The Irish Quaternary Association (IQUA) is a voluntary organisation of academics, amateurs, governmental and industrial partners with interest in Irish landscape change during the most recent period of Earth history (the Quaternary). Its members have diverse interests including agriculture, archaeology, climatology, ecology, engineering, geography, geology and hydrology.

IQUA promotes Quaternary studies in Ireland through its publications, conferences and field meetings. It represents a unique pool of expertise in climate and landscape change capable of providing critical information on past and present Earth surface processes. It is an ideal forum for exchange of information between scientists, managers and interest groups concerned with the many contemporary issues associated with future climate change.

The 2012 IQUA Spring Meeting and AGM will be held Saturday April 14 in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast. Prof. Paula J. Reimer of the 14CHRONO Centre will deliver the Keynote Lecture. The 14Chrono Centre with its excellence in dating and isotope analysis is in many ways at the hub of Irish Quaternary research and is also kindly sponsoring a wine reception following the Meeting and AGM for all attendees of the meeting. A full programme of speakers is available here.

IQUA is delighted to announce its upcoming field tour to the Wicklow Mountains, taking place as part of the Dublin City of Science 2012. The trip is open to the public and involves a bus tour to the northern Wicklow Mountains. There will be a peat coring demonstration and an explanation of why the landscape now looks the way it does, the forests of the last 10,000 years and their clearance, and what the future may hold. Glacial features in the landscape including glacial corries, huge glacial lake basins and other features will be explored. The tour begins 8.30am, Saturday, May 19, and leaves from Nassau Street, central Dublin. Participants will be required to walk over some rocky and boggy ground. Full details and a booking form are available from Pete Coxon at pcoxon@tcd.ie (or 01 8961213).

IQUA is pleased to announce the Bill Watts 14CHRONO Awards, named in memory of W. A. Watts, a founding member of IQUA who passed away in 2010, and are generously supported by the 14CHRONO Centre at Queen’s University Belfast. The awards pay for three, two and one AMS radiocarbon dates, respectively for current postgraduate members of IQUA. For further details, please contact Dr. Bettina Stefanini at stefanb@tcd.ie.