Gavin Dunbar
PhD
Geologist, Paleoclimatologist
Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington
Gavin Dunbar is a geologist with a research background in Antarctic geology and climate history for studying the past (in)stability of the Antarctic ice sheets and floating ice shelves. My Antarctic research began as a research fellow working on the ANDRILL drilling project in the mid-2000s. This was the first deep drilling project under the Ross Ice Shelf and the changing pattern of sediments back through time showed the ice shelf had been absent for long periods prior to ~1.6 million years ago when the world was ~3oC warmer than today.
In the Antarctic Science Platform, Gavin is working on the SWAIS2C project, our latest drilling project to understand how stable the vulnerable West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) was when global climate conditions were on average 2oC warmer than pre-industrial levels. A direct consequence of the loss of WAIS would be a 3-4m rise in global sea levels.