Prof. Derek Fabel

Derek Fabel

Professor of Accelerator Geochronology

Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, Rankine Avenue, East Kilbride

In situ produced Terrestrial Cosmogenic Nuclides (TCN) and their application in geomorphology and glaciology.

Quantifying the effects of glaciers and ice sheets on landscapes.

Reconstructing ice sheets.

Measurement of cosmogenic nuclide concentrations in minerals to study long-term landscape evolution and the effects of climate change and tectonics.

My work is largely interdisciplinary and includes collaboration with scientists in geomorphology, Quaternary geology, glaciology, nuclear physics and geochemistry.

Current/recent research

Interglacial Collapse of Ice Sheets revealed by Subglacial Drilling of Bedrock (INCISED).
The ERC funded INCISED project aims to measure prior exposure of subglacially-drilled bedrock in order to test for and quantify West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse, and in doing so to calibrate models of future ice sheet behaviour.

ScotIce: How fast could ice caps collapse?
Improving 10Be and 26Al AMS measurement precision and development of 26Al positive ion mass spectrometry (PIMS) to determine how fast the Scottish ice cap retreated in response to rapid warming at the end of Greenland Stadial 1 (GS1).

BRITICE-CHRONO: Constraining rates and style of marine-influenced ice sheet decay. This is a NERC consortium project spread across eight universities, the British Geological Survey and British Antarctic Survey.

MAGIC-DML: Deciphering the glacial history of East Antarctica using nunataks as indicators of ice sheet dynamics.

Quantifying glacial erosion at glacier and ice sheet scales using cosmogenic nuclide techniques.

Cosmogenic nuclide production rate systematics.