
Professor Rachel Flecker
B.A.(Oxon.), Ph.D.(Edin.), PGCertHE
Expertise
I reconstruct past climate from geological records and have a particular interest in the role of marine gateways in influencing major reorganisations of the climate system.
Current positions
Professor of Palaeoclimatology
School of Geographical Sciences
Contact
Press and media
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Biography
After a degree in Earth Sciences at Oxford and a PhD on the sedimentology and tectonics of an area of SW Turkey based in Edinburgh with annual secondments to the Universite de Paris-Sud, I sailed on Ocean Drilling Program Leg 160 to the Eastern Mediterranean. Following a post-doc position in Edinburgh working on some of the samples we recovered from the cruise, I moved to Cambridge to work for CASP as a field geologist. I led their Russian Far East Project which involved extended fieldwork in Sakhalin, the Russian island north of Japan and was one of the first western geologists to work there after the end of the Cold War. It was an amazing experience, scientifically and politically.
In 1999 I was awarded a Wolfson Dorothy Hodgkin Royal Society Fellowship to develop a new isotopic tracer for reconstructing the connectivity history of marine gateways - a key control on major changes in ocean circulation and climate. I moved this fellowship from Cambridge to Bristol in 2002 and was appointed to a lectureship in the School of Geographical Sciences in 2004.
Much of my research subsequently has focussed on multi-disciplinary (geochemistry, numerical modelling, sedimentology, tectonics, palaeontology) research on marine gateways principally through EU-funded Marie Curie Initial Training Networks. I now lead a major international scientific drilling initiative, IMMAGE, that will recover an 8 million year record of Mediterranean-Atlantic exchange to evaluate its role in local, regional and global climate. IMMAGE is the first land-2-sea drilling project in the world involving both offshore coring with IODP and onshore with ICDP. The first element of the drilling is the offshore IODP Expedition 401 which is scheduled to sail from December 2023 to February 2024. I am Co-chief Scientist on this cruise.
I am currently Deputy Head of School and was School Education Director between 2017-2020.
Research interests
Sedimentology, geochemistry, climate modelling, model-data comparison, Mediterranean, Messinian Salinity Crisis
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Reconstructing Mediterranean Overflow Plume Properties
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Geographical SciencesDates
09/12/2023 to 08/12/2025
IMMAGE Land-2-Sea pre-drilling workshop
Principal Investigator
Description
IMMAGE is a scientific drilling project that is investigating the role Mediterranean-Atlantic water exchange played in driving global cooling 8-4 million years ago. It is the world's first scientific drilling…Managing organisational unit
School of Geographical SciencesDates
11/07/2023 to 13/07/2023
Does Motherhood Need Mitigating? A Collective Examination of Parenting and Academic Practice
Principal Investigator
Role
Collaborator
Managing organisational unit
Department of History (Historical Studies)Dates
01/01/2023 to 31/07/2023
Thesis supervisions
The structure and function of subglacial microbial communities in Southwest Greenland
Supervisors
Understanding environmental and anthropogenic factors affecting dinoflagellate communities in the Black and Caspian seas
Supervisors
Reconstructing the Pleistocene connectivity history of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea using strontium isotopes
Supervisors
Publications
Selected publications
01/10/2022High-amplitude water-level fluctuations at the end of the Mediterranean Messinian Salinity Crisis: Implications for gypsum formation, connectivity and global climate
Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Mediterranean isolation preconditioning the Earth System for late Miocene climate cooling
Scientific Reports
Late Miocene contourite channel system reveals intermittent overflow behavior
Geology
Recent publications
16/04/2024Causes and consequences of the Messinian salinity crisis
Nature Reviews Earth and Environment
International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 401 Preliminary Report
International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 401 Preliminary Report
IODP Expedition 401: Mediterranean–Atlantic Gateway Exchange: Site U1385 Summary
IODP Expedition 401: Mediterranean–Atlantic Gateway Exchange: Site U1385 Summary
IODP Expedition 401: Mediterranean–Atlantic Gateway Exchange: Site U1611 Summary
IODP Expedition 401: Mediterranean–Atlantic Gateway Exchange: Site U1611 Summary
International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 401 Scientific Prospectus: Mediterranean–Atlantic Gateway Exchange
Teaching
I teach at all levels in Geography’s undergraduate programme and really enjoy it. I've also recently finished a three year stint as Geography's Education Director and was the Chair of the Faculty of Science Quality Team from 2014-17.
The units I contribute to are:
Year 1: Key Concepts in Human and Physical Geography - Introduction to the Geosphere
Year 2: Research Methods in Physical Geography
Year 3: Extreme Climates of the Past
I also love fieldwork and have participated or led nearly every physical geography fieldtrip the School runs.