A Geoscience Seminar given In connection with the application process for the Associate Professorship in Glacial and Quaternary Geology at our Department.

Abstract

The current challenges that society faces (e.g. sea-level rise, climate ‘change’) are also key challenges for Quaternary geology. This is because crucial insights into different timescales of rates of change in natural systems, ranging from years to millennia and beyond, can only be fully grasped by looking at the past record of such changes. Glaciers (or ice masses in general) respond to climatic forcing very rapidly and are thus very powerful tools for assessing past, monitoring current and therefore predicting future changes in climatic boundary conditions.

In this presentation I will give examples from my own work in modern and Quaternary arctic and alpine glacial environments. In doing so, I will demonstrate how sedimentological, geomorphological, geochronological, palaeoclimatological and palaeoglaciological findings in these environments can serve as extremely powerful and holistic modern analogues for conditions during the last Glacial-Interglacial Transition (LGIT), which itself is considered a key period to understand rapid climate change. Examples will be drawing on my work in Svalbard, the European Alps, Scotland, mainland Norway and the southern Scandinavian Ice Sheet margin in north-east Germany and will conclude with visions on how my work can contribute to meeting some of the challenges outlined above.