Hartmut Heinrich

Hartmut Heinrich (born March 5, 1952 in Northeim, Lower Saxony) is a German marine geologist and climatologist. Dr. Heinrich is Head of the Physics Department at the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) in Hamburg. He is actively involved in GOOS (Global Ocean Observing System). In 1988 he described the suddenly occurring climate changes in the history of the earth, which have since been named after him, Heinrich events.

Heinrich studied geology at the University of Göttingen and attained a doctorate at the University of Kiel in marine geology. The discovery which was named for him, Heinrich events — periods of substantial ice output of the continental ice sheets, by which the global climate is strongly affected — were subsequently confirmed by investigations of ice core samples from the Greenland ice sheet by the Greenland ice core project (GRIP). Dr. Heinrich warns of the global warming consequences which could occur precipitously and of far larger effects on navigation and population.