Sam Kelley

Great day out in the Dublin Mtns looking at evidence of the past ice sheets in Ireland with our 4th year class. We were very lucky to have caught the first dry day in quite a while; tors always look better in the sunshine.

Looking Up: Climate history in the Scottish Highlands “Looking Up”, a study conducted by University College Dublin, uses interdisciplinary insights to offer a window into Scottish history.

Lovely piece by @francesmack.bsky.social on work from @graemewarren.bsky.social and myself in Scotland.

planetforward.org/story/lookin...

Great time spent in NW Mayo, fascinating archaeology and glacial geology.

Many thanks to all who attended the #IQUAAutumnSymposium, and thanks to @geolsurvie.bsky.social for providing a wonderful venue.

Looking forward to the @quaternaryirl.bsky.social autumn symposium tomorrow, with keynote talks from Gregor Rink (Galway) and Andrew Cooper (Ulster) about how Ireland's coastline has changed.

Many thanks to the Geology Survey of Ireland for hosting us.

Not a place I expected to publish, but great to see the summary of our geology-archaeology collaboration is so popular. Open Access summary paper linked below. Thanks to the IRC, now @researchireland.ie, for supporting this work.

Earth’s future written in stone: How geoscientists in Ireland use Ice Age boulders to forecast climate change Researchers are chipping away at the mountains of climate change evidence in Ireland’s glacial geology.

Another great piece about our terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide research in Ireland by @francesmack.bsky.social and Cathy Ching from @medillschool.bsky.social

thebulletin.org/2025/09/how-...

Last spring, we had two journalism students from a visit to get hands-on experience with research. Below is one of the stories that came from that visit, about collaborative research between Margaret Jackson (TCD) and myself.

news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/digg...

Despite the midges, it was a great trip

A big thank you to @nts-archaeology.bsky.social and Mar Lodge Estate for access and @researchireland.ie for funding postgraduate research.

By accurately surveying in geomorphic features, we can make estimates of lake volume, as well as discharge when the lake drained.

Thanks to Martin from @ucdarchaeology.bsky.social for the help with (and carrying) the GPS equipment.

To map the extent of a former lake in Glen Dee, we found old shorelines, meltwater channels and washed moraines, which, altogether, give us a better picture of the extent of the former lake and the possible route it took when an outburst flood took place.

A busy return to Ireland, but the geology team of Clara and I had a great field season mapping palaeo-lake features in Glen Dee, such as this lake shoreline behind Corrour Bothy.

Hearthfelt thanks to @n-t-s.bsky.social @cairngormsnews.bsky.social , and @naturescot.bsky.social for sampling permissions and access to field sites.

For the second question, we found that ice remained in protected corries longer than on the plateau, possibly into the earliest Holocene.

For the first question, the paired isotope approach told us two things:
1) The highest part of the plateau became a nunatak at ~23 ka (agreement between 14C and 10Be)
2) Lower on the plateau, consistent 14C ages indicate deglaciation during the B-A, while 10Be shows varied amounts of inheritance

We used exposure dating to examine two research questions:
1) What was the timing of deglaciation for the high plateau?
2) What was the pattern of deglaciation? Did ice remain longer on the plateau or the protected corries?

In this work, we use cosmogenic 14C and 10Be from the same samples. Where the relatively short half-life of 14C allows for examination of exposure since the last ice age, while 10Be's long half-life gives information about the longer glacial history.

This work stems from an archaeology-geology collaboration with @graemewarren.bsky.social, and collaborators from @umaine.bsky.social, Plymouth State, and Purdue University

Our work was funded by the Irish Research Council, now @researchireland.ie

New paper out on deglaciation of the Cairngorms in Scotland:

Early view now available for our OA paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A short 🧵 on what we found:

Try #2 on the photo

I'm really appreciative of the award from the UCD Earth Institute for collaborative research. The collaboration between @graemewarren.bsky.social and myself started with an Earth Institute event, and we're very grateful for their support.

Looking forward to hosting @drloessismore.bsky.social tomorrow for our school seminar. Looking forward to insights from the finer end of the grain size spectrum.

Congrats Keir, great to hear about the new lab!

and in this publication:
Local glaciation in West Greenland linked to North Atlantic Ocean circulation during the Holocene
pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/...

Glacier maxima in Baffin Bay during the Medieval Warm Period coeval with Norse settlement The Baffin Bay region was relatively cool during the Medieval Warm Period coinciding with the period of Norse settlement.

Some of the research from this area can be found in:
Glacier maxima in Baffin Bay during the Medieval Warm Period coeval with Norse settlement
www.science.org/doi/full/10....

One of my favourite glacier photos for World Glacier Day.

Glaciers on the Nuussauq Peninsula in West Greenland (Summer 2013).

🚨 An exciting opportunity for a funded PhD studentship with me on immersed boundary method simulations for ice-ocean interfaces! 🧊

Please repost and share with students! Deadline is 31st March.

Another great day out for the Quaternary geology class earlier this week with UCD Earth Sciences, looking at evidence of the last glaciation in the Dublin Mtns.

Having a bit of sun was rather nice for a change, though was missed.

The upper Cameron valley in the Arrowsmith Range of the Southern Alps of New Zealand. Photograph features moraines constructed by the Cameron Glacier throughout the Holocene (vegetated ridges are those deposited during the early Holocene, and unvegetated ridges during the late Holocene), as well as incised meltwater channels, glacial outwash, alluvial fans, active scree slopes, etc.

🚨Job opportunity!🚨The School of Earth and Climate Sciences at the University of Maine invites applications for a Lecturer of Earth Surface Processes position! Please share.

Follow link below for more info:

⚒️🧪🌊❄️🥼 #academicjobs

fa-ewca-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...