Multiproxy quantification of NE Irish Ice Sheet deglaciation timing and dynamics

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The last British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) is an excellent analogue for the vast ice masses currently occupying Antarctica and Greenland. Reconstructions of the BIIS therefore have the potential to inform us of future trajectories of large-scale ice mass loss. However, large gaps in our knowledge of major ice (re)advance and retreat in a rapidly shifting climate still hinder the efficacy of the BIIS as a comprehensive predictor of future deglaciation elsewhere in the world. To fill these gaps, the ambition of this project is to understand the role of climatic, sea-level, and internal drivers related to ice sheet stability and ice divide migration in the north-western sector of the BIIS. We will develop a brand new geomorphological understanding of little understood (re)advances of ice in Northern Ireland by employing unparalleled 0.4 m resolution digital elevation models. This will contextualise a new chronology for this area using radiocarbon and cosmogenic nuclide dating campaigns, and the first tephrostratigraphic framework for the Late Glacial in Ireland. This high-resolution multiproxy approach will allow us to date and directly compare rates of deglaciation across Ireland and Britain, providing new insights into the timing and drivers of ice-mass recession critical for improving BIIS models.