Paul Dunlop

• PhD
• Research Director at University of Ulster

The use of defective concrete in the construction of homes and businesses in the Republic of Ireland has resulted in widespread property deterioration, displacement, economic shock and psychological distress for thousands of families. No studies to date have investigated the prevalence estimates of mental health conditions in those affected by Irel...

Thousands of homes in County Donegal, Ireland, built from concrete blocks, are damaged by extensive cracks and crumbling that occurred a few years after construction. Recently, research has shown that pyrrhotite oxidation triggering internal sulfate attack (ISA) is the cause. In this study, samples from the strip foundations, the rising blocks, the...

Thousands of homes in County Donegal, Ireland, built from concrete blocks, are damaged by extensive cracks and crumbling that occur a few years after construction. Only recently, research has shown that pyrrhotite oxidation triggering internal sulfate attack (ISA) is the cause. In this study, samples from the strip foundations, the rising blocks el...

Thousands of homes in County Donegal, Ireland, are damaged by cracks formed a few years after construction. The authorities have erroneously attributed the damages to the presence of muscovite mica in the concrete blocks used to build the homes. Only recently, research has shown that pyrrhotite oxidation triggering internal sulfate attack (ISA) is...

Numerous homes in county Mayo, Ireland, built with concrete blocks have developed severe cracking approximately a decade after construction. The culprit of the deterioration is framboidale pyrite present in the argillaceous limestone used as aggregates for the concrete blocks. This type of pyrite is prone to oxidation due to its small size and high...

In County Donegal, northwest Ireland, thousands of homes built with concrete blocks show an increasing degree of severe structural defects attributed to high mica content in the aggregates. Consequently, the problem is popularly known as the “Mica Crisis”. In this project the concrete blocks of four affected homes are investigated by microstructura...

Climate change has had a significant impact on glacier recession, particularly in the Arctic, where glacier meltwater is an important contributor to global sea-level rise. Therefore, it is important to accurately quantify glacier recession within this sensitive region, using multiple observations of glacier extent. In this study, we mapped 480 glac...

This paper examines how governance failure on behalf of the Irish Government led to the ‘mica’/defective blocks catastrophe. It will examine the governance process adopted by the Irish state in the ‘mica’ case and review the recommendations made in 2012 (Pyrite Panel, 2012) following a similar crisis – ‘pyrite’ and whether the Irish Government’s re...

Relict landforms and sediments across former glaciated settings provide information about ice-sheet dynamics and can contribute to the understanding of the behaviour of contemporary ice masses, for which observations are limited in spatial and temporal extent. In this study, we focus on the shelf offshore southwest Ireland, in the Celtic Sea, which...

A Late Pleistocene channelized subglacial meltwater system on the Atlantic continental shelf south of Ireland. Boreas. https://doi.org/10.1111/bor.12536. ISSN 0300-9483. The study of palaeo-glacial landforms and sediments can give insights into the nature and dynamics of ice sheets. This is particularly the case with regards to the subglacial recor...

New optically stimulated luminescence dating and Bayesian models integrating all legacy and BRITICE-CHRONO geochronology facilitated exploration of the controls on the deglaciation of two former sectors of the British–Irish Ice Sheet, the Donegal Bay (DBIS) and Malin Sea ice-streams (MSIS). Shelf-edge glaciation occurred ~27 ka, before the global L...

Palaeoenvironmental change following deglaciation of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet on the continental shelf west of Ireland was investigated using multiproxy analyses of sediment and foraminifera data from nine sediment cores. Lithofacies associations record various depositional regimes across the shelf, which evolve from subglacial to postglaci...

During the last glacial maximum, the British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) extended to the shelf edge in the Malin Sea between Ireland and Scotland, delivering sediments to the Donegal Barra Fan (DBF). Analysis of well-preserved, glacially derived sediment in the DBF provides new insights on the character of the BIIS final deglaciation and palaeoenvironme...

Schmidt-hammer exposure-age dating (SHD) was applied at 15 sites with glacially-transported granite boulders in parts of northern and western Ireland and southwest Scotland that had been exposed by retreat of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) or Younger Dryas (YD) ice masses. Seven of these surfaces had previously been dated using terrestrial...

Reconstructing the configuration and behaviour of palaeo-ice sheets is an important scientific goal as it provides new insights into how ice sheets respond to both internal and external drivers over a range of timescales. During the last glaciation, the British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) and the Newfoundland Ice Sheet (NIS) were situated on opposite si...

