The Cold Ice in a Warm Bath (CIWB) research team (Dr. Adrian Dye, Dr. Joe Mallalieu, Dr. Fran Falcini, Mike Beckwith and Miles Dimbleby) are busy preparing for their 2022 field season in the Arctic. They work in an area of the Arctic that has recently experienced a number of unusual summer heatwaves (with monthly means >5oC above the long term average; Dye et al., 2021). The 2022 field season research will show how much proglacial lakes (at the terminus of glaciers) enhance retreat rates in their ‘Glacier and Lake Response to Extreme Temperature Anomalies’ (GLRETA) project, which has been funded by INTERACT and the Royal Geographical Society.
A series of Arctic glaciers will be surveyed (by UAV) to create digital surface models from photogrammetry (using SfM) and assess the glacier retreat that has occurred in response to the heatwaves since 2015. Crucially this will be combined with sonar surveys (from remote controlled boat) and carefully placed (to avoid icebergs!) temperature sensors to constrain subaqueous melt of Kas’ glacier in relation to proglacial lake warming during the summer. This will be the third field season that the team has spent at Kas’ glacier. If it is anywhere near as eventful as the previous two, they will capture the frequent iceberg calving events (on timelapse) and hopefully one of the longest temperature records from an Arctic proglacial lake (if icebergs don’t disrupt it too much!).
The calving front of Kaskapakte (Kas’) glaciar in Arctic Sweden (July 2019).Boaty II conducting sonar surveys of the underwater terminus of Kas’ glaciar whilst filming ice structures by GoPro.
Our very own Dr Katy Chamberlain recently presented volcanological research on the 2021 Cumbre Vieja eruption at La Palma at two international conferences- the annual European Geosciences Union (EGU) meeting, in Vienna Austria, and the hybrid JpGU annual meeting in Japan (online). At both conferences Dr. Chamberlain presented the research funded by the NERC urgency proposal held at Teesside University, looking at how the magmas that fed the 3 month long eruption evolved over time. The data from analysing lava and tephra samples show a clear change in how magmas evolved during the eruption which will be linked to monitoring records of the eruptive event. Alongside presenting scientific research, Katy was also a panellist at a ‘Great Debate’ at EGU, where a group of panellist discussed challenges and potential solutions for making geochemical data open and FAIR to increase their longevity and reuse in future studies. This included talking about how the OneGeochemistry initiative can be structured to ensure equitable access to geochemical data for all.
This week marks the 1900th Birthday of Hadrian! Born on 24th january 76 AD in Italica, Spain, Hadrian was a Roman conquerer that lead the Romans toward entrenchment and consolidating the empire rather than ongoing expansion. And so, we’ve got a doozy of updates for you in our first post of 2022 – which we reckon will be called 202TUBA!
Revealing Magna
This week, Vindolanda was featured on BBC Breakfast showing the incredible impact of Climate Change at Fort Magna. The rapid heating and drying of climates over the past few decades have led to a drop in the ground and water levels, resulting in parts of Roman masonry becoming exposed. Vindolanda Trust produced an absolutely fantastic video to discuss this:
We’re absolutely thrilled to be part of the scientific investigation into why these changes are being observed, and the rapid destructive impact being made to the delicate artefacts that have been preserved for thousands of years. We started this work last summer, drilling bore holes in what turned out to be the hottest week of the year – and the hottest summer on record! We have never been so grateful to see a single lone tree in the field offering shade for refuge…
Digging up Memories
We’ve also been part of the Digging up Memories online exhibit (we chatted a little about this here), which saw volunteers at Vindolanda Museum select and discuss their favourite wooden artefacts. Through the online exhibit, you can find interviews, videos, behind-the-scenes information and many of our 3D models showcasing a wonderful narrative of life at Vindolanda.
Intense 3D scanning days led toward an awesome online exhibit!
As this is our first post of 2022, we thought it would be nice to have a quick look at some of the milestones achieved by the team.
We published the first work we started with Vindolanda in Scientific Reports, writing all about the chemical and microbial factors toward the vivianite formation in one of the ditches at Vindolanda. We’re thrilled to see this come out to such great reception!
Helga submitted her 31 MB thesis (plus supplementary files!) in time for a well-deserved Christmas break with baby Breki.
Rhys was awarded his doctorate in Developing pXRF soil analysis of preservation at Vindolanda, and is now Lecturer in Forensic Science. Congrats Dr Williams!
Gillian was appointed Associate Professor in Research at Teesside University where she’s already powering through the development of analytical techniques towards forensic and archaeological applications.
Becki Scott joined Teesside University and TUBA in September – we’re looking forward to driving forward provenance research with her fantatsic expertise. Look out for some of our blog posts together coming soon!
New year new me, except clearly TUBA has always been dedicated to high quality research and public engagement – we’re allowed to gloat in the conclusion, right? Until next time!
Our Department is advertising for one permanent positions of lecturer in geography with specialism in GIS and river and coastal systems. The newly appointed lecturer has an opportunity to take a leading role in our Earth, Ecology and Environment research collective and bring their own research and/or consultancy expertise.
The job ad can be found following the two links below:
If you would like to discuss how your research could fit within the Earth, Ecology and Environment research collective – please get in touch with Ambroise a.baker@tees.ac.uk.
Plastic pollution in the marine environment is widely recognised as one of the major challenges of our time. In an attempt to contribute to addressing this problem Dr Lisa Baldini and the Durham Wildlife Trust decided to tackle the problem at the source. The project from Source to Sea investigates the source and abundance of plastics in river sediments and waters focussing on the River Wear. This work will not only inform conservation work for the river Wear, but also benefit coastal habitat in the North Sea where plastic get transported to and, importantly, serve as a case study of international relevance.
Sampling field work has been conducted throughout the summer and into the autumn of 2021.
