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School of Geography, Geology and the Environment Research Seminar Series"Surviving Antarctica: a volcanologist's guide to getting there, working there, and its volcanoes - why we need to know more about them"
Professor John Smellie
Honorary Professor of Volcanology, University of Leicester
Wednesday 9 October 2024, 1.00pm-2.00pm, Attenborough Building Film Theatre
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 a 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.
https://le.ac.uk/gge/events/research-seminars
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
University of Leicester, Informatics, Leicester, LE1 7, United Kingdom,Leicester, United Kingdom
