This is a past event
Please join us for a research seminar to be given by Dr Jeremy Ely (Department of Geography, University of Sheffield) on 'Reconstructing and modelling the last British-Irish ice Sheet'. The seminar will take place on 1st February in Meston Lecture Theatre 2 at 13:00. All are welcome to attend.
Abstract
The Antarctic and Greenland ice-sheets contain enough water to raise global mean sea level by ~65 m. Predicting how these vast stores of water will respond to our warming climate requires reliable numerical ice-sheet models, which in turn rely upon observations of ice behaviour. The direct observational record of ice-sheets is limited to a few decades, meaning that predictions on centennial scales are difficult. Fortunately, the palaeo-ice sheets of the last glaciation left behind a rich record of their growth, dynamics and decay spanning millennia, from which we can test numerical models.
During the mid to late Devensian (≈40 ka to ≈12 ka) an ice sheet waxed and waned over Britain and Ireland. This ice sheet reached much of the surrounding continental shelf break and was drained by multiple fast-flowing ice-streams. The aim of the BRITICE-CHRONO consortium project is to better constrain the retreat of this marine-based ice sheet. Here, I will summarise the growing body of evidence for the behaviour of the British-Irish Ice Sheet derived from this project. New evidence has led to a new empirical reconstruction which accounts for the uncertainty inherent in ice sheet reconstruction. I will also demonstrate how we use this evidence to test and improve numerical models.
- Speaker
- Dr Jeremy Ely
- Venue
- Meston Lecture Theatre 2