Understanding the triggers and pace of marine-based ice sheet decay is critical for constraining the future mass loss and dynamic behaviour of marine-based sectors of the large polar ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Numerical models which seek to predict this behaviour need to be calibrated against data from both contemporary and palaeo-ice...

During the last glaciation, the British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) and the Newfoundland Ice Sheet (NIS) were situated on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean but at similar latitudes. Their position on the edge of the continent and the fact that they terminated in a marine environment make them key sites for examining ice sheet-ocean-climate interactio...

We report 80 10Be ages on 14 moraines from Irish cirques that show a previously unrecognized signal of at least eight millennialscale fluctuations between 24.5 ± 0.7 ka and 11.0 ± 0.3 ka. Several moraine ages may be correlative with abrupt warming at the onset of the Bølling-Allerød interval (14.7 ka) and the end of the Younger Dryas interval (11.7...

The temporal pattern of postglacial rock-slope failure in a glaciated upland area of Ireland (the western margin of the Antrim Lava Group) was evaluated using both ³⁶Cl exposure dating of surface boulders on run-out debris and ¹⁴C dating of basal organic soils from depressions on the debris. The majority of the ³⁶Cl ages (~ 21–15 ka) indicate that...

Defining critical source areas (CSAs) of diffuse pollution in agricultural catchments depends upon the accurate delineation of hydrologically sensitive areas (HSAs) at highest risk of generating surface runoff pathways. In topographically complex landscapes, this delineation is constrained by digital elevation model (DEM) resolution and the influen...

Diffuse phosphorus (P) mitigation in agricultural catchments should be targeted at critical source areas (CSAs) that consider source and transport factors. However, development of CSA identification needs to consider the mobilisation potential of legacy soil P sources at the field scale, and the control of (micro)topography on runoff generation and...

Identifying critical source areas (CSAs) of diffuse pollution in agricultural catchments requires the accurate identification of hydrologically sensitive areas (HSAs) at highest propensity for generating surface runoff and transporting pollutants. A new GIS-based HSA Index is presented that improves the identification of HSAs at the sub-field scale...

The last British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) had extensive marine-terminating margins and was drained by multiple large ice streams and is thus a useful analogue for marine-based areas of modern ice sheets. However, despite recent advances from investigating the offshore record of the BIIS, the dynamic history of its marine margins, which would have bee...

Soil geochemistry is routinely and effectively used for mineral prospecting through thick subglacial deposits in Canada and Finland. However, this approach has not been widely applied in Ireland. This study uses the Tellus and Tellus Border soil geochemical data to investigate possible glacial dispersal of gold and base metal in the Southern Upland...

Understanding the evolution of the ice-bed interface is fundamentally important for gaining insight into the dynamics of ice masses and how subglacial landforms are created. However, the formation of the suite of landforms generated at this boundary — subglacial bedforms — is a contentious issue that is yet to be fully resolved. Bedforms formed in...

A complete reconstruction of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) is hindered by uncertainty surrounding its offshore extent and dynamic behaviour. This study addresses this problem by reconstructing the depositional history of four sediment cores taken from a series of sinuous glacigenic sediment ridges on the continental shelf west of Ireland....

Traditional approaches to reconstructing the Irish Ice Sheet have used the landform and sediment record to define its extent and formulate models of its geometry through the Pleistocene. Using geochemistry to establish the provenance of primary subglacial sediment (till) represents a novel approach to investigating regional ice flow patterns in Ire...

The former Newfoundland Ice Sheet was situated on the fringes of the northwest Atlantic Ocean and the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) during the last glaciation. This location suggests Newfoundland is a key location for examining ice sheet response to a number of internal and external forcing mechanisms, including configuration changes in the LIS, ice s...

The Newfoundland Ice Sheet (NIS), which formed part of the North American Ice Sheet Complex, was situated on the margins of the northeast Atlantic Ocean during MIS 2-4. Although all were confluent at the last glacial maximum, the NIS is known to have supported independent ice centres with advances from the Laurentide Ice Sheet being restricted to N...

Palaeoglaciology of the Newfoundland Ice Sheet Complex, Canada, reconstructed using the glacial geomorphological record and cosmogenic isotope surface exposure dating. While the relationship between climate fluctuations and ice sheet dynamics remains unclear there is a need for new insights into the role of ice sheets within the global climate syst...

