Research seminars

Both external and internal speakers are invited to the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment to present the latest results of their research.

Everyone is invited, so please join us!

Surviving Antarctica: a volcanologist's guide to getting there, working there, and its volcanoes - why we need to know more about them

Wednesday 9 October 2024, 1.00pm-2.00pm, Attenborough Film Theatre

Professor John Smellie, Honorary Professor of Volcanology, University of Leicester

Antarctica was the last continent on Earth to be discovered and it remains one of the world’s least well-known regions, probably because it has a history of discovery and exploration that goes back only 200 years. When I first went to Antarctica as a 21 year-old raw recruit with the British Antarctic Survey, large parts of the map of Antarctica were completely  blank – we just didn’t know what was there - and over the subsequent years I mapped numerous terrains for the very first time, including many hitherto-unknown volcanoes. For most scientists who think that Antarctica might host the answers to their burning questions, it remains terra incognita. In large part that is because there are no commercial flights. You need prior funding and a lot of very expensive infrastructure to work in Antarctica, hence support from a national Antarctic operator (such as BAS (UK) or NSF (USA)) is essential. Moreover, to be successful, Antarctic science proposals require a lot of practical information that is almost impossible to obtain without having been there. The obstacles are therefore numerous. 

This talk shall briefly introduce Antarctica, its physical environment and unexpected volcanoes, before focusing on the numerous confusing yet essential procedures and field skills required in order to undertake a study of Earth’s most remote geology. It is primarily intended as a practical guide for any scientist trying to find a way into Antarctica. A selected recent volcanological—palaeoenvironmental case study shall also be used to show the power of Antarctica’s volcanoes in helping us understand global change, by reconstructing dramatically changing landscapes in the southern Transantarctic Mountains during the Early Miocene, a warm period in Earth history that has been proposed as a good analogy for Earth’s not-so-distant future.

Professor John Smellie is volcanologist working on glaciovolcanism (eruptions beneath ice sheets) and palaeo-ice sheet reconstruction. Prior to moving to Leicester University John spent 35 years working for the British Antarctic Survey principally as Senior Volcanologist and Leader of many projects. He has worked mainly on volcanic and associated glacial sedimentary rocks right across Antarctica from the sub-Antarctic active volcanic South Sandwich Islands through the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica to East Antarctica. A prolific author with > 200 publications (including the first textbook on glaciovolcanism) and editor or co-editor of 13 scientific volumes, he has successfully completed 26 field seasons in Antarctica including as Chief Scientist on two Antarctic cruises and 10 in Iceland.

ECORD Distinguished Lecture - The starring role of Scientific Ocean Drilling to discover the changing states of Earth’s Climate during the past 66 million years

Friday 18 October 2024, Time TBC, Location TBC

Thomas Westerhold, MARUM University Bremen, Germany

Average global temperatures are rising due to anthropogenic emission of greenhouse gases. What will be the consequences? Has this happened before in Earth history? Did other climate states in the past exist with greenhouse gas concentrations like today or even higher? And if so, what was the main climate response to it? Those are just a few of the pressing questions we would like to know more about for our future. Sediment deposits at the bottom of the ocean are some of the only continuous archives recording changes in Earth’s climate for the last ~100 million years. Ocean floor sediments are prime target for scientific ocean drilling giving access to material to reconstruct past environmental and climatic conditions essential for understanding earth system processes.

In this lecture Thomas will take the audience on a journey following the motivation and milestones reconstructing Earth’s global climate variability throughout the Cenozoic, the last 66 million years. Insight will be given to the key role of scientific ocean drilling and the international collaborative efforts associated with to enable the assembly of Earth fever curve of the past. Because resolving Earth’s climate response to astronomical forcing is essential to understand past climate dynamics and the processes involved, the lecture in particular will focus on the development of the Cenozoic Global Reference benthic foraminifer carbon and oxygen Isotope Dataset, the CENOGRID. The curve is a major product of the IODP Science Plan Illuminating earth’s past, present, and future. For the first time the record statistically disentangled four climate states of the Cenozoic: Hothouse, Warmhouse, Coolhouse, Icehouse. Depending on greenhouse gas concentrations and polar ice sheet volume Earth’s climate showed a distinctive response, or fingerprint, to astronomical forcing during each of the climate states. We now know more accurately when it was warmer or colder and we also have a better understanding of the underlying dynamics behind past climate changes.

School Summer Research Presentations

Wednesday 6 November 2024, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, Location TBC

Join us to discover some research highlights from staff that have taken place across the summer months. Staff who have managed to go in the field, spent time in a museum or a lab, or who have simply found a new way to make their research happen this summer will present a 10 minute talk to showcase some of the Schools current activities. 

Title TBC

Wednesday 4 December 2024, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, Location TBC

Sue Pritchard, Chief Executive, Food, Farming and Countryside Commission

Further details to follow