Nicholas Shackleton, geologist and expert on climate change

LONDON – Nicholas Shackleton, a geologist whose work on ancient climate change helped scientists understand global warming, has died at the age of 68.

Cambridge University announced that Shackleton died of cancer on January 24 in the English university town. Shackleton specialised in paleoclimatology, the study of how the Earth’s climate has changed over time, and involved studying fluctuations in the ice sheet over the last 1.8 million years.His work on the role played by carbon dioxide in climate change helped establish the link between greenhouse gases and climate change.The university said Shackleton “passionately believed that scientists could contribute to society and help predict future environmental change by first understanding past climatic changes and using geology to learn about the Earth’s environment”.Sir Nicholas was also a pioneer in the study of deep-sea fossils, modifying a spectrometer, an instrument used to measure spectral wavelengths, so that it could analyse minuscule samples embedded in sediment on the ocean floor.That technology opened the door to a variety of studies, including one finding evidence that the most recent reversal of the earth’s magnetic field took place 780 000 years ago.Born June 23 1937 – a distant relative of the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton – Shackleton studied at Cambridge and remained at the university until his retirement in 2004.Shackleton was named a Fellow of the Royal Society, Britain’s most prestigious science body, in 1985 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998 for services to science.He was also an enthusiastic musician who collected clarinets and wrote articles on the history of the instrument.- Nampa-APShackleton specialised in paleoclimatology, the study of how the Earth’s climate has changed over time, and involved studying fluctuations in the ice sheet over the last 1.8 million years.His work on the role played by carbon dioxide in climate change helped establish the link between greenhouse gases and climate change.The university said Shackleton “passionately believed that scientists could contribute to society and help predict future environmental change by first understanding past climatic changes and using geology to learn about the Earth’s environment”.Sir Nicholas was also a pioneer in the study of deep-sea fossils, modifying a spectrometer, an instrument used to measure spectral wavelengths, so that it could analyse minuscule samples embedded in sediment on the ocean floor.That technology opened the door to a variety of studies, including one finding evidence that the most recent reversal of the earth’s magnetic field took place 780 000 years ago.Born June 23 1937 – a distant relative of the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton – Shackleton studied at Cambridge and remained at the university until his retirement in 2004.Shackleton was named a Fellow of the Royal Society, Britain’s most prestigious science body, in 1985 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998 for services to science.He was also an enthusiastic musician who collected clarinets and wrote articles on the history of the instrument.- Nampa-AP