Keir Nichols
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cosmokeir.bsky.social
Keir Nichols
@cosmokeir.bsky.social
340 followers 330 following 43 posts
Scientist at SUERC/University of Glasgow 🧪 PhD - Tulane ⚜️🏔️ Geographer masquerading as a geologist (he/him) https://linktr.ee/keirnichols
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cosmokeir.bsky.social
Applications are now open for a Glasgow-based Iapetus DTP project centred on using in situ 14C to study glacier histories in East Antarctica! tinyurl.com/3ddvynn2 @stever60.bsky.social @uofglasgow.bsky.social @iapetusdtp.bsky.social @bas.ac.uk
A person standing on a moraine which is in front of a mountain. The mountain is in East Antarctica, with a small glacier between the mountain and moraine. The person is using a saw to collect a rock sample from the surface of a boulder on top of the moraine. A photo taken from a mountain in East Antarctica, with moraines and blue ice in the foreground, and the vast East Antarctic Ice Sheet extending to the horizon. Some small mountains (nunataks) are poking out above the surface of the ice sheet at varying distances.
October 9, 2025 at 10:56 AM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
Chuffed to be included in this review paper on the Foundation-Patuxent-Academy ice stream system, Antarctica led by Neil Ross - you can see the preprint in open review here: doi.org/10.5194/egus... - featuring the busiest figure I've ever made 🇦🇶🧊
A busy figure with three panels (a, b, and c). Panel a is a plot with distance along centreline (in km) on the x axis and elevation (in metres above sea level) on the y axis. The plot shows the location (along flowline) and elevation of samples collected for cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating at sites adjacent to the Foundation Ice Stream. Panel b is a map that shows the Foundation Ice Stream (and neighbouring ice streams and glaciers), the flowline used in panel a, and the locations from which the samples in panel a were collected. Panel c is a plot with age (in thousands of years) on the x axis and elevation above modern ice surface (in metres) on the y axis. Exposure ages (between 20 ka and the present day) from the sites in panels a and b are plotted, with most of them falling between ~4 and 9 ka. The ages show that the Foundation Ice Stream thinned by hundreds of metres (at least 700 to 800 m) between about 9 and 4 ka.
September 10, 2025 at 2:19 PM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
I was chuffed to be asked to do the lab work for this study during my postdoc. Being published with Neil, who taught me during undergrad in Aberystwyth, is a dream come true! It was also super cool to work with @eisstrom.bsky.social, @matt-peacey.bsky.social, and many co-authors not on Bluesky!
A photo looking up a valley towards Taullicocha Glacier in Peru. There are prominent cross-valley moraines which we date using cosmogenic 10Be in the paper linked in the previous post. A close up photo of small pieces of granitic rock that were collected from the surface of a boulder on the crest of a moraine in Peru. Quartz was isolated from these rocks for 10Be surface exposure dating.
August 22, 2025 at 11:41 AM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
After living in Louisiana and then London for the last 10 years, I'm chuffed about living close to this sort of scenery:
April 14, 2025 at 1:00 PM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
I'm thrilled to have started a new role as an "In situ Radiocarbon Scientist" at @uofglasgow.bsky.social/ SUERC/ @isotopesuk.bsky.social! I'll be setting up a new NEIF in situ 14C lab over the next year 🧪🏔️
A photo of me standing in front of the Gilbert Scott Building at the University of Glasgow. As per Google, "the building is a striking Gothic Revival structure...and features an iconic bell tower, one of Glasgow's most notable landmarks." A photo of the side of the AMS Laboratory at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) with lovely clear blue skies above it. A sign on the side of the building includes the logo for SUERC, "AMS Laboratory", and different universities and organisations associated with it.
April 14, 2025 at 12:58 PM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
Another two of my faves ✌️
A satellite image of Mount Manthe, a nunatak adjacent to Larter Glacier. A satellite image of Webber Nunatak, another nunatak adjacent to Larter Glacier. This nunatak is located next to the modern grounding line of Larter Glacier, which is shown on the map with a blue line.
January 8, 2025 at 7:32 AM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
I'm sure @geologicaljo.bsky.social will put together a more comprehensive thread on the paper - I mostly wanted to show off some of the maps I made (you can find them, and more, in the supplement)
A satellite image of one of two nunataks in the Hudson Mountains that share the name "Dean Nunataks". This nunatak takes the form of a volcanic crater that is partially covered by ice. A satellite image (with contour lines) of Shepherd Dome, one of a series of nunataks situated adjacent to Pine Island Glacier. Most of this nunatak is covered by an ice dome, with only a few small pieces of exposed rock on the south side of the nunatak.
January 8, 2025 at 7:32 AM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
Chuffed to have contributed to this new QSR paper led by @geologicaljo.bsky.social! Check it out of you fancy learning about glacial deposits in the Hudson Mountains, West Antarctica, and what they tell us about past ice thicknesses, thermal regimes, and ice flow directions 🧊🇦🇶🏔️ tinyurl.com/yh9je8sf
Two maps - the first shows the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica, and major glaciers that flow into it (most notably Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers). The second map shows the Hudson Mountains, a series of volcanoes adjacent to Pine Island Glacier and dissected by Larter and Lucchita glaciers. Three plots showing the surface profile (elevation) of Pine Island, Larter, and a Lucchitta glaciers against distance from ice shelf front or grounding line (km). Grey boxes above the surface profiles show the extent of exposed rock at each nunatak (a volcano in each case here). Different symbols in/on the grey boxes show the location and elevation of erratic cobbles collected or observed at each nunatak. There is a pie chart above each nunatak showing the different erratic lithologies observed.
