Stephen Roberts
LightNews LightNews
banner
stever60.bsky.social
Stephen Roberts
@stever60.bsky.social
790 followers 770 following 62 posts
⚒️ 🧪Earth scientist / geologist reconstructing past environmental change mainly from lake sediments from Antarctica, Arctic, S. America, Nepal, UK and other places
🏡Cambridge, UK
🏳️‍🌈 he/him
Instagram @antarctic_diary
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
stever60.bsky.social
Stephen Roberts @stever60.bsky.social · Nov 18
Nearing the end of a month of fieldwork, collecting cores from Lake Tilicio (very cold) in the Annapurna Ranage and Lake Phewa (very warm) around Pokhara. It’s been eventful, inspiring, lots of fun, &, of course, stunningly beautiful. A huge thanks to all our Nepalese colleagues, friends and hosts!
Lake sediment coring rig on Lake Phewa in Pokhara - picture shows 4 happy researchers after a days’ work collecting multiple cores Lake Tilicio in the Annapurna Range at 4500 m altitude - picture shows a Bianca Perren carrying a core collected from the lake back down in her rucksack looking out across the lake and majestic mountain range
stever60.bsky.social
Spectacular ending to the annual Cambridge Bonfire Night fireworks display tonight …
November 1, 2025 at 10:20 PM
stever60.bsky.social
cosmokeir.bsky.social Keir Nichols @cosmokeir.bsky.social · Oct 9
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.
November 1, 2025 at 10:02 PM
stever60.bsky.social
iapetusdtp.bsky.social Iapetus DTP @iapetusdtp.bsky.social · Nov 29
PhDs being offered across the Iapetus DTP for an October 2025 start:
www.findaphd.com/phds/program...

Please broadcast details of our Diversifying Talent Scholarship scheme too:
www.findaphd.com/phds/program...

@ukri.org #BlackAFinSTEM #firstgen
November 1, 2025 at 10:01 PM
stever60.bsky.social
Short Article for the BAS IceSheet Newsletter Oct/Nov 2025 …

Ancient tsunamis and storms in the Shetlands Islands

See link for article: www.linkedin.com/posts/stephe...
Collage showing a map of the Shetland Islands in the top left, a map of Loch Flugarth and core sites and sampling locations top right, a sediment core from the centre of the loch bottom left, coring in a small boat on the loch middle bottom, and GPS surveying and measuring retaining sill altitudes bottom right
November 1, 2025 at 10:58 AM
stever60.bsky.social
British Antarctic Survey supervisors are involved in 20 Iapetus DTP PhD projects this year - 6 based at BAS, 14 at one of the Iapetus DTP univeristy partners. Full list and how to apply are in this link :

www.linkedin.com/posts/stephe...
Studentship Competition | Stephen Roberts
British Antarctic Survey supervisors are involved in 20 Iapetus DTP PhD projects this year - 6 based at BAS, 14 at one of the Iapetus DTP univeristy partners - see below for a full list and please for...
www.linkedin.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:21 PM
stever60.bsky.social
Applications are now open for this years’ @iapetusdtp.bsky.social PhD projects … including this one investigating ice sheet and glacier history of the Sør Rondane Mountains in East Antarctica by developing in-situ 14C cosmogenic exposure dating methods - more here:

iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
Black and white landscape photo of the Sør Rondane mountains in East Antarctica Black and white photo of three people on top of the Utsteinen Nunatak in the Sor Rondane mountains in East Antarctica - some of the samples in this project were taken from this massif and its surrounding moraine A black and white landscape photo of the Utsteinen Nunatak in the Sør Rondane mountains in East Antarctica taken while collecting cosmogenic exposure dating samples from the Teltet Nunatak Black and white photo of two people walking across blue ice of the East Antarctic ice sheet surrounding the Sor Rondane mountains
October 10, 2025 at 5:01 AM
Reposted by Stephen Roberts
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
stever60.bsky.social
Applications are now open for this years’ BAS Iapetus PhD projects … including one working on our Big Thaw project investigating extreme precipitation in Nepal from sediment core and climate data - more details in this link @iapetusdtp.bsky.social @bas.ac.uk

iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...
Photo of Lake Tilicio in Nepal with an inset core showing our team collecting sediment cores from the lake
October 8, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Stephen Roberts
drmaex.bsky.social
Collab of @stever60.bsky.social @bas.ac.uk @uniheidelberg.bsky.social #geography
September 23, 2025 at 7:52 AM
Reposted by Stephen Roberts
drmaex.bsky.social
After a solid week of lake coring and sampling for #storm and #tsunami deposits on the #Shetland Islands, we found this yet undocumented gem 💎 on northern Mainland - a distinct gravel layer inside the coastal dunes. Hoping for good OSL results 🤞🏽
Gravel layer in humic coastal dune.
September 23, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Reposted by Stephen Roberts
drmaex.bsky.social
Indeed, Loch Flugarth #ShetlandIslands is a beauty on the inside AND the outside! @stever60.bsky.social @uniheidelberg.bsky.social
Sand Voe bay connected to Loch Flugarth on northern Mainland in the Shetland Islands; photograph with a rainbow Russian chamber corer with laminated lake deposits from Loch Flugarth
September 17, 2025 at 10:06 PM
stever60.bsky.social
Lake coring in the Shetland Islands last week, looking for ancient tsunamis with @drmaex.bsky.social @uniheidelberg.bsky.social @bas.ac.uk
September 20, 2025 at 6:38 AM
stever60.bsky.social
New exciting new global lake sediment temperature calibration paper and dataset by @geochemem.bsky.social, including the first 5- and 6-methyl brGDGTs measured in lake sediments from Antarctica - eg Fan Lake. See link for details:
doi.org/10.1016/j.qu...

@bas.ac.uk @iapetusdtp.bsky.social
A map of the world showing the locations of over 400 lakes whose surface sediments were analysed for biomarker compounds called branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) are a group of temperature-sensitive membrane lipids found in bacteria that have been widely used in palaeo-temperature reconstruction. The paper expands existing calibration datasets, and evaluates calibration models constructed using a range of statistical modelling approaches A slide showing Fan Lake on Annenkov Island near South Georgia - sediments from the surface of a core taken from the bottom of the lake were analysed along with sediments from over 400 lakes around the world the construct a new global calibration model which can be used to reconstruct past changes in lake sediments over thousands of years
September 19, 2025 at 9:50 AM
stever60.bsky.social
Second Scottish lake coring adventure of the summer … this time up to the Shetland Islands looking for ancient storms and tsunamis in lake sediments with @drmaex.bsky.social
Coring on Loch Flugarth north mainland Shetland - photo taken by Susie who lives in the house on the far right of this view of the loch looking at hills in the distance with a white houses 3 people in a small red boat on Loch Flugarth View of Loch Flugarth from a large boulder with a rope tied to it towards some hills in the distance A picture of the farm cat who lives near to Loch Flugarth
September 17, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Reposted by Stephen Roberts
huwiceandstuff.bsky.social
My whale photo got shortlisted in the Royal Society of Biology @rsb.org.uk ‬ Photographer of the Year competition. It is of a whale's chin! Do me a favour and give it a vote here and check out the other amazing photos: www.surveymonkey.com/r/T23CPZC
@bas.ac.uk
the underside of a humpback whale chin sticking out of the ocean. It is covered in barnacles
August 21, 2025 at 2:52 PM
stever60.bsky.social
That's all for Loch Lomond coring: 12 cores collected in 10 days, 2 gravel layers reached and lots of very fine grey clay in between! @iapetusdtp.bsky.social @bas.ac.uk
June 27, 2025 at 7:25 AM
stever60.bsky.social
Amazing sculpture exhibition Clearwell Caves in the Wye Valley
Orange ring sculpture Spiky orb in Clearwell Caves Sculpture of Red sunglasses in the foreground and orange high heeled shoes out of focus in the background Sculpture of people holding hands in the shape of ladder
May 31, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Stephen Roberts
iapetusdtp.bsky.social
We have just sent out the latest of Iapetus DTP's periodic newsletters. If it fell foul of your institution’s junk filter, read it here: eocampaign1.com/web-version?...
Iapetus news, May 2025
The latest news from Iapetus DTP
eocampaign1.com
May 23, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Reposted by Stephen Roberts
iapetusdtp.bsky.social
Edinburgh looking fine on the first day of the Iapetus student conference 2025, funded by @ukri.org.
Edinburgh scenes, day and night
May 14, 2025 at 10:49 AM
stever60.bsky.social
Early start … on my way to Edinburgh for the @iapetusdtp.bsky.social annual conference
Picture of my foot on Platform 4 Zone 5 at Peterborough station Picture of the inside of the empty quiet carriage on the LNER train to Edinburgh
May 13, 2025 at 6:31 AM
stever60.bsky.social
@iapetusdtp.bsky.social
stever60.bsky.social Stephen Roberts @stever60.bsky.social · Apr 23
Iapetus Research experience placement (REP) projects are available for summer 2025 including one based @bas.ac.uk investigating the
Effects of Climate Change on the Polar Ionospheric F-region - see link for more details and eligibility criteria; deadline 12 pm 16/5/25

