection stand ancient climate patterns. Thompson obtained a part-time job analyzing some would become. Coal to Cores In 1978, as Thompson was preparing of the first deep-ice samples from Green- Thompson was raised on a small farm land and Antarctica and was thrilled by for his first ice-core drilling on Peru’s on the outskirts of Gassaway, WV. He Quelccaya, he decided to take some the experience. grew up in a working-class family, and, baseline measurements of the glacier so He switched to the Institute for Polar unfortunately, rural West Virginia was he could monitor how tropical glaciers Studies at Ohio State University but felt not an easy place to find work. Thomp- behave over time. ‘‘I didn’t know quite that the polar ice cores were not telling son had numerous part-time jobs while what to expect, since no one had ever the complete story. ‘‘Polar glaciers only taken such measurements on Quelccaya, in high school, and he managed to raise cover 10% of the earth, and they’re in the world’s largest tropical ice cap,’’ he some extra revenue at school by betting regions where nobody lives,’’ he ex- says. Every 2 to 3 years, he returned for on one of his favorite pastimes: predict- plains. Thompson then crossed paths updated photographs and measure- ing the weather. Thompson had set up with John Mercer, a glacial geologist ments, which revealed a surprising flow: an amateur weather station in a family who, before coming to Ohio State, had the Quelccaya glacier was retreating, barn, where he took temperature, pres- worked for the American Geographical and, not only that, the retreat was accel- sure, and humidity readings twice a day. Society, compiling an atlas of the plan- erating (1). ‘‘If you go back to that time, ‘‘And at that time, you could actually et’s glaciers. ‘‘[Mercer] brought with him global warming wasn’t even an issue. get from the NOAA [National Oceanic all the aerial photographs he had used People were worrying about the next ice and Atmospheric Administration] a in making the atlas, and it was in those age.’’ But measurements of other gla- daily weather map for the U.S., and boxes that we found the photos of the ciers revealed the same stark results; the then you could look at those charts and Quelccaya ice cap,’’ says Thompson. ice caps were getting smaller, whereas learn to predict what’s going to happen the next day and the following day by the air around them was getting warmer. This is a Profile of a recently elected member of the National As highlighted in Thompson’s Inaugu- what’s upstream from where we were Academy of Sciences to accompany the member’s Inaugural ral Article in a recent issue of PNAS living,’’ he says. ‘‘If you could have got- Article on page 10536 in issue 28 of volume 103. (2), the results of which also appeared ten a degree in meteorology in West © 2006 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA www.pnas.org͞cgi͞doi͞10.1073͞pnas.0605347103 PNAS ͉ August 1, 2006 ͉ vol. 103 ͉ no. 31 ͉ 11437–11439 Downloaded by guest on September 28, 2021 Thompson began thinking that studying this tropical ice would be an effective way to connect the data from the Arctic and Antarctic. Says Thompson, ‘‘50% of the surface of the planet is in the trop- ics, that’s where 70% of the people live. That’s also the place where you have the big climate events that impact the world today. El Nin˜o, monsoons—those are all tropical phenomena.’’ Thompson and Mercer took the pho- tographs to Washington, DC, to meet with the manager of the Office of Polar Programs, which at the time was the only agency that funded ice studies. Thompson recalls that the manager seemed interested in his proposal but in the end told him, ‘‘Lonnie, we can’t fund that because it’s not north of the Arctic Circle and it’s not south of the Antarctic Circle.’’ Disappointed, Thompson headed to Byrd Station in Antarctica later that year to do field- work for the 1973–1974 summer season. Thompson, hiking on Mount Kilimanjaro glacier, 2000. ‘‘Toward the end of that field season, I got a telex from the program manager, Jay Zwally,’’ says Thompson, ‘‘and it first glaciological and geologic data climbed up, leaving the drill and genera- said, ‘I’ve funded all of my real science from this icy environment (4). tor behind, and obtained a 24-year projects, and I have $7,000 left. What Shortly after Thompson returned record of the isotopes and dust accumu- could you do on that tropical glacier for from the exploratory trek, he wrote an lation from one crevasse, from which $7,000?’ And I telexed back and said, ambitious proposal to go back and drill they published a paper on the El Nin˜o ‘I think we could get there!’’’ the ice field. The Atmospheric Science record (5). ‘‘Still, we really either had to Division of the National Science Foun- give up at that stage or come up with a Reaching the Summit dation (NSF) funded his venture, based new way to drill,’’ he says. In June 1974, Thompson stood before on their interest in obtaining El Nin˜o Thompson and Bruce Koci, an engi- the awe-inspiring sight of Peru’s massive and monsoon data. ‘‘And they didn’t neer at the University of Nebraska (Lin- Quelccaya ice cap stretching across the care where the records came from, coln, NE), came up with the idea of a horizon. He seemed an unlikely sort to whether it was ice or lakes or instru- solar-powered drill, which should oper- be standing at the summit of this impos- ments,’’ says Thompson.