January 8, 2025 at 7:32 AM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
Thanks so much! I forgot to include these panels in the thread, probably my fave maps I've made. I spent an unjustifiable amount of time on them 😅
December 21, 2024 at 12:07 PM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
I'm sharing another couple of figures because I'm super proud of them!
Three panels show (a) a West Antarctic Ice Sheet volume reconstruction from 12 ka to present, (b) the calculated likelihood that WAIS volume was increasing when the moraine formed 1,400 years ago, and (c) a reconstruction of ice elevation history at Mt Murphy from 8 ka to present. In panel (a), WAIS volume decreases from ~12 to 4 ka, decreases slightly beneath present volume about 4-3 ka, before increasing from about 3 ka to present. In panel (b) we can see that it is likely that WAIS volume was increasing when the moraine formed. In panel (c), ice at Mount Murphy thins from >350 m asl to ~60 masl between 8 ka and 7-6 ka, stays at this thinner than present elevation for at least 3 thousand years, increases to about 200 m asl when the moraine forms (1.4 ka), before thinning again between 1966 to present. This figure shows an aerial photograph of the study site taken in 1966 and a satellite image from 2001. Part of the scoria cone is covered by ice in the aerial photograph (1966) but is uncovered by the time the satellite image was taken (2001), showing that ice thinned by about 50 m between these dates.
December 19, 2024 at 4:54 PM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
We know that ice in the Amundsen Sea Embayment (and in other parts of Antarctica) was thinner than present in the Holocene, but we aren't sure when this ice mass was recovered. We think this moraine helps solve that puzzle! 🏔️🧊
A map from the journal article which shows the moraine and scoria cone outcrops. Purple and orange circles show the location of samples (cobbles) collected for cosmogenic nuclide measurement. Resulting exposure ages for each sample are included as labels. The two scoria cone outcrops were exposed by thinning ice between 7.1 and 6.4 ka. The five cobbles from the moraine were deposited/exposed between 2.6 and 0.7 ka. A plot/diagram which shows a cross section of the scoria cone, moraine, and ice. The y axis is labelled elevation (in metres above sea level) whilst the x axis is labelled distance along transect (metres). The purpose of this diagram is to show how we think the moraine formed - we think an englacial thrusts (or multiple englacial thrusts) deliver subglacial material to the surface of the ice, forming the moraine.
December 19, 2024 at 4:54 PM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
🚨New paper just in time for the holidays 🚨 We combine exposure ages, glacial geomorphology, and sea level data to show that this pile of rocks near Thwaites Glacier is a moraine that formed in the Late Holocene (~1.4 ka) when a glacier thickened/advanced tinyurl.com/4sanafnb 🧵
A photo taken from a plane that shows a mountain (Mount Murphy, West Antarctica), moraine, and outcrops of a scoria cone, all of which are surrounded by ice and snow. A small glacier that flows from the flanks of Mount Murphy toward the moraine and scoria cone is highlighted in purple. Arrows show our interpreted ice flow directions.
December 19, 2024 at 4:54 PM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
I'll post more geo/sciencey stuff eventually, but for now it's more funemployment posting ✌️
The front of the Hammersmith Apollo in London with "Khruangbin" on the sign A photo of Khruangbin performing And another photo of them performing
November 21, 2024 at 12:42 AM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
Funemployment off to a good start 🌴😎
a guy (me) walking on a beach palm trees and cacti in a park in Tenerife part of the caldera of Mount Teide (taken from close to the summit), with the Atlantic Ocean in the background The summit of Mount Teide with a clear blue sky in the background
November 18, 2024 at 12:13 PM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
I spent the penultimate week of my postdoc visiting @radatmines.bsky.social in Colorado 🍂 Experienced two big firsts - seeing Greenland from the plane, and going to Olive Garden for a quintessential American experience, 10/10 will visit again
November 8, 2024 at 10:20 AM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
I recently updated this plot I almost put in my thesis - kind of amazing that the number of papers reporting measurements of in situ cosmogenic 14C has doubled over the last ~6 years!
A plot showing the number of journal articles, technical reports, and theses that include measurements of cosmogenic in situ 14C between 1989 and present. The total number of papers more than doubled between 2018 and 2024, from 46 to 98
October 23, 2024 at 6:18 PM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
I'm very excited to be presenting at #EGU24 next Wednesday! You can find me in Session CR1.3 "East and West Antarctica’s responses to climate change, past present and future." Do any of y'all have any EGU/Vienna dos and don'ts for an EGU newbie?
The title slide of a talk titled "Does this moraine constrain a Late Holocene readvance in the Amundsen Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet?", including a satellite image of a mountain and moraine in Antarctica and a bunch of university logos
April 12, 2024 at 4:54 PM
cosmokeir.bsky.social
Hi Bluesky, first post alert! You might remember a little island was discovered in front of Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers in early 2020. Well, you can now read all about the geology of that little granite island in this awesome paper led by postdoc Jim Marschalek! doi.org/10.1017/S095...
February 29, 2024 at 3:07 PM