Climate Change Institute
University of Maine
Bryand Global Sciences Center
Orono, ME 04469-5790
207-581-2197 Ph/Voicemail
207-581-1203 Fax
kirk.maasch at maine.edu
I am interested in understanding climate change on timescales ranging from several years to millions of years. I have placed a major emphasis on: (1) construction of low-order models for global climate change over the past several million years, and (2) statistical treatment of the geologic record of paleoclimatic variations in conjunction with the construction of such theoretical models. These paleoclimate dynamics models (PDMs) contain the feedbacks between components of the earth system most likely to be involved in known climate variations. These PDMs represent our best attempt to account for all of the available evidence for climate change through time. They are a closed set of statements which describe the time dependent variations of key climate variables such as global ice mass, atmospheric carbon dioxide, and ocean circulation.
The importance of an interplay between the collection and interpretation of data and the development of a theory capable of explaining all of the observations cannot be overemphasized. Generally speaking, all geologic evidence for global climate variations must be taken into account in building a complete theory of climate (including ice ages) conforming as closely as possible to all aspects of this evidence. I am involved in projects which investigate climate change (and its cause) on tectonic time scales (millions of years), earth orbital time scales (20-100 thousand years), millennial time scales (1-10 thousand years), and interannual/decadal/historical time scales (1-100 years).
Sandweiss, D.H., J.B. Richardson, III, E.J. Reitz, H.B. Rollins, and K.A. Maasch, 1997, Determining the beginning of Niño: Response. Science, 276, 966-967.
Reusch, D.N. and K.A. Maasch, 1997, The transition from arc volcanism to exhumation, weathering of young Ca, Mg, Sr silicates and CO2 drawdown. In: Tectonic boundary conditions for climate reconstructions, Crowley, T. and Burke K. (eds.), Oxford Monographs on Geology and Geophysics.
Sandweiss, D.H., K.A. Maasch, D.F. Belknap, J.B. Richardson, and H.B. Rollins, 1997, Discussion of L.E. Wells, 1996. The Santa beach ridge complex. J. Coastal Res., 14, 367-373.
Reusch, D.N., G. Ravizza, K.A. Maasch, and J.D. Wright, 1998, Miocene seawater 187Os/ 186Os ratios inferred from metalliferous carbonates. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 160, 163-178.
Marshall, S., R.J. Oglesby, K.A. Maasch, and G.T. Bates, 1999, Improving climate model representations of snow hydrology, Environmental Modelling & Software, 14, 327-334.
Sandweiss, D.H., K.A. Maasch, and D.G. Anderson, 1999, Climate and Culture: Transitions in the Mid-Holocene. Science, 283, 499-500.
Sandweiss, D.H., K.A. Maasch, R.L. Burger, J.B. Richardson III, H.B. Rollins, A. Clement, 2001 Variation in Holocene El Niño frequencies: Climate records and cultural consequences in ancient Peru. Geology 29, 603-606.
Maasch, K.A., and T.K. Dupont, 2003, The Role of the sea-ice/ocean system in millennial climate change, J. Clim., in review.
Sandweiss, D.H., K.A. Maasch, F. Chai, C.F.T. Andrus, and E.J. Reitz, 2004, Geoarchaeological Evidence for Multi-decadal Natural Climatic Variability and Ancient Peruvian Fisheries. Quaternary Research 61: 330-334.