Joanne Johnson

Joanne S. Johnson (born 1977, Birmingham, née Garner) is a geologist and Antarctic scientist, who has worked for British Antarctic Survey (BAS) since 2002. She works in the palaeoenvironments, ice sheets and climate change team[1] and is best known for her work on glacial retreat.[2] The Johnson Mesa in James Ross Island, Antarctica is named in her honour.[3]

Not to be confused with Canadian photographer Joanne Jackson Johnson.

Joanne Johnson
Born
Joanne S. Garner

1977 (age 43–44)
Birmingham
NationalityBritish
EducationKing Edward VI High School for Girls
Alma materUniversity of Durham (BSc)
University of Cambridge (PhD)
AwardsLaws Prize (2008)
Marie Tharp Fellowship (2010)
Scientific career
FieldsGeology
InstitutionsBritish Antarctic Survey
ThesisMagmatism of the Vitim Volcanic Field, Baikal Rift Zone, Siberia (2002)
Doctoral advisorSally A. Gibson
Websitewww.bas.ac.uk/profile/jsj

Early life and education

Johnson decided to follow a science career after enjoying studying science at King Edward VI High School for Girls during her teenage years. In 1998, Johnson obtained a BSc degree in Geology (1st class) from Durham University (Hatfield College). She then went on to complete a PhD in 2002, supervised by Sally A. Gibson at Clare College, Cambridge, with a thesis on Magmatism of the Vitim Volcanic Field, Baikal Rift Zone, Siberia.[4] The research consisted of using geochemical characteristics of lavas to study the composition and thickness of the lithosphere in the Baikal Rift Zone of Siberia, and to improve understanding of the melting regime beneath the region during the Cenozoic.[5]

Career and research

After her PhD, Johnson began work at British Antarctic Survey (BAS). The first project she worked on (2002–2005) was an analysis of the origin and implications of authigenic alteration minerals in volcaniclastic rocks from James Ross Island.[6] In 2005–2009, she worked in the QWAD (Quaternary West Antarctic Deglaciation project), within the GRADES (Glacial Retreat in Antarctica and Deglaciation of the Earth System) programme at BAS, reconstructing Quaternary thinning history of Pine Island Glacier.[2] Her work showed that Pine Island Glacier thinned as rapidly 8000 years ago as it is at the present day.[7][8]

From 2015 to 2020, Johnson is working on a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded project "Reconstructing millennial-scale ice sheet change in the western Amundsen Sea Embayment, Antarctica, using high-precision exposure dating", with a team from BAS, Imperial College London, Durham University, Columbia University (USA) and Pennsylvania State University (USA).[9] She is also working on other projects including

  • Exploring feedbacks between glaciation, volcanism and climate in Antarctica: studying carbon dioxide outgassing from the James Ross Island lavas using melt inclusions in olivines
  • Determining Quaternary glacial history of the Lassiter Coast, Antarctica
  • Comminution dating boundary conditions: A study of (234U/238U) disequilibrium along the Antarctic Peninsula
  • Antarctic Peninsula exhumation and landscape development investigated by low-temperature detrital thermochronometry

Some of her research has taken place in remote parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.[10]

Publications

Her publications[11][12][1] include:

  • Collaborating On Glacial Research[13]
  • Rapid thinning of Pine Island Glacier in the early Holocene[7]
  • Zeolite compositions as proxies for eruptive palaeoenvironment[6]
  • Volcanism in the Vitim Volcanic Field, Siberia: Geochemical Evidence for a Mantle Plume Beneath the Baikal Rift Zone [5]

Awards and honours

Johnson was awarded the Laws Prize by BAS in 2008[14] and the Columbia University, Marie Tharp Fellowship for 2010–2011.[13] The three-month fellowship allowed Johnson to collaborate with scientists at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory with the results published in the journal Science.[7]

In January 2007, due to the impact of Johnson's work (which also led to a completely novel proxy for recognising past ice sheets using alteration mineral chemistry), the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee named a feature on James Ross Island, Antarctica after her. Johnson Mesa, James Ross Island, Antarctica (63° 49'40"S, 57° 55'22"W) is a large flat-topped volcanic mountain north of Abernethy Flats, between Crame Col and Bibby Point on Ulu Peninsula, James Ross Island.[15][16]

Personal life

Johnson is married with two children (2008 and 2013): [17] She has spoken about the challenges of doubling as a scientist and mother: "The hardest thing is being torn between your personal and professional ambitions…Wanting to go to conferences, but not wanting to leave your children. Having to leave work early or drop everything if you get a phone call that she's sick. You could be in the middle of a complicated thought process and you have to start again."[13]

References
  1. Anon (2015). "Joanne Johnson". bas.ac.uk. British Antarctic Survey. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  2. Anon (2008). "Research highlights". Nature. 452 (7184): 130–131. Bibcode:2008Natur.452..130.. doi:10.1038/452130a.
  3. "Johnson Mesa". Mapcarta.com. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  4. Garner, Joanne S. (2002). Magmatism of the Vitim Volcanic Field, Baikal Rift Zone, Siberia. jisc.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 879396574. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.599321. Archived from the original on 14 February 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  5. Johnson, J.S., Gibson, S.A., Thompson, R.N., Nowell, G.M (2005). "Volcanism in the Vitim Volcanic Field, Siberia: Geochemical Evidence for a Mantle Plume Beneath the Baikal Rift Zone". Journal of Petrology. 46 (7): 1309–1344. Bibcode:2005JPet...46.1309J. doi:10.1093/petrology/egi016.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. Johnson & Smellie (2007). "Zeolite compositions as proxies for eruptive palaeoenvironment". Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. 8 (3): n/a. Bibcode:2007GGG.....8.3009J. doi:10.1029/2006GC001450.
  7. Johnson; et al. (2014). "Rapid thinning of Pine Island Glacier in the early Holocene" (PDF). Science. 343 (6174): 999–1001. Bibcode:2014Sci...343..999J. doi:10.1126/science.1247385. PMID 24557837. S2CID 38682696.
  8. "Millennia of Melting: New Research Confirms Antarctic Thaw Fears". spiegel.de. Der Spiegel. 2014. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  9. Johnson, Joanne. "ANiSEED – AmuNdsen Sea Embayment Exposure Dating". bas.ac.uk. British Antarctic Survey. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  10. "Dr Jo Johnson: Geologist". youtube.com. YouTube.
  11. Joanne Johnson publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  12. Joanne Johnson's ORCID 0000-0003-4537-4447
  13. Joanne Johnson And Lamont-Doherty. "Collaborating on Glacial Research". Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  14. British Antarctic Survey Club. "The Laws Prize". British Antarctic Survey Club. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  15. "Meeting of the Antarctic Place Names Committee" (PDF). Apc.antarctica.ac.uk. 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  16. "Glacial landsystems on James Ross Island". Antarcticglaciers.org. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  17. Byrd Land, Marie (2015). "Being a parent working in Antarctica". Bas.ac.uk. British Antarctic Survey. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
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