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Home > Academics > Faculty > Faculty Profiles > Alan Werner
Alan Werner
Professor of Geology
Specialization: Environmental geology; climate change; surface processes; Quaternary geology
"The
answers are in the mud!" says Alan Werner. "As a kid I was told 'not to
play in the mud,' and now I make a living doing just that." Werner is
referring to his fieldwork, which he and his students conduct in remote
locations—from Alaska to the Canadian Arctic to Spitsbergen, an island
in the Arctic Sea—bringing recovered sediment cores back to the
laboratory for analysis. "Lakes, in many ways, are ideal repositories
of past environmental change," says Werner. "They preserve long and
continuous records, and organic material in the lake mud can be dated
using the radiocarbon dating method."
A specialist in glacial geology, environmental geology, and climate
change, as well as a groundwater geologist, Werner is former chair of
the College's environmental studies program and the Department of Earth
and Environment. He continues to teach a course in environmental
geology that explores the impact of natural events, such as floods and
earthquakes, and of human mismanagement, such as acid rain and the
greenhouse effect, on the environment.
Werner's research focuses on past environmental change. "Although we
tend to think that planet Earth is stable and unchanging, in fact, the
geologic record indicates that profound changes have taken place on a
variety of timescales," says Werner. He studies records of climate
change to document the nature and timing of climate events in various
locations in the Arctic.
Werner is a frequent contributor to scientific publications and is
the principal investigator of a $507,000 grant (pending) from the
National Science Foundation (NSF) to study climate change in the high
Arctic. Along with several Mount Holyoke colleagues, Werner received a
$57,000 grant from the NSF for a project integrating stable isotope
geochemistry into the geoscience curriculum. News Links:
"Questioning Authority: Al Werner on Climate Change," Office of Communications, February 9, 2007
"College Geologist Helps Town of South Hadley Look for a Reliable Source of Drinking Water," College Street Journal, January 10, 1997
"Pipeline to Alaska: Feinberg '00, Werner, and Alums Study Glacier Sediment in Alaskan Wilderness," College Street Journal, October 8, 1999
"It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a Weather Station!" College Street Journal, January 8, 1999
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