IanPMatthews.bsky.social
@ianpmatthews.bsky.social
140 followers 220 following 27 posts
I like mud and abrupt climate change, I'm a Geographer. Strange sediments lying in ponds distributing proxies is no basis for understanding climate change. Significant findings derive from formal testing of ideas, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
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ianpmatthews.bsky.social
It was an output of a @leverhulme.ac.uk funded project, their ability to fund this type of research means that step changes in scientific approaches are possible. The impact of these types of project are only really recognised many years later!
ianpmatthews.bsky.social
It has supported lots of funded research
ianpmatthews.bsky.social
but so have lots of lother people from all over the world
ianpmatthews.bsky.social
It has been 20 years since we published this paper. It has been cited at least 278 times since then.
A screen grab of Blockley et al. 2005 tephra extraction paper
Reposted by IanPMatthews.bsky.social
tommyhigham.bsky.social
PhD Studentship alert!
I'm looking for a motivated student to work here in Vienna @vdsee-univie.bsky.social on my ERC grant "DISPERSE". It's a fulltime scholarship (working in 14C and #archsci in Palaeolithic archaeology in Eurasia.
Details in the link below!
jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Universi...
University assistant predoctoral 1
University assistant predoctoral 1
jobs.univie.ac.at
ianpmatthews.bsky.social
We've just published a paper on human occupation of the NW European margin and the importance of local climate reconstructions during the Lateglacial period. The paper represents a lot of work by myself and my coauthors over many years, we're all happy to see it published at last rdcu.be/eusdJ
Summer warmth between 15,500 and 15,000 years ago enabled human repopulation of the northwest European margin
Nature Ecology & Evolution - The authors use the latest radiocarbon calibration curve and new local palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental records from Britain to show that humans repopulated...
rdcu.be
Reposted by IanPMatthews.bsky.social
germac.bsky.social
Really striking new study from van Westen and Baatsen and a class visualisation tool to go with it. This study looks at a future where the AMOC has collapsed. Temperatures hitting -22ºC in Dublin in the winter is pretty stark. Hearing these numbers can be shocking and worrying.

amocscenarios.org
AMOC Collapse Visualisation Map
The interactive map that shows you the effects worldwide of climate change scenarios and the AMOC current collapsing
amocscenarios.org
Reposted by IanPMatthews.bsky.social
graemewarren.bsky.social
New paper klaxon: pre print now available OA: muse.jhu.edu/pub/423/arti...

Thanks to everyone at @ria.ie for their work on this, and most importantly to Chantal for collaboration on the paper.

A short 🧵 on what we argue...

@ucdarchaeology.bsky.social
@ucddublin.bsky.social
@eaapam.bsky.social
ianpmatthews.bsky.social
I was a lucky recipient of one of these studentships and wouldn't have been able to afford the course without it. With no family background in Higher Education and no real understanding of academia, I think my life would have been very different without it.
ianpmatthews.bsky.social
In the early 2000s the course attracted support from the NERC in the form of studentships, to recognise it importance and the gaps in training that existed at that time. These funds encouraged students with less financial support to undertake PGT studies.
ianpmatthews.bsky.social
The course data has recently been used by the Quaternary Research Association to try and better understand gender equality trends in Quaternary studies, it highlights that since 1996 54% of graduates were female with that figure rising to 58% in the last decade.
ianpmatthews.bsky.social
Astonishingly, 221 of our graduates went on to study for a PhD, that's 58% of the Alumni. It's often joked that you cannot attend an international conference in this field without bumping into a graduate of the course... in my experience this is true!
ianpmatthews.bsky.social
In the early years of operation, our data are limited, but we have a record of around 380 graduates since 1996. By my calculations, 58 of these have jobs in academia around the World, with another 17 undertaking or having just completed doctoral research.
ianpmatthews.bsky.social
Taught in conjunction with UCL and a raft of World experts, it instilled a sense of scientific rigour and precision alongside a critical approach to palaeoclimatic studies...
The MSc Quaternary Science website in 2001.
ianpmatthews.bsky.social
RHULs MSc in Quaternary Science began in 1992, but morphed into the fully realised Masters in 1995, thirty years ago. I am an alumnus of that course, alongside many colleagues and friends from around the world. When applying in 2001 the website was basic...
a wayback machine capture of the rhbnc.ac.uk website in 2001 showing postgraduate study options.
Reposted by IanPMatthews.bsky.social
historyofgeology.bsky.social
February 7, 1784, after 8 months of activity the Laki-eruptions ends. This series of fissures erupting lava fountains up to 800 meters high was the strongest eruption in #Iceland's history and largest effusive eruption on land in the last 1.000 years🌋
tinyurl.com/3cv9jwrv
Reposted by IanPMatthews.bsky.social
rahmstorf.bsky.social
We've reached 1.5°C global warming.
With current policies, we're heading for a catastrophic 2.7°C warming.
A new review paper in Science shows: this would change the Arctic 'beyond recognition', with knock-on effects (like rising seas) around the world. 🌊
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by IanPMatthews.bsky.social
bdglaciers.bsky.social
This took me a long time to write 😮‍💨.
🥼❄️ ⚒️

Read about the seldom-told history about the first glaciologists, and why Louis Agassiz maybe gets too much credit for ice age hypothesis:
open.substack.com/pub/glaciers...
Glaciations, Tragedies, Betrayals, and Heartbreak
The rocky start to glaciology
open.substack.com
Reposted by IanPMatthews.bsky.social
brianbilston.bsky.social
Today’s poem is dedicated to all those who have taken it upon themselves to correct the grammar or spelling in my poems over the last few weeks.

It’s called ‘Pedents’.
Pedents
 
Foot soldiers in the War on Error,
They’re here to save us from ourselves,
With Fowler’s Modern English Usage
(first edition, nineteen twelve).
 
They scrutinise each word we write
For typos, gaffes, et cetera,
Correcting all our dumb mistakes
To make our grammar betterer.
 
They sigh and tut and tell us off
For the rules we have forsaken
And chart this nation’s steep decline
By the care we should of taken.
 
Custodians of the King’s English,
They merely serve to keep it pure
And restrict, they hope, the ignorant
To three mistakes or less.
 
In doing so, they hold no fear
they will deprive a thing of life:
for it’s not important what is said,
what matters is that its right.


Brian Bilston
Reposted by IanPMatthews.bsky.social
locoako.bsky.social
We don't normally see "step changes" in the atmosphere, but the dichotomy of sea ice vs. no sea ice will do it.
alaskawx.bsky.social
The most dramatic climate change graphics you'll ever see. Utqiaġvik, Alaska average temperature in October 27.4F (-2.6C) is the 4th highest since 1920. The abrupt increase in October temperature and decreased variability is entirely the result of autumn sea ice loss. #akwx #ClimateChange #Arctic
Time series graphic plotting the average October temperature at Utqiaġvik, Alaska each year 1920 to 2024. Prior to 2001 there were wide swings year to year depending on when sea ice arrived. After 2001 temperatures are uniformly mild relative to the 20th century and 9 of the 10 mildest Octobers have occurred since 2006.