Piecing together the Scotia Sea jigsaw and the onset of Cenozoic glaciation in Antarctica
Schedule
Wed, 04 Feb, 2026 at 01:00 pm
UTC+00:00Location
University of Leicester | Leicester, EN
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School of Geography, Geology and the Environment Research Seminar Series"Piecing together the Scotia Sea jigsaw and the onset of Cenozoic glaciation in Antarctica"
Teal Riley
Survey Geologist, British Antarctic Survey
Wednesday 4 February 2026, 1.00pm-2.00pm
Attenborough Seminar Block, Room 208
Global cooling at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary (c. 34 Ma) and during the mid-Miocene climate transition (c. 14 Ma) led to the accelerated growth of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and associated deep ocean cooling.
The roles played by a developing Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and the influence of Antarctic Bottom Water in driving these shifts to an ‘icehouse’ world are poorly understood. This is a direct consequence of poorly constrained, often conflicting, tectonic models of the emerging Drake Passage-Scotia Sea region that are used for developing palaeo-climate-oceanographic models.
The tectonic configurations are often based on plate reconstructions or ‘cartoon’ models, with no solid geological, geophysical, or kinematic basis. This is especially true for plate reconstructions of the Drake Passage-Scotia Sea region, as the opening involved the translation of at least twelve individual crustal blocks, including South Georgia and the South Orkney Islands.
The starting position of these microcontinental blocks, their translation and uplift history, and opening of deep ocean basins are critical to influencing flow pathways of a nascent ACC.
Teal is an UoL Alumni having studied BSc (Hons) Geology, 1988-1991.
More information: https://le.ac.uk/gge/events/research-seminars
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