G L A N A MBimonthly Newsletter 20.08.2016 Issue 12

This issue

Special Issue on the lastGLANAM workshop andfieltrip that took placelast June 2016 inNorthern Ireland.

Giant Causeway

Before the start of theworkshop the GLANAMmembers were treatedwith a visit to the GiantCauseway. Dwarika hasprepared a short articleabout the day out.

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The fieldtrip

First Kasper and thenKevin will talk about thefieltrip in Ireland,sharing the knowledgethey have accumulatedafter 3-years worth ofwork in those locations(or close by)

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The last pint

Elena comments aboutthe last nights officiallyspent together as aGLANAM group.Will there be more? Onlytime will tell.

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The last brave members of GLANAM remaining in Portrush after thefieldtrip

Northern Ireland - GLANAM workshop 2016

This June, the GLANAM annualmeeting took place at UlsterUniversity, very close to thecosy town of Coleraine. Theworkshop was filled withpresentations from the fellowsand the industrial partnersStatoil ASA, E&P ASA andVolcanic Basin PetroleumResearch (VBPR).

As it was one of our lastGLANAM meetings, all thefellows presented their results.The lively sessions and theinterest in the final output ofthe network made thisworkshop the best to date.

It was also our pleasure tosee an ex Post Doc fellow of the

GLANAM project, Dr KatrienHeirman, give a talk. Katrien,now a representative ofUNESCO from the department ofEarth Science and GeohazardRisk Reduction Section in Paris,presented the fellows with anoverview of the workpossibilities after GLANAM.Many thanks to all theparticipants of the workshop.I would like to thankespecially Kevin Schiele, PaulDunlop and Sara Benetti fortheir help in organizing sucha great meeting.

Dimitrios Ktenas

G l a c i a t e d N o r t h A t l a n t i c

M a r g i n s

GLANAM NewsletterPage 2

Giant’s Causeway: One day field excursion

On Monday, June 06, 2016 asmall group of GLANAMmembers took part in a shortfield excursion to the CausewayCoast, a World Heritage Site inNorthern Ireland.

The main objective of theexcursion was to explore themassive polygonal basaltcolumns, which were createdby volcanic activity ca. 50-60million years ago. We gatheredin front of the touristinformation desk at theVisitor’s Centre before westarted the excursion guided byProf. Phil Jordan.

On our way to the CausewayCoast, we were fascinated bythe beautiful landscape of thispart of Northern Ireland. Themost fascinating object of theexcursion was, of course, thetightly packed hexagonalbasalt columns which nearlyresembled a human made net.For us geologists, the

remarkable formation history ofthe basalt columns was themost interesting topic of theexcursion.

After the observation of thespectacular “The Organ”structure (photo above), wewalked up the steep hillstowards the top of the AntrimPlateau where we enjoyed the

beautiful view over the terrain.After a short break, we walkeddown to the Visitor’s Centrethrough the flood waters andglaciers eroded plateau.

Overall, we enjoyed learningabout the spectacular geologyof the Causeway Coast. For me,working with seismicinterpretation and imaging ofvolcanic sequences, it was agreat opportunity to exploreand experience the shape ofbasaltic rocks in the field. Weended our trip enjoying a nicelocal Irish beer at the pub(which once was Prof. Jordan’shouse!).

Dwarika Maharjan

The Fieldtrip - an introduction

From striation, erratic transportand drumlin orientation it isevident that the mountains inCo. Donegal at some pointsupported and nourished anindependent ice dome(McCabe, 1987; McCabe &Clark, 2003; Ballantyne et al.,2007), that to the N, NW, WSW,is believed to have streameddown form the mountains andover the coastlines (Knight &McCabe, 1997).

Especially towards Donegaltown, the SW flow direction isevident. Here the uplandleading from the mountains tothe coast is overridden withlarge Drumlin fields, with an

overall SW orientation (Knight& McCabe, 1997). 14C dating ofdrumlins from the NWcoast, constrain theformation of these tosometime between30 and 14 ka BP(McCabe, 1996;Knight et al., 2004),and cosmogenic10Be exposureages, dating to ~18.4to ~15.9 from coastalsites at Malin Beg, BloodyForeland and Malin Head, implythat the Donegal ice domeextended over these sitesduring LGM (Ballantyne et al.,2007).

This means that the timingof the Donegal ice dome must

have been of LGM age,and that the de-

glaciation happenedbetween ~18 ka to~17.4 ka BP.Based on ice-scoured surfacesand roches

moutoneés on thesummits, and

trimlines of theDonegal mountains,

Ballantyne et al., (2007)calculate the Donegal ice dometo have a thickness of at least700 meters at the ice centre.Ice flow reconstructions

Co Donegalsupported anindependentice dome afterthe LGM

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of the ice dome suggeststhat over the present coastline,ice thickness must have been~500 meters, and the Donegalice dome must have flown atleast 20 km offshore to the Nand W, on to the continentalshelf (Ballantyne et al., 2007),and possible even further.

