11 December 2025 19:00 - 20:00 St Michael’s Church Meeting Room, Grenfell Road, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire HP9 2BP and virtual via Zoom
11 December 2025 | 19:00 - 20:00 | St Michael’s Church Meeting Room, Grenfell Road, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire HP9 2BP and virtual via Zoom
Event abstract
The last British-Irish Ice Sheet existed approximately 32,000 16,000 years ago, mantling much of Britain and all of Ireland, reaching as far west as the European continental shelf edge. A complex interwoven combination of drivers influenced the eventual decay of this highly dynamic ice sheet against a backdrop of fluctuating climatic conditions as it transitioned from a marine-based to terrestrial-based ice mass. Investigating the potential drivers of this transition at high spatial and temporal resolutions is vital for better understanding how contemporary ice sheets over Greenland and Antarctica will undergo the same transition in
the future.
State-of-the-art palaeo-ice sheet models have improved our understanding of broad scale dynamics of British-Irish Ice Sheet retreat from its maximum extent. However, current models rely on geomorphological maps drawn from relatively coarse-resolution (e.g. 15-30 m) satellite imagery and a consortium of often sparse chronological datasets which focus on the marine based retreat of this ice sheet. Consequently, whilst broad shifts in ice sheet geometry through time can be captured across the entire British-Irish Ice Sheet, some key questions pertaining to how it transitioned to a smaller, terrestrial-based ice mass remain elusive. Moreover, the potential external drivers (e.g. climate) and internal drivers (e.g. ice divide migration) of this transition remain poorly studied.
Event details
This event is free of charge to all members of the Geological Society. Priority will be given to Fellows and Student Members of the Geological Society who are members of the Home Counties North Regional Group.
In-person places are on a first come first serve basis. Those registering for virtual attendance will be provided with the Zoom link prior to the event. Please provide your membership number when registering. Simply click on the Book Now button to be taken to the Home Counties Regional Group email.
Alex Clark BSc MSc
Alex is currently a PhD student based at Royal Holloway,
University of London and the British Geological Survey. He has always loved studying geography and trying to unravel mysteries of the past, leading him to now specialise in researching the climates and environments of the most recent geological period, the Quaternary (the last 2.6 million years).
During his BSc Geography and MSc Quaternary Science degrees, he especially enjoyed learning about ancient ice sheets and volcanoes (a far cry from his upbringing in Sussex), which formed a big part of his PhD research. He has just submitted his PhD thesis, ‘A multi-proxy investigation of northeast Irish Ice Sheet dynamics during the Last Glacial Interglacial Transition’, and he is looking forward to exploring future research-focussed roles.