Thomas Kellogg
Professor of Earth Sciences and Climate Change Institute
Climate Change Institute

Tom, along with his wife Davida came to the University of Maine 33 years ago, Tom to participate in CLIMAP. Both got their doctorates from Columbia University, which was the lead CLIMAP university through the (then) Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory. Davida got her doctorate in theoretical evolution, but she re-tooled herself at UM to become expert at identifying species of diatoms from marine and lacustrine sediments (being mentored by Ruth Benedict, the reigning diatom diva). Tom was given a joint appointment in the (then) Institute for Quaternary Studies and the Department of Geological Sciences.

The Kellogs obtained an NSF grant to study microfossils and other sediments from the floor of the Ross Sea with the goal of determining when the grounded ice sheet became a floating ice shelf and when sea ice moved southward with the calving front of the ice shelf, including seasonal sea ice. Some years later they extended their studies to the McMurdo Ice Shelf, an extension of Ross Ice Shelf in McMurdo Sound. Their work contributed to dating and understanding the deglaciation history in the Ross Sea. The most significant contribution of the Kelloggs to Antarctic research was discrediting that the vast East Antarctic Ice Sheet had largely collapsed in the late Cenozoic

On their first expedition into Pine Island Bay, they began at Palmer Station on the Antarctic and got all the way into Pine Island Bay, an ice-free polynia, and made helicopter landings on Pine Island Glacier (for the first time). In addition, many sediment cores were collected, mostly free of micro-orgamisms, leading to the conclusion that Pine Island Bay had only recently been deglaciated. Their second expedition, they tracked along the front of Ross Ice Shelf and the edge of permanent sea ice in the Amundsen Sea as far as Pine Island Bay. The sea floor was mapped using side-scanning CHERP sonar. Six major marine channels were discovered, all continuing under Getz Ice Shelf and probably eroded by earlier extensions of ice streams now supplying the ice shelf from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Their discoveries contributed substantially to focusing NSF research on the Amundsen Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Tom along with Davida, have produced two authoritative books on diatoms in Antarctica and the Antarctic Ocean, one on lacustrine diatoms and one on marine diatoms. Tom also produced and taught a course on dinosaurs, drawing on the new evidence that they were probably warm-blooded and swift-moving, using their long tails as a counterweight when running, as opposed to the previous view that they were sluggish cold-blooded reptiles who dragged their tails. This made their course the only treatment of vertebrate paleontology in the Department.

In addition to her research activities, Davida taught navigation and naval history for the Navy ROTC on campus.

Tom and Davida thank you for your numerous contributions to Antarctica research. You have been an important part of the University Community and are wished a productive and fulfilling retirement.