The Iceman 'Goeth' on Global Mission

For 20 years, Tom Lowell has traversed the globe to study melting glaciers and climate change.

In a UC Magazine story, the geology professor explains his research, which has taken him and students to destinations including Greenland, Bolivia, Chile, Canada, Antarctica and Tierra del Fuego, an island located at the southernmost tip of South America.

"We've been to places on the planet nobody else has been," he says. "I've seen some pretty dramatic changes. It sinks in a little more concretely when you see it with your own eyes."

By looking at glacial patterns over time, Lowell is able to reconstruct climate behavior from 1,000, 5,000 or 20,000 years ago. "Understanding what those patterns looked like in the past can tell us what is happening now and what might happen in the future," he says.