Trevor James Hill Chinn (9 August 1937 – 20 December 2018)
was a New Zealand
glaciologist
Glaciology (; ) is the scientific study of glaciers, or more generally ice and natural phenomena that involve ice.
Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, clima ...
, who conducted extensive surveys of the
glaciers
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...
of New Zealand's
Southern Alps
The Southern Alps (; officially Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana) is a mountain range extending along much of the length of New Zealand's South Island, reaching its greatest elevations near the range's western side. The name "Southern ...
.
Early life
Growing up near the town of
Te Taho (about eight kilometers from
Whataroa
Whataroa is a small township in southern Westland District, Westland on the West Coast, New Zealand, West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is located on the western bank of the Whataroa River, with the village of Te Taho on the other side. ...
) in
South Westland
Westland District is a territorial authority district on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is administered by the Westland District Council. The district's population is
History
Westland was originally a part of Canterbury Pro ...
, near the
Franz Josef Glacier
The Franz Josef Glacier (; officially Franz Josef Glacier / ) is a temperate maritime glacier in Westland Tai Poutini National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Together with the Fox Glacier to the south, and a third glacie ...
, Trevor Chinn was fascinated by water and glaciers at an early age. While at the
University of Canterbury
The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was ...
Chinn joined the
tramping
Tramping may refer to:
Travel
*Hiking
*Trekking
*Tramping in New Zealand, a style of backpacking or hiking
* Czech tramping, a Czech outdoors pastime
Places
* Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380, Saskatchewan, Canada
** Tramping Lake, Sas ...
club, and graduated with a BSc in
geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...
.
Trevor was the second of four children to Alfred and Myrtle (née Sweney) Chinn.
Career
During the early 1960s Chinn worked for the North Canterbury Catchment Board, near
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...
. In his role as field
hydrologist
Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...
, Chinn quickly learned the elements of river gauging and meticulous record keeping. Following a training period with the
Ministry of Works, Chinn was invited to apply for a field role carrying out snow surveys on the
Tasman Glacier
Haupapa / Tasman Glacier is the largest glacier in New Zealand, and one of several large glaciers which flow south and east towards the Mackenzie Basin from the Southern Alps in New Zealand's South Island.
Geography
At in length, Tasman Glacie ...
and in the wider
Mackenzie Basin
The Mackenzie Basin (), popularly and traditionally known as the Mackenzie Country, is an elliptical intermontane basin located in the Mackenzie and Waitaki Districts, near the centre of the South Island of New Zealand. It is the largest su ...
. This new job was with the Ministry of Works, based in
Timaru
Timaru (; mi, Te Tihi-o-Maru) is a port city in the southern Canterbury Region of New Zealand, located southwest of Christchurch and about northeast of Dunedin on the eastern Pacific coast of the South Island. The Timaru urban area is home to ...
,
South Canterbury
South Canterbury is the area of the Canterbury Region of the South Island of New Zealand bounded by the Rangitata River in the north and the Waitaki River (the border with the Otago Region) to the south. The Pacific Ocean and ridge of the Southe ...
. The Ministry of Works were primarily interested in water resources for hydroelectric power schemes in the Mackenzie Basin. A major source of stored water for power generation existed in the form of the Tasman Glacier, New Zealand's longest body of ice ( as of 2018). From 1965 to 1970 Chinn, along with several others carried out a series of mass balance estimates of the Tasman Glacier, using traditional snow accumulation and
ablation
Ablation ( la, ablatio – removal) is removal or destruction of something from an object by vaporization, chipping, erosion, erosive processes or by other means. Examples of ablative materials are described below, and include spacecraft materi ...
poles. In 1965 UNESCO coincidentally established the International Hydrological Decade (IHD) which aimed to quantify the water resources of contributing nations. The IHD criteria stipulated each nation establish a 'basin analysis' for water resources. Basins could be shallow river catchments or alpine glacier cirques, either way, measuring the water volume into and out of, a basin was the metric to yield information on the earth's stored water. In 1965 New Zealand was invited by the IHD to participate in the programme. By 1967 Chinn identified the small Ivory Glacier as an ideal candidate to carry out mass balance studies. Located at the head of the
Waitaha River, Westland, the Ivory Glacier is now a mere remnant of its former
cirque
A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform ...
basin status. Between 1968 and 1985, the Ivory Glacier programme generated several reports and numerous papers on the mass balance, meteorology and glacial erosion rates During the 1970s Chinn also established a series of rain gauges across the width of the Southern Alps. The rain gauge 'transect' produced a remarkable rainfall profile across the alps with a maximum of of rain per annum near the Ivory Glacier. By 1975 Trevor Chinn had completed an MSc thesis on the glacial geomorphology of the upper
Waimakariri River
The Waimakariri River is one of the largest rivers in Canterbury, on the eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island. It flows for in a generally southeastward direction from the Southern Alps across the Canterbury Plains to the Pacific Ocean. ...
catchment. In 1977, Chinn also took part in the 'World Glacier Inventory', documenting 3140 glaciers in New Zealand's
South Island
The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...
. Given this high number of glaciers, Chinn could see that to calculate the volume of glacial ice in the Southern Alps, it was impossible to measure every glacier. By taking a sub-sample of 51 'index glaciers' Chinn could estimate their ice volumes from aerial photographs of the end of summer snowline (EOSS) elevation. This pioneering method meant that Chinn and colleagues could provide an annual summary of ice volume. Today, the snowline data set consists of 41 years of climate data and climbing. In 2008, Chinn co-authored a paper noting that - since this initial survey - New Zealand's glaciers had lost 15 percent of their total volume.
[ A subsequent publication in 2014 noted that the loss of ice had now grown to 34 percent.
Chinn's career spanned more than 60 years, working in New Zealand and ]Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...
, and included work at the Ministry of Works and Development, DSIR Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, abbreviated DSIR was the name of several British Empire organisations founded after the 1923 Imperial Conference to foster intra-Empire trade and development.
* Department of Scientific and Industria ...
Geological Survey (which became GNS Science
GNS Science ( mi, Te Pū Ao), officially registered as the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Limited, is a New Zealand Crown Research Institute. It focuses on geology, geophysics (including seismology and volcanology), and nuclear sc ...
in 1992) and NIWA
The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research or NIWA ( mi, Taihoro Nukurangi), is a Crown Research Institute of New Zealand. Established in 1992, NIWA conducts research across a broad range of disciplines in the environmental scien ...
.[ From the early 2000s Trevor Chinn became a consultant under the name Alpine and Polar Processes Consultancy, working from his home] at Lake Hawea
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...
township, Central Otago.
Awards and honours
Chinn was awarded a Doctor of Science (DSc) degree in 2007 from his alma mater and in 1998 a small glacier in Antarctica was named Chinn Glacier
Chinn Glacier () is a glacier long on the south side of Mount Theseus in the Olympus Range, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. A hanging glacier, it terminates on the north wall of Wright Valley. It was named by the New Zealand Geographic Board (1 ...
in his honour. In 2016 The International Glaciological Society awarded Trevor Chinn the Richardson Medal.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chinn, Trevor
1937 births
2018 deaths
New Zealand glaciologists
20th-century New Zealand scientists
21st-century New Zealand scientists