Danish paleoclimatologist Willi Dansgaard (1922-2011) revolutionized our understanding of Earth's climate by proving it was stored in the Greenland ice cap. He developed a method using mass spectroscopy to analyze oxygen isotopes in ice cores, even collecting rainfall in beer bottles to test his theory. Working with Chester C. Langway Jr. from the US Army, he discovered that Greenland warmed by 16°F over just 50 years around 14,600 years ago. His work with Lorius and Oeschger transformed our knowledge of atmospheric change over 150,000 years.
Willie Dansgaard pioneered ice core climate research using oxygen isotopes
Key facts
- Willie Dansgaard (1922-2011) was a Danish paleoclimatologist and professor emeritus of geophysics at the University of Copenhagen
- He was the first to recognize that Earth's climate history was stored in the Greenland ice cap
- Dansgaard used mass spectroscopy to analyze oxygen isotopes (O-16 and O-18) in ice cores to determine past temperatures
- He observed that about 15,000 years ago (now calibrated to ~14,600 years), Greenland warmed by 16°F over 50 years
- He placed beer bottles with funnels in his backyard to collect rainfall at various temperatures to validate his oxygen isotope theory
- Working with Chester C. Langway Jr. from the US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, he demonstrated that past climate could be deduced from oxygen isotope analysis
- His research, along with that of Claude Lorius of France and Hans Oeschger of Switzerland, revolutionized scientific knowledge of how the temperature and composition of the atmosphere have changed over the last 150,000 years
- Dansgaard died January 8, 2011, in Copenhagen at age 88
Sources
The history of Danish ice core science - Niels Bohr Institutetnbi.ku.dk
The fundamental idea of using ice cores to study past climate was conceived by Willi Dansgaard in the early 1950s.
Abrupt Change in Climate and Biotic Systems - ScienceDirect.comsciencedirect.com
Fifty years ago, Willi Dansgaard and colleagues discovered several abrupt climate change events in Greenland during the last glacial period.
Ancient leaves preserved under a mile of Greenland's icearcticfocus.org
In 1963, inside a covert U.S. military base in northern Greenland, a team of scientists began drilling down through the Greenland ice sheet. Piece by piece, ...
Abrupt climate changehistory.aip.org
A Danish group headed by Willi Dansgaard drilled a long core of ice at Camp Century, Greenland in cooperation with Americans led by Chester Langway, Jr. The ...
Willi Dansgaard Dies at 88; Read Climates in Old Icenytimes.com
Drilling into the Greenland icecap, Mr. Dansgaard was able to analyze ancient bubbles of trapped oxygen and gauge temperature.
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