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Earth Science
USA
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Earth Science

D-Index
96
Citations
34006
World Ranking
174
National Ranking
85

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Earth Science in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Earth Science in United States Leader Award

Overview

James P. Kennett is affiliated with the University of California, Santa Barbara in the United States. Their research primarily encompasses Earth and Planetary Sciences as well as Engineering. Within these broad disciplines, they have contributed notably to subfields such as Ocean Engineering, Geophysics, Atmospheric Science, Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Paleontology.

Their work spans multiple interrelated topics reflecting a multidisciplinary approach. Key areas of focus include Reservoir Engineering and Simulation Methods, Drilling and Well Engineering, Geology and Paleoclimatology Research, Archaeology and ancient environmental studies, Hydraulic Fracturing and Reservoir Analysis, Planetary Science and Exploration, and earthquake and tectonic studies.

James P. Kennett has published extensively across a range of venues. The most frequent platforms include Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), OPAL (Open@LaTrobe) from La Trobe University, Airbursts and Cratering Impacts, Scientific Reports, and Preprints.org. These venues reflect a blend of open access and peer-reviewed scientific dissemination channels.

The scientist has collaborated regularly with several coauthors, highlighting a network of research partnerships. Key frequent coauthors include Allen West, Malcolm A. LeCompte, Christopher R. Moore, Thomas R. Janecek, and G. Kletetschka.

Recent publications illustrate a thematic concentration on impact events and their consequences. Notable papers include:

  • RETRACTED ARTICLE: A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea (2021, Scientific Reports)
  • Evidence of Cosmic Impact at Abu Hureyra, Syria at the Younger Dryas Onset (~12.8 ka): High-temperature melting at >2200 °C (2020, Scientific Reports)
  • Abu Hureyra, Syria, Part 2: Additional evidence supporting the catastrophic destruction of this prehistoric village by a cosmic airburst ~12,800 years ago (2023, Airbursts and Cratering Impacts)
  • Abu Hureyra, Syria, Part 3: Comet airbursts triggered major climate change 12,800 years ago that initiated the transition to agriculture (2023, Airbursts and Cratering Impacts)
  • Abu Hureyra, Syria, Part 1: Shock-fractured quartz grains support 12,800-year-old cosmic airburst at the Younger Dryas onset (2023, Airbursts and Cratering Impacts)

Best Publications

  • Abrupt deep-sea warming, palaeoceanographic changes and benthic extinctions at the end of the Palaeocene

    J. P. Kennett;L. D. Stott

  • Paleotemperature History of the Cenozoic and the Initiation of Antarctic Glaciation: Oxygen and Carbon Isotope Analyses in DSDP Sites 277, 279 and 281

    Unknown

  • Cenozoic evolution of Antarctic glaciation the Circum-Antarctic Ocean and their impact on global paleoceanography

    James P. Kennett

  • The middle Miocene climatic transition: East Antarctic ice sheet development, deep ocean circulation and global carbon cycling

    Benjamin P. Flower;James P. Kennett

  • Neogene planktonic foraminifera: A phylogenetic atlas

    James P. Kennett;M. S. Srinivasan

  • Routing of meltwater from the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the Younger Dryas cold episode

    Wallace S. Broecker;James P. Kennett;Benjamin P. Flower;James T. Teller

  • Carbon isotopic evidence for methane hydrate instability during quaternary interstadials

    James P. Kennett;Kevin G. Cannariato;Ingrid L. Hendy;Richard J. Behl

  • Brief interstadial events in the Santa Barbara basin, NE Pacific, during the past 60 kyr

    Richard J. Behl;Richard J. Behl;James P. Kennett

  • Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling

    R. B. Firestone;A. West;J. P. Kennett;L. Becker

  • Middle Miocene Southern Ocean cooling and Antarctic cryosphere expansion.

    Amelia E. Shevenell;James P. Kennett;David W. Lea

  • The chronology of the last deglaciation: implications to the cause of the Younger Dryas event

    W. S. Broecker;M. Andree;W. Wolfli;H. Oeschger

  • Methane hydrates in Quaternary climate change : the clathrate gun hypothesis

    James P. Kennett;Kevin G. Cannariato;Ingrid L. Hendy;Richard J. Behl

  • Oxygen isotopic evidence for the development of the psychrosphere 38 Myr ago

    J. P. Kennett;N. J. Shackleton

  • A 20,000-year record of ocean circulation and climate change from the Santa Barbara basin

    James P. Kennett;B. Lynn Ingram

  • Marine Ecosystem Sensitivity to Climate Change

    Raymond C. Smith;David Ainley;Karen Baker;Eugene Domack

  • Latest Cretaceous to Cenozoic Climate and Oceanographic Developments in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica: an Ocean-Drilling Perspective

    J.P. Kennett;P.F. Barker

  • Antarctic subtropical humid episode at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary: Clay-mineral evidence

    Christian Robert;James P. Kennett

  • The Antarctic paleoenvironment : a perspective on global change

    James P. Kennett;Detlef A. Warnke

  • Miocene planktonic foraminiferal biogeography and paleoceanographic development of the Indo-Pacific region

    James P. Kennett;Gerta Keller;M. S. Srinivasan

  • Laurentide ice sheet meltwater recorded in gulf of Mexico deep-sea cores.

    James P. Kennett;N. J. Shackleton

  • Competitive and Cooperative Responses to Climatic Instability in Coastal Southern California

    Douglas J. Kennett;James P. Kennett

Frequent Co-Authors

Ted E. Bunch
Ted E. Bunch Northern Arizona University
Lowell D. Stott
Lowell D. Stott University of Southern California
Bruce W. Hayward
Bruce W. Hayward University of Auckland
George Howard
George Howard University of Alabama at Birmingham
Gunther Kletetschka
Gunther Kletetschka Charles University
Ashwaq T Sabaa
Ashwaq T Sabaa Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research
Jon M. Erlandson
Jon M. Erlandson University of Oregon
Thomas W. Stafford
Thomas W. Stafford Aarhus University
Ryuji Tada
Ryuji Tada University of Tokyo
James L. Bischoff
James L. Bischoff United States Geological Survey

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