iapetus2.ac.uk/rep-projects/
A list of 5 REP research experience placements available for this summer A picture of the thermosphere showing the F-region around the Earth
April 24, 2025 at 8:48 PM
stever60.bsky.social
Iapetus Research experience placement (REP) projects are available for summer 2025 including one based @bas.ac.uk investigating the
Effects of Climate Change on the Polar Ionospheric F-region - see link for more details and eligibility criteria; deadline 12 pm 16/5/25

iapetus2.ac.uk/rep-projects/
A list of 5 REP research experience placements available for this summer A picture of the thermosphere showing the F-region around the Earth
April 23, 2025 at 8:44 AM
stever60.bsky.social
Congratulations to all the editors for bringing everyone together and producing such a beautiful book, just in time for #Earthday - a big thanks to @oceanandice.bsky.social for keeping us all on track - really enjoyed being part of this!
bas.ac.uk British Antarctic Survey 🐧 @bas.ac.uk · Apr 22
Why is Antarctica so important?

Antarctica might feel very remote - until you look at the planet from a different perspective. It's actually central to our world's ocean currents.

🎁 Check the alt text to dig into this diagram

🌊 This is from a new book by BAS' @oceanandice.bsky.social (et al.)
April 22, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Stephen Roberts
bas.ac.uk
Why is Antarctica so important?

Antarctica might feel very remote - until you look at the planet from a different perspective. It's actually central to our world's ocean currents.

🎁 Check the alt text to dig into this diagram

🌊 This is from a new book by BAS' @oceanandice.bsky.social (et al.)
The image shows a map of the world's currents, but looking at a projection of the world from the bottom of the globe, with Antarctica at its centre. The diagram shows all of the world's currents cycling through major oceans, all linked together by a central circular current that goes around the outside of the Antarctic continent. "The Southern Ocean around Antarctica is central to global ocean circulation. It enables connectivity across the whole planet by linking the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean basins, and is the key site where waters are returned to the surface from depth and then converted into new water masses. The clockwise circulation of waters around Antarctica is the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the strongest ocean current system in the world." (Figure 1.1 from "Antarctica and the Earth System", edited By Michael P. Meredith, Jess Melbourne-Thomas, Alberto C. Naveira Garabato, Marilyn Raphael)
April 22, 2025 at 12:57 PM
stever60.bsky.social
New book out for Earth Day - includes a chapter on Pollution in Antarctica … link to open access version in next post

www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/a...
Antarctica’s global impact highlighted in new book - British Antarctic Survey
This Earth Day the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is spotlighting a new book that showcases the latest insights from the Antarctic.
www.bas.ac.uk
April 22, 2025 at 1:56 PM