Date: Friday, 12 June 2026

Time: 15:00 - 17:00

Venue: MR2

Series: Fluid Mechanics (DAMTP)

Abstract

Schedule TBC

Date: Wednesday, 17 June 2026

Time: 14:00 - 15:00

Venue: Seminar Room 1

Series: British Antarctic Survey - Polar Oceans seminar series

Abstract

Abstract - Jo Zanker

Recent research shows that Greenland’s remaining ice shelves might be vulnerable to break up in the near future. In this study, we quantify the amount of additional ice loss into the ocean caused by the lack of buttressing if the shelves were to permanently collapse. We find that the additional ice loss is relatively small, but the spatial and temporal delivery of freshwater to the ocean is significantly altered. The focus of ongoing research is to investigate ice-ocean interactions in a post ice shelf collapse scenario, and potential mechanisms for further ice loss due to submarine melting and calving at these glaciers.

Abstract - Sam Hartharn-Evans

The meltwater plume structure that forms underneath ice shelves and regulates the transfer of heat between the ice-shelf ocean interface and the ambient ocean remains difficult to observe in situ. As such efforts to represent these processes in larger scale models remains reliant on insights from numerical modelling, laboratory experiments and analytical models.

By taking a highly idealised setup in order to unpick the fundamental dynamics at play, here, we perform novel high resolution (sub-mm) numerical simulations that approximate this ice shelf ocean plume flow. These simulations reveal that the shear flows under ice shelves form a unique mixed mode shear instability, raising questions as to how well this unusual route to turbulent mixing is represented in current models.

Date: Thursday, 18 June 2026

Time: 11:30 - 12:30

Venue: Chemistry Dept, Unilever Lecture Theatre and Teams

Series: Centre for Atmospheric Science seminars, Chemistry Dept.

Abstract

Abstract:

Methane was discovered 250 years ago by Alessandro Volta in 1776, but its atmospheric budget is still not understood. There is evidence for a strong rise in wetland, agricultural and waste emissions, especially natural emissions from regions in tropical Africa such as South Sudan’s Sudd wetland, as well as in the boreal/Arctic realm. 14CO data suggest an increasing OH sink since 1997, implying the rise in methane emissions was even stronger than previously thought. Following more than a decade of strong growth, 2020-2022 brought a major surprise: the highest growth in the observational record. The causes of the surge seem to include a transient decline in the oxidative power of the atmosphere, coupled with rising wetland emissions. The implications are profound: it’s going to be very hard to bring methane’s growth under control. Growth in emissions from wetlands and tropical agriculture makes the Global Methane Pledge’s goal of cutting the total atmospheric methane burden harder to achieve. However, there are many easy wins – coal mine vents in China and India, livestock manure, landfills, sewage and biomass fires. In Africa and India landfill management is very poor and rural crop waste burning is widespread, despite the damaging impact of air pollution on public health: much can be done here. In the dairy industry of Europe, the US, China and temperate Southern Hemisphere emission mitigation is increasingly feasible. Overall, meeting the targets of the Global Methane Pledge looks very difficult: but there’s hope that much can change, especially in China.

Biography:

Euan Nisbet is emeritus professor of Earth Sciences, at Royal Holloway, Univ. of London. After studying at Univ. Zimbabwe and at Sidney Sussex college, his geology PhD was in Darwin College, After a NERC Independent fellowship in Oxford and a Royal Society postdoc in ETH Zurich, he joined the staff of Mineralogy and Petrology in Cambridge, prior to the merger into Earth Sciences. For many years he and CMR Fowler, his wife, both taught in the Earth Sciences Dept., Univ. of Saskatchewan (he has prairie ancestry). He led the Canadian Lithosphere Committee for many years, advising the government on natural hazards, including methane hydrate. From 1985-7 he held a Steacie Fellowship from the Governor-General which, with help from Paul Crutzen and Ralph Cicerone, prompted a switch from hard rock geology to atmospheric methane, much to the annoyance of the funding agency who halved his grant. At Royal Holloway he led or co-led many large European consortia, such as Meth-MoniEUr, the West European Methane Budget experiment, EuroHydros, Geomon, MEMO etc. etc. and many NERC projects, including the UK MOYA Global Methane Budget consortium (2016-2022). Many projects were in collaboration with John Pyle. Now retired, he serves on the scientific advisory panel for the United Nations International Methane Emissions Observatory. His input was used in the 2021 Global Methane Assessment underpinning the Global Methane Pledge, and he is a co-author of the 2025 UNEP Global Methane Status report.

Note: Microsoft Teams meeting Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/354163162980400?p=wJWyEtLmSa0qBUgRA6

Date: Friday, 19 June 2026

Time: 16:00 - 17:00

Venue: MR2

Series: Fluid Mechanics (DAMTP)

Abstract

Abstract TBC