Greg Balco is a specialist in applications of noble gas and cosmogenic-nuclide geochemistry to Earth surface processes research. This includes both basic research into physical and chemical aspects of these methods and applied research in fields ranging from Antarctic ice sheet change to paleoseismology. Balco has particular expertise in applications of cosmogenic-nuclide geochemistry to Antarctic ice sheet change research, including participation in 11 field expeditions to remote parts of Antarctica as well as close involvement in the development and use of subglacial bedrock recovery drilling systems aimed at determining whether or not ice sheets were smaller during past periods of warm climate. Balco also developed and manages much of the computational and data management infrastructure used for synoptic application of exposure-age data to applications such as paleoclimate and glacier change.
Primary Areas of Research Interest
Glacier and ice sheet change
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Antarctic ice sheet change and sea level impacts
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Ice sheets during past warm climates
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Subglacial bedrock recovery drilling
Geoscience applications of cosmogenic nuclides
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Fault slip rate reconstruction for seismic hazard analysis
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Multiple-nuclide burial dating
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Quantitative geomorphology
Basic research in noble gas and cosmogenic-nuclide geochemistry
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Analytical methods development for cosmogenic helium and neon
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Production rate systematics and calibration
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Cosmogenic noble gas production-diffusion systems
Computational infrastructure for geochronology
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Online exposure age calculators
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The ICE-D database project
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Synoptic applications of exposure-age data
Selected Publications
Balco, G., 2020. Glacier change and paleoclimate applications of cosmogenic-nuclide exposure dating. Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 48.
Nichols, K., Goehring, B.M., Balco, G., Johnson, J.S., Hein, A.S., Todd, C.E., 2019. New Last Glacial Maximum ice thickness constraints for the Weddell Sea sector, Antarctica. The Cryosphere, 13, pp. 2935- 2951.
Balco, G., Blisniuk, K., Hidy, A., Stone, J., 2019. Chlorine-36/beryllium-10 burial dating of alluvial sediments associated with the Mission Creek strand of the San Andreas Fault, California, USA. Geochronology.
Johnson J.S., Nichols K.A., Goehring B.M., Balco G., Schaefer J.M., 2019. Abrupt mid-Holocene ice loss in the western Weddell See Embayment of Antarctica. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 518, pp. 127-135.
Balco, G., Todd, C., Goehring, B.M., Moening-Swanson, I., Nichols, K., 2019. Glacial geology and cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages from the Tucker Glacier - Whitehall Glacier confluence, northern Victoria Land, Antarctica. American Journal of Science 319, pp. 255-286.