About the lecture:
Life underneath an ice shelf
In January-February 2025, Schmidt Ocean Institute expedition to the Bellingshausen Sea made unprecedented observations beneath the recently calved George VI Ice Shelf. Just days after a 350 km² iceberg detached, an international team (co-led by Dr Sasha Montelli from UCL) conducted direct exploration of this newly exposed sub-ice environment that had been shielded by ice for thousands of years, enabling a unique comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis, first of its kind, of ice-ocean-bedrock interactions and life beneath an Antarctic ice shelf. We have found thriving and strikingly diverse ecosystems inhabiting water depths ranging from 200 to 1300 m, likely sustained through vigorous oceanic circulation under ice cavities. This lecture will give an overview of this fascinating cruise and its interdisciplinary discoveries.
UCL's popular public Lunch Hour Lecture series has been running at UCL since 1942, and showcases the exceptional research work being undertaken across UCL. Lectures are free and open to all and since 2020 have been held online.
About the speaker:
Sasha is a geophysicist and glaciologist. His interdisciplinary research combines marine geophysical data with sediment cores and numerical modelling to reconstruct past interactions between ice sheets, ocean and solid earth on multiple temporal and spatial scales. The geography of Sasha's projects span both hemispheres, including East and West Antarctica, the Eurasian Arctic and the subarctic Pacific.
About the chair:
David Thornalley is a Professor of Ocean and Climate science, specializing in the circulation of the Atlantic ocean, its marine ecosystems, and its role during climate change - past, present and future. They are also the Deputy Director (Training Lead, and EDI Chair) for the London NERC DTP that oversees more than 100 PhD students.
