Dr. Sevi Modestou

Scientific Officer

Department: Geography and Environmental Sciences

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

I am an isotope geochemist and paleoceanographer using various isotopic tools to understand Earth's past climate. In particular, I work with 'clumped isotopes' to understand past temperature change on Earth (as well as within other planetary bodies). I also utilise stable, radiogenic and cosmogenic isotopes in the context of paleoclimatology and paleoceanography, and the evolution of the earth.

Key Publications

Clumped Isotope Temperature Reconstruction Using Stalagmite Drip Cups, Umbo, S., Box, M., Intveld, A., Longman, J., Modestou, S., Carolin, S., James, D., Martinez-Garcia, A., Lope, C., Brenner, M., Hodell, D., Breitenbach, S. 30 Apr 2026, In: Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry
Depth is just a model: Why reporting the sample identification code matters, Drury, A., Westerhold, T., Wilkens, R., Villa, A., Kasbohm, J., Modestou, S. 1 Apr 2026
Late Quaternary climatic variability in the Eastern Mediterranean recorded in Hermes Cave, Corinth Rift, Greece, Pennos, C., Pechlivanidou, S., Modestou, S., Persoiu, A., Breitenbach, S., Ninnemann, U., Gawthorpe, R., Maccali, J., Lauritzen, S., Skoglund, R., Thuesen, T. 6 Apr 2026, In: Journal of Quaternary Science
A six-million-year speleothem derived clumped isotope temperature record of continental Eurasia, Umbo, S., Modestou, S., Opel, T., Lechleitner, F., Vaks, A., Golan, T., Mason, A., Margerum, J., Kwiecien, O., Osintsev, A., Breitenbach, S. 15 Mar 2025, EGU General Assembly 2025
Expedition 395 methods, Parnell-Turner, R., Briais, A., LeVay, L., Cui, Y., Di Chiara, A., Dodd, J., Jones, T., Dwyer, D., Eason, D., Friedman, S., Hemming, S., Hochmuth, K., Ibrahim, H., Jasper, C., Karatsolis, B., Lee, S., LeBlanc, D., Lindsay, M., McNamara, D., Modestou, S., Murton, B., O'Connell, S., Pasquet, G., Pearson, P., Qian, S., Rosenthal, Y., Satolli, S., Sinnesael, M., Suzuki, T., Doss, T., White, N., Wu, T., Yang Yang, A. 21 Jan 2025, Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program, Texas, USA, International Ocean Discovery Program
Expedition 395 summary, Parnell-Turner, R., Briais, A., LeVay, L., Cui, Y., Di Chiara, A., Dodd, J., Jones, T., Dwyer, D., Eason, D., Friedman, S., Hemming, S., Hochmuth, K., Ibrahim, H., Jasper, C., Karatsolis, B., Lee, S., LeBlanc, D., Lindsay, M., McNamara, D., Modestou, S., Murton, B., Oconnell, S., Pasquet, G., Pearson, P., Qian, S., Rosenthal, Y., Satolli, S., Sinnesael, M., Suzuki, T., Thulasi Doss, T., White, N., Wu, T., Yang Yang, A. 21 Jan 2025, Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program, Texas, USA, International Ocean Discovery Program
Geomagnetic Excursions Recorded in North Atlantic IODP Expedition 395C Sites U1555 and U1563, Di Chiara, A., Satolli, S., Friedman, S., Dwyer, D., Acton, G., Jones, T., Karatsolis, B., Pearson, P., Suzuki, T., Modestou, S., O'Connell, S., Ibrahim, H., Jasper, C., LeBlanc, D., Lee‐Takeda, S., Thulasi, T., Eason, D., Sinnesael, M., Hochmuth, K., Briais, A., Parnell‐Turner, R., LeVay, L. Jun 2025, In: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
IODP Expedition 395 Site U1602 X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Parnell-Turner, R., Briais, A., LeVay, L., Morris, M., Cui, Y., Di Chiara, A., Dodd, J., Jones, T., Dwyer, D., Eason, D., Friedman, S., Hemming, S., Hochmuth, K., Ibrahim, H., Jasper, C., Karatsolis, B., Lee, S., LeBlanc, D., Lindsay, M., McNamara, D., Modestou, S., Murton, B., O'Connell, S., Pasquet, G., Pearson, P., Qian, S., Rosenthal, Y., Satolli, S., Sinnesael, M., Suzuki, T., Doss, T., White, N., Wu, T., Yang, A., Ferrante, B., Korat, S., Mendez, M., Sperling, C. 21 Mar 2025
Newly dated permafrost deposits and their paleoecological inventory reveal an Eemian much warmer than today in Arctic Siberia, Schirrmeister, L., Fuchs, M., Opel, T., Andreev, A., Kienast, F., Schneider, A., Nazarova, L., Frolova, L., Kuzmina, S., Kuznetsova, T., Tumskoy, V., Matthes, H., Lohmann, G., Grosse, G., Kunitsky, V., Meyer, H., Zimmermann, H., Herzschuh, U., Böhmer, T., Umbo, S., Modestou, S., Breitenbach, S., Pismeniuk, A., Schwamborn, G., Kusch, S., Wetterich, S. 8 Jul 2025, In: Climate of the Past
Onset of strong Iceland-Scotland overflow water 3.6 million years ago, Sinnesael, M., Karatsolis, B., Pearson, P., Briais, A., Hemming, S., LeVay, L., Dunkley Jones, T., Cui, Y., Di Chiara, A., Dodd, J., Dwyer, D., Eason, D., Friedman, S., Hanson, E., Hochmuth, K., Ibrahim, H., Jasper, C., Lee-Takeda, S., LeBlanc, D., Lindsay, M., McNamara, D., Modestou, S., Morris, M., Murton, B., OConnell, S., Pasquet, G., Qian, S., Rosenthal, Y., Satolli, S., Suzuki, T., Thulasi, T., Wade, B., White, N., Wu, T., Yang, A., Parnell-Turner, R. 9 May 2025, In: Nature Communications

Current and Recent Projects

Modestou - Improving seawater chemistry reconstructions using the biogenic silica archive, Modestou, S. (Principal Investigator), Natural Environment Research Council, 06/05/22 - 06/05/24, £59,696.00

Further Information

I manage the NICEST Lab at �ֲ��ý��Ƶ. We are interested in using isotopic and elemental concentration based tools for characterization of modern environmental conditions, and for reconstructing palaeoclimate from periods varying from the Holocene to the Precambrian. We use several different materials and archives to do this: fossils, speleothems, carbonate minerals, soils and sediments, and water.

Specifically, we measure the Δ47, δ13C and δ18O composition of carbonate archives, δD and δ18O of water, and the nitrogen and carbon content and δ13C and δ15N of organic materials, including soils and sediments.

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