As ice sheets are sensitive barometers of global climate change, reconstructing palaeo-ice sheets provides important insights into how contemporary ice sheets may respond to future climate change. The Newfoundland Ice Sheet (NIS) is of particular significance in this regard. It was located on the fringes of the Atlantic Ocean and the Laurentide Ice...

Applying a remote sensing and GIS approach to reconstructing the last Newfoundland Ice Sheet, Canada. The Newfoundland Ice Sheet (NIS) was situated on the margins of the northwest Atlantic Ocean and the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) during the last glaciation. This location suggests the evolution of the NIS through the last glacial cycle was likely in...

A palaeoglaciological reconstruction of the Newfoundland Ice Complex, Canada using a remote sensing and GIS approach. The Newfoundland Ice Complex was situated on the fringes of the northeast Atlantic Ocean and the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) during the Wisconsinan glaciation (80ka BP to 10ka BP). This location suggests the evolution of this ice sh...

Information resource for mountaineers that provides an overview of the geology and geomorphology of the Mountains in the North of Ireland

The former Newfoundland Ice Sheet was situated on the fringes of the northeast Atlantic Ocean during the Wisconsinan glaciation (∼80-10 ka BP). Its geographic position indicates that it was likely to have been influenced by a number of external and internal forcing mechanisms including configuration changes in the Laurentide Ice Sheet with which it...

The Newfoundland Ice Sheet which formed part of the North American Ice Sheet Complex was situated on the margins of the northwest Atlantic Ocean during the Wisconsinan glaciation (∼80ka BP to 10ka BP). This complex consisted of the Laurentide, the Cordilleran and Innuitian Ice Sheets, the Canadian Maritime Provinces Ice Cover and the Newfoundland I...

The formation of the mountain landscapes of the north of Ireland

Recent mapping programmes in Irish territorial waters, such as the Irish National Seabed Survey and the Integrated Mapping for the Sustainable Development of Ireland's Marine Resource programme, have generated high resolution multibeam bathymetry, backscatter and sediment sample datasets at an unprecedented resolution and coverage. Building upon pr...

We provide a mechanistic explanation for observed metrics for drumlins, which represent their sizes and shapes. Our explanation is based on a concept of drumlin growth occurring through a process of instability, whereby small amplitude wave forms first grow as ice slides over a bed of deformable sediments, followed by a coarsening process, in which...

This technical report presents the findings of the Tellus Border research project no. 10761: A geochemical approach to unravelling ice sheet history using both Tellus and Tellus Border soil geochemical data completed between April and October 2013. The project uses the soil geochemical data compiled by the Tellus Border and Tellus surveys to invest...

"The sub-glacial imprint of the last Newfoundland Ice Sheet (~28ka-10ka yr. BP)”. M.McHenry and P.Dunlop Quaternary Environmental Change Research Group, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster, Coleraine. Former ice-sheets play a key role in palaeo-climatology by providing important proxy information on processes driving climatic...

Multibeam swath bathymetry data collected by the Irish National Seabed Survey provides evidence for extensive glaciation of the continental shelf west and northwest of Ireland. Streamlined subglacial bedforms on the mid to outer shelf record former offshore-directed ice flow and indicate the ice sheet was grounded in a zone of confluence between ic...

This paper presents results from the first regional statistical analysis of soils developed on till in Northern Ireland, using the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland’s Tellus geochemical database. Till geochemistry is largely determined by its parent bedrock and soils developed on tills are known to inherit this geochemical signature. Soil geoch...

Multibeam swath bathymetry data collected by the Irish National Seabed Survey provides evidence for extensive glaciation of the Malin Shelf, north of Ireland and on the shelf northwest of County Donegal. Streamlined subglacial bedforms on the mid to outer shelf record former offshore-directed ice flow and indicate the ice sheet was grounded in a zo...

Multibeam swath bathymetry data collected through the Irish National Seabed Survey provides direct evidence for extensive glaciation of the continental shelf off northwest Ireland. Streamlined subglacial bedforms on the inner shelf record former offshore-directed ice flow. The major glacial features, however, consist of well developed, nested arcua...

The continental margin offshore of western Ireland offers an opportunity to study the effects of glacial forcing on the morphology and sediment architecture of a mid-latitude margin. High resolution multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data, combined with shallow seismic and TOBI deep-towed side-scan sonar profiles, provide the basis for this study...

