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INFOMAR Supported Research on RTE’s ‘The Investigators’

The Investigators is a new series shown on RTE1 that examinesIreland’s scientific contribution to the world. It covers a range of current topics from some of the top minds in the country and examines the potential impacts of Irish science on our lives.  One of the episodes takes a look at what scientists in Ireland are doing to understand climate change and features cutting edge research being undertaken by three glacial geologists from the Marine Institute, the University of Ulster and Durham University (UK).

Glaciers are dynamic systems that are sensitive to changes in the global climate system. The deposits left behind by glaciers from the past ice ages can be used to tell us about the nature and timing of major climatic events. Dr Sara Benetti from the Marine Institute, Dr Paul Dunlop ( Ulster ) and Prof Colm Ó Cofaigh (Durham) have been analysing the high resolution bathymetric data collected offshore northwest Ireland by the Irish Government as part of the Irish National Seabed Survey (INSS). From these data, they have identified the same glacial features that we see on land, like drumlins and moraines, scattered on the continental shelf. In August 2008 on the R.V. Celtic Explorer, they lead the first scientific cruise off the northwest coast of Ireland to core through these landforms and retrieved cores from waters as deep as 2.5 km. The cruise was funded by the SSTI ship time programme 2008 with the INFOMAR Programme (co-managed by the Marine Institute and the Geological Survey of Ireland) providing technical support and equipment. Sediments recovered from the seabed are now being analysed by the team to provide new detailed information about the nature and timing of glacial cycles across the North Atlantic. The work will provide a critical new record on climate change for the region and new proxy data on how the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets may respond to global warming.

Click here to view the episode.

For more details see http://www.theinvestigators.ie/

Call for Research Proposals 2008

The INFOMAR Call for research proposals or collaborative value added work has now closed. The deadline for the receipt of proposals was 31st October 2008.  Succesful applicants will be notified shortly.

 

 

 Geological Survey of Ireland Geological Survey of Ireland
Beggars Bush, Haddington Road
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Marine Institute Marine Institute Headquarters,
Rinville, Oranmore
Co. Galway
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