Of El Nino and glaciers

Deirdre Newman

Neil Holbrook, a distinguished Australian oceanographer, has

studied glaciers in Antarctica and the El Nino weather pattern.

Last Tuesday, he lectured to students in a beginning level

oceanography course at Orange Coast College.

Dennis Kelly, the class instructor, said he invited Holbrook to

provide up-to-date, detailed insight on what his students are

studying in a more general fashion -- the entire ocean.

“He’s a research scientist and he has done some cutting-edge

research,” Kelly said. “I thought my students would get enough out of

his talk that we could discuss it informally and we could get a new

understanding because he presented some information that’s not in any

of the textbooks yet.”

Kelly’s class has just started examining the connection between

the ocean and the atmosphere and the circulation of water in the

ocean, which “based on my 28 years of study seems to be more

important than anything else,” Kelly said.

Holbrook addressed Kelly’s class in an informal and down-to-earth

manner. At one point, he put up a diagram and then said he wouldn’t

talk about it too much because even he didn’t understand it.

He talked about his adventures doing research on glaciers in

Antarctica. In 1988, he got stranded on a ship off of the continent

because of a massive engine room fire. He went back a year later and

sailed right up to a humongous glacier.

“It was amazing going on the voyage because it was the first time

anyone had gone down to the [western] region of Antarctica,” Holbrook

said. “It was dark and you basically felt like you were sailing off

the end of the Earth.”

He also talked about the history of El Nino, a warming pattern in

the eastern Pacific Ocean that he said was observed for hundreds of

years but not understood until someone figured it out at the end of

the 1960s.

Kelly said he reveres Holbrook as one of the preeminent experts on

the once-mysterious weather pattern.

“It’s like talking to the ocean about El Nino,” Kelly said.

Many of Kelly’s students said they were impressed with Holbrook’s

presentation of his research.

“I think he’s great,” said Diane Ackerman, 18. “He very

informative and it’s nice to hear new information in addition to

regular information. [Kelly] was saying this is new information to

him, too.”

After Holbrook talked to his students, Kelly had a long discussion

with them and said about one-fourth of the class understood

everything Holbrook said.

“Even those who said they didn’t understand said they were

interested because they could see how interested I was,” Kelly said.

“They were glad he came.

“The statement they made that was most profound was, ‘This is

something we need to hear regardless of whether we understand it or

not,’” Kelly said.

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot

education writer Deirdre Newman visits a campus in the Newport-Mesa

area and writes about her experience.