Multibeam swath bathymetry data collected north and northwest of Ireland is used to construct the first glacial geomorphological map of the continental shelf in this region and provides direct evidence of extensive shelf glaciation. Streamlined subglacial bedforms on the inner shelf record former offshore-directed ice flow and sequences of well-dev...

The literature on drumlins is pervaded by the notion that their longitudinal profile is usually highly asymmetric with a stoss steeper end and a lee gentler end, and that this can be used to infer the palaeo ice flow direction. The idea is built up in many papers covering more than a century of research. However, most of the early published papers...

Multibeam echosounder data collected by the Irish National Seabed Survey (INSS) between 2000 and 2001 in the Rockall Trough have been used by many projects to analyze the geomorphology and the sedimentary processes of the margins of the Trough. However, due to the low spatial resolution of 150-250 m and the amount of artefacts still embedded in the...

The asymmetry of the planar shape of drumlins is an established paradigm in the literature and characterizes drumlins as resembling tear drops with a blunt (bullet-shaped) stoss end and a tapering (pointed) lee end. It is widely cited and never been seriously questioned. In this paper, the planar shape of 44,500 drumlins mapped in various regional...

Ice flow is largely facilitated by processes at the base of the ice, which are very difficult to observe. Nevertheless, we know from observations of exposed ice sheet beds and, more recently, from beneath the ice in Antarctica, that the processes that generate ice flow result in a suite of `subglacial bedforms'. Understanding how these bedforms are...

Multibeam swath bathymetry and backscatter data collected as part of the Irish National Seabed Survey and Integrated Mapping for the Sustainable Development of Ireland's Marine Resource programmes is used to investigate the glacial geomorphology of the Malin Shelf. The data provides direct evidence that the former British Irish Ice Sheet was ground...

Despite over a century of research, reconstructions of the western margin of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet remain controversial. This is mainly because the ice sheet extended offshore onto the continental shelf and therefore significant portions of the glacial record are below present sea level. The availability of high resolution multibeam swat...

Ribbed moraines are large ridges of sediment produced transverse to ice flow direction that formed widely beneath palaeo-ice sheets. Since ice sheet stability is sensitive to conditions operating at the bed, an understanding of ribbed moraine genesis will provide critical information on ice sheet dynamics. Currently, there is no consensus on ribbed...

Several independent indicators imply a high probability of a great (M > 8) earthquake rupture of the subduction megathrust under the Mentawai Islands of West Sumatra. The human consequences of such an event depend crucially on its tsunamigenic potential, which in turn depends on unpredictable details of slip distribution on the megathrust and how r...

We investigate controls on tsunami generation and propagation in the near-field of great megathrust earthquakes using a series of numerical simulations of subduction and tsunamigenesis on the Sumatran forearc. The Sunda megathrust here is advanced in its seismic cycle and may be ready for another great earthquake. We calculate the seafloor displace...

Moraines deposited by the Dundalk Bay ice lobe record two readvances of the Irish Ice Sheet into the northern Irish Sea Basin during the last deglaciation. These readvances overrode and incorporated fossiliferous marine muds from the floor of Dundalk Bay. AMS 14C dates from monospecific microfaunas obtained from these muds indicate that the earlier...

Accelerator mass spectrometry C-14 ages on monospecific marine microfauna from raised mud record initial deglaciation of the eastern coast of Scotland before 21.0 cal ka bp. Two subsequent ice-margin readvances occurred prior to the Loch Lomond Advance and are identified from ice-contact deposits overlying marine mud. The Lunan Bay Readvance dates...

Interaction stresses from recent great earthquakes on the Sunda Trench subduction zone have made another earthquake, this time under the Mentawai Islands, more likely. The megathrust under Siberut Island has not ruptured since the great 1797 earthquake and may be ripe for triggered failure. Paleogeodetic studies support a range of possible events,...

Ribbed (Rogen) moraines are large subglacially formed transverse ridges that cover extensive areas of the former Laurentide, Scandinavian and Irish ice sheets. Given their ubiquitous and conspicuous nature, it is surprising that their characteristics are poorly understood. To date, most ribbed moraine studies have been spatially restricted and rely...

Please click here to download the map associated with this article.Ribbed moraines are large subglacially formed transverse ridges that cover extensive areas of the beds of the former Laurentide, Fennoscandian and Irish ice sheets. Since the flow speeds and stability of ice sheets are known to be sensitive to conditions operating at the bed, a full...