Dr Stephanie Mills, Bsc Hons, PgDIP, PhD
Research Staff
Bsc Hons (Royal Holloway), PgDIP (University of East London), PhD (University of the Witwatersrand).
Visiting Research Fellow
School of Geography
Queen Mary, University of London
Mile End Road
London, E1 4NS
Email: s.c.mills@qmul.ac.uk
I completed my PhD entitled ‘The origin of slope deposits in the southern Drakensberg, eastern Lesotho’ in December 2006 at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. I joined QMUL in January 2007 as a Visiting Research Fellow.
My research focuses on the examination of evidence for, and the implications of, Late Quaternary glaciation of southern Africa. Glaciation of southern Africa has long been considered controversial, and my PhD research focused on the development of a multi-method approach, to discriminate between landforms and deposits of glacial origin in the Lesotho highlands and Drakensberg Mountains of southern Africa.
A moraine in the Leqooa Valley region of Eastern Lesotho, southern Africa (29º44’S, 29º07’E)
A key outcome from my research has been to identify areas of modern late-lying snow as locators of potential past niche glaciation in the Drakensberg Mountains of eastern Lesotho, South Africa. This has led to the rapid identification of many areas that may have sustained small glaciers during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) elsewhere in the Drakensberg, using reconnaissance of medium-resolution satellite imagery and aerial photography. This work has been undertaken in collaboration with Prof. Stefan Grab and Nicholas Mulder (University of the Witwatersrand).
The distribution of late-lying snow in the Leqooa Valley, following a snowfall in August 1991 and its relationship to debris deposits.
I have applied glacier reconstruction modelling techniques in collaboration with Dr Simon Carr (Queen Mary University) in order to determine the viability of reconstructed glaciers in eastern Lesotho. Outcomes from this research have led to the tentative suggestion that, there was an increase in precipitation during the LGM in eastern Lesotho. This is an exciting development, as previous palaeoclimatic work has been ambiguous on palaeoprecipitiation records in the region.
More recent research includes the use of solar radiation modelling to identify areas most likely to have sustained glaciers during the LGM in collaboration with Dr Brice Rea (University of Aberdeen). I am also involved in a Royal Society Joint International Project with Dr Simon Carr, Professor Stefan Grab and Dr David Horne, which aims to derive a palaeoclimatic record for southern Africa spanning the LGM, using fossil Ostracod crustaceans, glacier reconstruction modelling and cosmogenic nuclide dating.
Publications:
Mills, S.C., Grab, S.W., Carr, S.J. (submitted) Control of aspect on the distribution of Late Quaternary glacial deposits along the Sekhokong mountain range, eastern Lesotho. Geografiska Annaler.
Grab, S. W., Mulder, N., Mills, S. C. (submitted). Spatial patterns of contemporary winter snow cover and its associations with cold region landforms in the Drakensberg, South Africa. Geografiska Annaler.
Carr, S.J., Lukas, S., Mills, S.C. (submitted) Climate and landscape evolution based on reconstruction of former mountain glaciers. Earth Surface Processes & Landforms (special issue arising from BSG Annual Conference 2007).
Mills, S.C., Grab, S.W., Carr, S.J. (in press) Recognition and palaeoclimatic implications of Late Quaternary niche glaciation in Eastern Lesotho. Journal of Quaternary Science.
Mills, S.C., Grab. (2005) Debris ridges along the southern Drakensberg escarpment as evidence for Quaternary glaciation in southern Africa. Quaternary International. 129, 61-73.