A remarkable discovery buried beneath the Olympic Peninsula’s landscape will be the focus of the next Rosmond Evening Talk hosted by the Olympic Natural Resources Center (ONRC) on Tuesday, July 8, at 7 p.m.

The event, held both in person at the ONRC’s Hemlock Forest Room, 1455 S. Forks Ave., and online via Zoom, will feature Dr. Guleed Ali of Stony Brook University, who will present “Remnants of the Ice Age: The Discovery of a 15,500-Year-Old Forest Entombed in Glacial Sediments.”

Dr. Ali’s research centers on the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which once covered much of western North America. Unlike other ice sheets around the world that began to retreat after the peak of the last Ice Age (about 20,000 years ago), the Cordilleran behaved differently, continuing to advance long after global ice volumes had peaked.

In a 2024 pilot field study, Dr. Ali explored glacial deposits between the Sol Duc River and Dickey Lake, unearthing ancient plant remains buried in sediment layers. Using radiocarbon dating, he found evidence that the Juan de Fuca ice lobe reached its maximum advance after 15,400 years ago, 700 to 1,000 years later than previously believed.

“These findings challenge long-standing assumptions about how ice sheets respond to climate shifts,” said Dr. Ali. “They suggest a unique set of factors influenced the Cordilleran Ice Sheet’s behavior, with implications for understanding climate dynamics both past and present.”

Currently serving as an IDEA Fellow in Sustainable Climate Justice and Solutions in Stony Brook University’s Department of Geosciences, Dr. Ali will join the department as an Assistant Professor in fall 2025. His work applies high-precision dating and field-based techniques to reconstruct past climate conditions, helping to inform future climate projections.

The Rosmond Evening Talk series is free to the public and supported by the Rosmond Family Education Fund. Attendees can join in person or participate via Zoom at: https://washington.zoom.us/j/3834334539.