Georgia Grant
PhD
Geologist, sedimentologist
Earth Sciences New Zealand
Early Career Researcher
Georgia is a sedimentologist with a research background in reconstructing past sea-level and polar ice sheets during warmer-than present climates. She investigates the wax and wane of ice sheets by analysing sediment cores recovered near Greenland and Antarctica and links this global sea-level records to determine ice sheet sensitivity – how much mass loss ice sheets incur under most amounts of warming. Georgia is particularly interested in how the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets interact to trigger a response in the opposite hemisphere, which will determine the pattern of sea-level rise in New Zealand.
In the Antarctic Science Platform, Georgia was the lead sedimentologist for the SWAIS2C 2025-2026 season, that successfully recovered 228 m of West Antarctic Ice Sheet history. While many global climate records suggest 2°C warming is a tipping point for West Antarctic Ice Sheet stability (which holds up to ~5 m of global sea-level rise), finding direct evidence for retreat under such conditions will shed light on many elements of intricate climate system.