Trevor Chinn, pictured far right, with fellow scientists Dr Huw Horgan, Dr Brian Anderson, Lauren Vargo, Dr Andrew Lorrey and Andy Woods, during this year's snowline survey. Photo / Dave Allen, Niwa
Trevor Chinn, pictured far right, with fellow scientists Dr Huw Horgan, Dr Brian Anderson, Lauren Vargo, Dr Andrew Lorrey and Andy Woods, during this year's snowline survey. Photo / Dave Allen, Niwa
New Zealand's science community is mourning the loss of a renowned glaciologist who did much to document dramatic changes in the Southern Alps over recent decades.
Trevor Chinn, 81, died yesterday in Otago after earlier suffering a stroke.
The glaciologist, geologist and meteorologist had built a reputation as a respectedauthority on New Zealand's glaciers. He had only recently attended a national meteorology summit.
Much of our understanding of our slowly receding glaciers owed to Chinn's 60-year career, which included stints for the former Ministry of Works, GNS Science and Niwa.
In 2014, he told New Zealand Geographic how a childhood visit to Franz Josef Glacier inspired his life-long passion for glaciology.
"For the rest of my life I was drawn to that spectacular ice," he told the magazine.
Since his landmark aerial survey in 1977, the South Island's glaciers have shrunk by a third in area – and last year's record-hot summer proved the biggest melt on record.
Chinn was with the group of scientists who conducted the latest survey.
