Registration for the AIPG MN Section's Tuesday, March 4, 2025, technical talk is now open online!

The cost is $10 for non-members and $5 for members. Students may attend free of charge. 

This meeting will be in-person at the University of St. Thomas O'Shaughnessy Science Hall as well as online via Microsoft Teams. The meeting room at the University of St. Thomas is located in the basement of the O'Shaughnessy Science Hall in room LL 18. There is free street parking in the area and paid parking in the ramps (Anderson Parking Facility). The meeting starts at 11:45, please attend as early as 11:30, if possible. 

For those attending in-person, you can bring your own lunch to eat during the talks. Unfortunately, box lunches are no longer available for order through St. Thomas.

The meeting login link is posted below:

As always, non-members and non-geologists are welcome to attend!   

Fees go toward supporting the online meeting platform and the Education Fund. Your contribution to the Education Fund helps support many activities, please see our Giving Back page.

Climatology and Paleoclimate

Presented by Kenneth Blumenfeld Ph.D., Sr. Climatologist, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and Kevin Theissen, Ph.D., Professor, Geology and Environmental Science Programs, University of St. Thomas.

Presentation Overview

Climatology: This presentation Dr. Blumenfeld will analyze Minnesota’s various climatological highlights and lowlights of the 2020s in the context of longer-term observed trends in the region, and will examine locally-run climate model projections to understand the most likely future climate conditions in the state. In general, overall trends towards warmer and wetter conditions have continued and are projected into the future, with continued variability and continued amplification of wet/dry hydroclimatic extremes.  

Paleoclimate: In his presentation, Dr. Theissen will use his work in an arid, spring-fed, shallow lake and marshland system in Nevada to discuss the ways that sedimentary records from these systems are used as natural archives of past hydroclimate over the Holocene. Importantly, these archives show evidence of multiple episodes of century- to millennial-scale drought, thought to be both longer in duration and drier than those affecting the region today. Dr. Theissen will discuss evidence of one of these extended droughts, the Late Holocene DryPeriod (LHDP; ~3100 – 1800 y.b.p) which has been the subject of increasing attention from researchers.

Biography

Dr. Kenneth (“Kenny”) Blumenfeld, is a climate scientist who grew up in Minnesota with a love for storms, blizzards, and being outside. He works for the Minnesota State Climatology Office (DNR ), where he keeps the state’s agencies, communities, and citizens up-to-date with scientific information about Minnesota’s changing and variable climate. Kenny enjoys talking to Minnesotans about their weather, and often does it long after the workday is done. He also holds an adjunct appointment with the University of Minnesota Department of Soil, Water, and Climate.

Kevin Theissen, Ph.D., is a professor of geology and environmental science in the Department of Earth, Environment & Society at the University of St. Thomas with over 21 years of experience as a faculty member. He has broad interests in past and present climate and environmental change, and he makes extensive use of sediment cores collected from lakes as natural archives to explore these changes. Theissen has done collaborative research with many St. Thomas students and was the winner of the St. Thomas Undergraduate Research Award for faculty in 2017. He has published nearly 30 journal articles, technical reports, field trip guides, and pedagogical resources in the geosciences. His current research projects and monitoring partnerships are in the Twin Cities metro area, southern Nevada, and Croatia.