Geology Department Postgraduate Web Pages

Name: Kieran Craven

Contact Details

Name of supervisor

Dr Robin Edwards

Title of Project

Testing the utility of a combined geochemical and microfossil-based approach to sea-level reconstruction in western Ireland.

Project details

Sea-level rise and coastal change are significant potential impacts of climate warming. Computer models can simulate patterns of sea level change, but require accurate field data to train and test them. Data from western Ireland are important due to its sensitive location at the former margins of a dynamic ice sheet. However, traditional sea-level reconstruction methods have failed to produce reliable data from this area, and its sea level history is currently contested. This project uses a new methodology, based on the chemical and biological sea-level indicators contained within inter-tidal sediments, to provide sea-level data suitable for model testing.

Postgraduate personal details

I graduated from the University of St Andrews with a joint honours degree in Geoscience and Environmental Biology. My interest in the use of stable isotopes for climate and sea-level studies began while on a student placement with GNS in New Zealand and the techniques I learned were used during my undergraduate final-year research project. Following my degree, I worked for a year with a minerals extraction company in the UK, went travelling and then returned home to Dublin to start my PhD.

Project Start Date

Publications

Craven, K.F., Bird, M.I., Austin, W.E.N. and Wynn, J., 2008. Isotopic variability in the intertidal acorn barnacle Semibalanus balanoides: a potentially novel sea-level proxy indicator. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 303(1): 173-185.

Fieldwork photos

Tidal Flats and Saltmarsh on Shannon Estuary

Saltmarsh on Shannon Estuary

Surveying a Saltmarsh in Portmarnock

Collecting historical sediment samples from the Shannon Estuary