Lecturer

Room 14
Rhetoric House
Tel: 353 1 708 6147
E-mail: stephen.mccarron@nuim.ie

ICARUS  
Irish Sediment Core Research Facilities (ISCORF), St Anne’s, North Campus, NUIM.
Tel: 353 1 708 6839
ISCORF: http://geography.nuim.ie/staff/mccarron-steve/iscorf

Office Hours

Biography

Stephen (Steve to many) has interests in many aspects of the development of Ireland's landscape and past climate history.  Over the years, his work and study history in physical geography and geological research provided opportunities make friends with colleagues in quite a few UK and Irish Universities and organisations. With an MSc in GIS from the University of Leicester he first worked at the U. of Ulster (UU) from 1994-7, later completing a PhD there (1997-2000) on the glacial geology of the north of Ireland.  Since then he has been based in Dublin, working first in the Geological Survey of Ireland for two years, then as a Junior Mining Consultant before using his GIS experience to teach in TCD Dept. of Geography between 2003 and 2005 (where he remains a Research Associate).  Stephen then moved to NUI Maynooth in 2005 to teach Quaternary geomorphology, Earth Science and Palaeoclimate related courses. He is now expanding the palaeoclimate analysis functionality of the ICARUS research group with the development of a national sediment core scanning and analysis laboratory (see here). He continues to devote significant time to the Irish Quaternary Association (IQUA) and has recently joined the Editorial board of the Irish Journal of Earth Sciences.

Irish Quaternary Association: http://www.iqua.ie
Irish Journal of Earth Sciences: http://www.ria.ie/publications/journals/irish-journal-of-earth-sciences.aspx

Research

The chronology of glacial events in Ireland; Irish geomorphology; Quaternary sedimentology of the Irish east coast; Quaternary stratigraphy on the Irish Continental Shelf.

Publications

• Clark, J., McCabe, A.M., Schnabel, C., Clark, P.U., McCarron, S.G., Freeman, S., Maden, C., Xu, S. 2009, Cosmogenic 10Be chronology of the last deglaciation of western Ireland, and implications for sensitivity of the Irish Ice Sheet to climate change, Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 121, 1, 3-16.
• McCarron, S.G. and Stefanini, B.S. (Eds.) 2010. The Beara Peninsula, IQUA Field guide No. 28, Irish Quaternary Association, Dublin.
• Coxon, P. and McCarron, S.G. 2009. Cenozoic: Tertiary and Quaternary (until 11,700 years before 2000), in Holland, C.H. and Sanders, I.S. (eds) The Geology of Ireland, 2nd ed., Dunedin, Edinburgh, pp 355-396.
• Whitehouse, N., Roe, H.M., McCarron, S. and Knight, J. (eds.) 2008.  Field Guide to the north of Ireland, Quaternary Research Association, London. pp.300.
• McCarron, S.G. (ed.) (2007) Aran Islands Field-guide. Dublin: IQUA.
• Farrell, A., McCarron, S.G. and Coxon, P. (2005) Introduction: the Quaternary Geology of Central Western Ireland, In: Coxon, P. (ed.) The Quaternary of Central Western Ireland: Field-guide. London: Quaternary Research Association.
• Knight, J., Coxon, P., McCabe, A.M. and McCarron, S. (2004) Pleistocene glaciations in Ireland. In: Gibbard, P. (ed.) Quaternary Glaciations - Extent and Chronology. Rotterdam: Elsevier B.V.

Conferences

• McCarron, S. Progress in characterising offshore shallow stratigraphies.  INFOMAR Annual Seminar, Marine Institute (Nov 17th, 2011) Link to presentation

• McCarron, S., Monteys, X., and Toms, L. New age constraints on Irish Mainland Shelf glacial limits. INQUA Congress, Bern, Switzerland (20-27 July 2011).
• McCarron, S. 2010 towards a new Virtual core Lab. Geoscience 2010, 3-4 November, Dublin Castle, IRELAND; Abstracts, p. 23 http://www.gsi.ie/Geoscience+Initiatives/Geoscience+2010+Conference.htm).
• Praeg, D., McCarron, S., Stoker, M., the GLAMAR Shipboard Party [Cova, A., Accettella, D., Caburlotto, A., Facchin, L., McManus, O., Sormani, L., Tonini, I., Visnovic, G.] & Onshore Support Team [Furey, T., Monteys, X., Verbruggen, K., Kenyon, N., Cotterle, D., Diviacco, P.] (2010). GLAcial Meltwater and the Continental MARgin of NW Europe: initial results from the IPY GLAMAR campaign to the Irish-UK Celtic Sea [poster]. Atlantic Ireland 2010, 2 November, Burlington Hotel, Dublin, IRELAND; Abstracts Volume, pp. 57-58 (http://www.pip.ie/page/323).
• Praeg, D., McCarron, S., Goldsberry, P., Stoker, M., the GLAMAR Shipboard Party [Cova, A., Accettella, D., Caburlotto, A., Facchin, L., McManus, O., Sormani, L., Tonini, I., Visnovic, G.] & Onshore Support Team [Furey, T., Monteys, X., Verbruggen, K., Kenyon, N., Cotterle, D.] (2010). GLAMARous RIDGES : exploring glacial landscapes in the Celtic Sea [oral]. IQUA Autumn Symposium, 26 November, Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, IRELAND; Abstracts (http://www.iqua.ie/Meet/Met_Hme.htm).
• McCarron, S. and Monteys, X. The pattern and timing of Quaternary ice sheet growth onto the north-western Irish continental shelf,  33rd International Geological Congress, Oslo, Norway (11 August 2008)
• McCarron, S. and C. Travis. ‘GIS and Patrick Kavanagh’s Geography’. Conference of Irish Geographers, St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra. (12 May 2007).

External assignments

• Editorial Board, Irish Journal of Earth Sciences.

• Ordinary Member, IQUA Executive Committee.

• Member, RIA Geosciences and Geographical Sciences National Committees.