Joe Souney

Field Assistant

My name is Joe Souney and I am a graduate student in the Department of Earth Sciences and the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS) at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in Durham, New Hampshire. I was born in Portsmouth, NH and grew up in Hampton, NH. I came to UNH in 1993 and graduated in 1998 with a B.S. in Geology and a minor in Business Administration. I'm currently working on my Master's degree in Geochemical Systems/Climate Change through the Department of Earth Sciences and am a Research Assistant at the Climate Change Research Center (CCRC).

My master's thesis involves paleoclimate investigations of the last one thousand years through the chemical analysis of an ice core collected from East Antarctica. The project is a joint US-Australian project that is intended to focus on the examination of variability in climate in a region of Antarctica that may provide evidence of the frequency and magnitude of drying events in south Australia. These drying events create significant disruptions to agriculture and are the cause of many of the major fires that affect south Australia. These events also appear to be related to larger atmospheric circulation systems such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation.

Joe visits the summit of Mount Washington, the tallest peak in New England.

I'm extremely excited to be a member of the ITASE traverse because this will be my first trip to Antarctica! Along the traverse I will be a field assistant and will be participating in all aspects of sample and data collection both with science investigators in the field and for other investigators not in the field.

I first became interested in earth sciences (i.e. geology, meteorology, climatology) through my love for the outdoors -- I enjoy backpacking, rock climbing, rafting, kayaking, skiing, and mountaineering. And now, through studying earth science, I am going on the greatest outdoor adventure of my life! It's almost too hard to believe!

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