James P. Kennett

James P. Kennett is an American paleoceanographer.

Kennet has a PhD from Victoria University of Wellington, with a thesis on the Kapitean Stage in New Zealand. In 1986, Kennett became the founding editor of Paleoceanography, and in May 2000, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

In 1972, Kennett was one of the co-chief scientist of the Deep Sea Drilling Project. In the 1980s he published a book on marine geology, founded the journal ''Paleoceanography,'' and served as the Director of the ''Marine Science Institute.'' His studies on the contribution of methane to climatic shifts were published in 2002, but were not widely accepted by the climate community.''''

He is a cofounder and member of the Comet Research Group (CRG), and is known for his contributions to the controversial and refuted Younger Dryas impact hypothesis which asserts that the Clovis culture was destroyed by a shower of comets. He co-authored a paper in collaboration with biblical archaeologists, who believed to have discovered the ancient city of Sodom and evidence of its destruction by a comet at Tell el-Hammam, Jordon. The paper was retracted by Nature in 2025, citing concerns about methodology, analysis, and data interpretation. Provided by Wikipedia