Kasper Weilbach

The fieldtrip - second day

On the second day of thefieldtrip we visited the southerncoastline of Donegal Bay whereabundant glacial landforms,glacial erratics and glacialsediments tell a biographicalstory of past ice sheets, oncecovering the entire area ofDonegal Bay and beyond.

At Mount Benbulbin, which isclose to Sligo town, Kevin, thelocal GLANAM fellow spokeabout ice-flow patternssuggesting past ice streaminginto Donegal Bay (photo on theright). An Ice-landfallchronology was obtained fromCosmogenic Nuclide (CN)dating on erratics. Resultsinform us that at this site theice retreated from offshore toonshore more than 13 ka ago.This was during the initialwarming after the LGM. At

Killala Bay, the dynamicbehaviour of the last ice sheetbecomes evident.

Oriented moraines in thesouth of Donegal Bay mark theterminal position, andsubsequent recession of an icelobe that readvanced intoDonegal Bay. The ice went

through Killala Bay at ca. 17.6cal ka BP, after the main LGMice sheet had retreated. Thepattern of recessional morainescan be traced back onshoreand CN dating of erraticsconstrains the onshore retreatof the post LGM re-advance tothe Oldest Dryas.

References

Ballantyne, C. K., McCarroll, D., & Stone, J. O. 2007. The Donegal ice dome, northwest Ireland: dimensionsand chronology. Journal of Quaternary Science, 22(8), 773-783.Knight, J., & McCabe, A. M. 1997. Drumlin evolution and ice sheet oscillations along the NE Atlantic margin,Donegal Bay, western Ireland. Sedimentary Geology, 111(14), 57-72.Knight, J., Coxon, P., McCabe, A. M., & McCarron, S. G. 2004. Pleistocene glaciations in Ireland. Pages 183-191 of: Ehlers, J., & Gibbard, P.L. (eds), Quaternary Glaciations Extent and Chronology Part I: Europe.Developments in Quaternary Sciences, vol. 2, Part 1. Elsevier.McCabe, A.M. 1987. Quaternary deposits and glacial stratigraphy in Ireland. Quaternary ScienceReviews,6(3), 259-299.McCabe, A. M. 1996. Dating and rhythmicity from the last deglacial cycle in the British Isles. Journal of theGeological Society, 153(4), 499-502.McCabe, A. M., & Clark, P. U. 2003. Deglacial chronology from Country Donegal, Ireland: Implications fordeglaciation of the British-Irish ice sheet. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 160, 847-855.

The group enjoys the views from one of Ireland's drumlins

Last night(s) and goodbyes

At a point further alongthe coast to the west westopped at Céide Fields fora guided tour on earlyIrish settlements. Welearned that this Neolithicsettlement contains theoldest known fieldsystems and is the largestfound in the world (top right,Colm and Paul experience thethrill of archeology).

We ended the day byvisiting a nearby site of glacialdeposits at Belderg Pier andtried to relate observed

evidence in the field topublished interpretations. Thisleft us with enough food forthought on our long journeyback to Sligo town.

Kevin Schiele

Editor:Riccardo Arosio

Assistants:Dimitrios KtenasDwarika MaharjanKasper WeilbachKevin SchieleElena Grimoldi

AdvisorsProf. Mike BentleyProf. Colm Ó Cofaigh

email:riccardo.arosio@sams.ac.ukweb:www.glanam.org

GLANAM is an InitialTraining Network (ITN)funded under the EUMarie Curie Programme.I was asked to write a few

words on our final nighttogether but, funnily enough, Iam pretty sure we had not onlyone, but three different ones.

After the “official” meeting,the Coleraine University teamtook us to a nice restaurant,famous for its great views onthe Atlantic Ocean. Eventhough a very thick fogswallowed Portrush and wecouldn’t see a meter ahead,the night became simply moremystic and we had a greattime, finishing off with a pint ofGuinness at the harbour.

The “second” last night tookplace in Sligo, at the end of ourfieldtrip. We didn’t have dinnerall together, but managedanyway to find ourselves all inthe same small pub (for a pint

of Guinness, of course), wheremusicians were playing live,great Irish music and weremaking us laugh (and, let’s behonest, almost cry a little).

Finally, with only a fewpeople left in Coleraine beforethe flights home, we went forpizza and for a walk on thebeach, took funny pictures andsaid goodbye for the thirdtime.

I don’t know which one ismy favourite… so we shouldprobably go out for a fourthtime to decide!

Elena Grimoldi