Uisdean Nicholson

@niobsidian.bsky.social as lead author...

Scientists uncover giant waves that reveal how the Atlantic was formed The Atlantic Ocean may have formed millions of years earlier than previously thought, igniting a period of climate change, scientists found.

Oh, and another one in Newsweek!

www.newsweek.com/new-discover...

Early Cretaceous deep-water bedforms west of the Guinea Plateau revise the opening history of the Equatorial Atlantic Gateway The Equatorial Atlantic Gateway (EAG) was critical to Earth's climatic and oceanographic evolution during the Mesozoic, yet its early opening history …

See here for the original paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Atlantic Ocean Was Only Born 117 Million Years Ago – And These Giant Mud Waves Tell The Story The Atlantic Ocean has not been a permanent feature of planet Earth.

and another one in IFL Science: www.iflscience.com/117-million-...

Gigantic 'mud waves' buried deep beneath the ocean floor reveal dramatic formation of Atlantic when Africa and South America finally split Enormous "mud waves" buried under the Atlantic seabed formed 117 million years ago as the Atlantic Ocean opened up.

Good to see this coverage of our recent paper in Live Science

www.livescience.com/planet-earth...

Still time to apply to our session on #contourites in #activemargins (or a more generic 'sister' proposal on contourites) at the upcoming ISC conference in New Zealand. Deadline on the 16th of May! See the links below...

confer.co.nz/isc2026/down...

confer.co.nz/isc2026/call...

3D anatomy of the Cretaceous–Paleogene age Nadir Crater - Communications Earth & Environment A 9.2 km diameter rim, concentric normal faults and an extended damage zone are observed in 3-dimensional seismic reflection data from the Nadir crater offshore Western Africa and provide strong evide...

See below for a link to the original paper - mind-blowing seismic images, structural geology on a 20-second timescale...

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Top 25 papers of 2024 The top 25 most successful papers published in Communications Earth and Environment in 2024

Great to see that our paper on the 3D anatomy of the Nadir Crater was in the top 25 most successful (impactful?) papers in 2024 in Comms Earth & Environment!

Huge thanks also to our colleagues Elisabetta Erba and Cinzia Bottini in Milan for their exceptional work in re-dating sediment cores for this work - would not have been possible without them

Map of the reconstruction below!

Lots more to come on this in future years, especially if our #IODP drilling proposal is scheduled any time soon!

This pushes back the age of initial opening of the opening of the gateway to the mid-Aptian, around 117 million years ago. This also suggests that this early opening impacted global climate, with black shale deposited in these new, narrow basins leading to short-lived global cooling.

Seismic reflection profile showing large sediment waves that formed during the Early Cretaceous period

In this area, we see evidence for incredible, multi-km scale sediment waves in the seismic data, that document saline waters flowing out from the restricted equatorial basins, into the Central Atlantic - similar to the Mediterranean Outflow Water in the present

This study uses seismic reflection data to reconstruct overflow conditions and the marine connection from the earliest stage of opening of the Equatorial Atlantic Gateway, the new ocean connection that formed following the separation of Africa and South America in the Cretaceous Period

Early Cretaceous deep-water bedforms west of the Guinea Plateau revise the opening history of the Equatorial Atlantic Gateway The Equatorial Atlantic Gateway (EAG) was critical to Earth's climatic and oceanographic evolution during the Mesozoic, yet its early opening history …

Delighted to see this new paper led by my recent postdoc, Debora Duarte, published in Global and Planetary Change!
#sedimentwaves, #contourites, #gateways

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The paper uses seismic reflection data to reconstruct the stratigraphic evolution of the Guinea Plateau, with emphasis on the Equatorial Atlantic Gateway - a critical link between north and south Atlantic during the Cretaceous

Seismic stratigraphy of the Guinea Plateau before, during and after the opening of the Equatorial Atlantic Gateway | Geological Society, London, Special Publications The Guinea Plateau contains a ∼200-million-year stratigraphic record, encompassing the mid-Cretaceous opening of the Equatorial Atlantic Gateway (EAG). Here we present new 2D seismic data to constrain...

New paper in this Geological Society SP collection by my recent PhD student, Ben. The first from his PhD - well done Ben!

www.lyellcollection.org/doi/full/10....

Call for Applications - IODP3 Science Evaluation Panel Members - International Ocean Drilling Programme Call for applications to serve as a member of the IODP3 Science Evaluation Panel (Science and Site subgroups) now open! The Science Evaluation Panel (SEP) is central to the success of IODP3 and is res...

The Science Evaluation Panel (SEP) is central to the success of IODP3 and is responsible for the evaluation and selection of the best and most relevant proposals for development of expedition schedules. Be a part of it iodp3.org/call-for-app...

officially the most beautiful place on Earth, seen from the sky...

Map with the location of all the studies that are part of the special issue.

All the people out there interested in deep-ocean currents and contourites, should not miss this great compilation of articles in Marine Geology:
doi.org/10.1016/j.ma...
Thanks @uisdeannicholson.bsky.social and all other collaborations for making this happen.