December 2017

EGU 2018 Session SC1.10/CL6.06/GM12.4/SSP2.20

We´d like to invite everybody interested in innovative and quantitative methods for continental palaeoenvironmental reconstructions to attend our short course (details below) at the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union, 8-13 April 2018.

SC1.10/CL6.06/GM12.4/SSP2.20 
Age Models and geochronology: An introductory course to different age-depth modelling approaches (co-organized)

Convener: Carole Nehme 
Co-Conveners: Sebastian F.M. Breitenbach , Michael Dietze , Annegret Larsen 

Abstract:
In an era of science that uses numerical models to better understand physical processes occurring on Earth, there is an increasing demand for robust empirical datasets to constrain these simulations. Generating robust datasets, especially data sets that express stratigraphic positions of sedimentary deposits as ages, often involves the use of multiple, independent geochronological techniques (e.g. different kinds of radioisotopic dating, magneto-, bio-, cyclostratigraphy and sedimentologic relationships along the succesion). The integration of these different kinds of geochronological information often poses challenges.

Age-depth models are the ultimate result of the integration of different geochronological techniques, and range from linear interpolation to more complex Bayesian techniques. Invited speakers Christian Zeeden and David De Vleeschouwer will share their experience in several modelling concepts and their application in a range of paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic records. The Short Course will provide an introduction to the field of (Bayesian) age-depth models and will highlight the assumptions, benefits and limitations of different model approaches. It will prepare the participants from CL, GM and SSP divisions for independent application of suitable age-depth models to their data.

 

We hope you will enjoy this short course.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Hope to see you in Vienna and

Merry Christmas!
Seb, Carole, Michael and Annegret

Short course page at the EGU website:
http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2018/session/28970

EGU 2018 Session CL1.11

We´d like to invite everybody interested in innovative and quantitative methods for continental palaeoenvironmental reconstructions to submit abstracts for our session (details below) at the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union, 8-13 April 2018.

CL1.11 
Novel and quantitative methods for continental palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.

Convener: Jessica Oster 
Co-Conveners: Sebastian F.M. Breitenbach , Bethany Fox , Adam Hartland

Abstract:
In recent decades, quantitative methods have become increasingly important in the field of palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstruction, due to the need for comparison between different records and to provide boundary conditions for computational modelling. Continental environmental archives (e.g. speleothems, lake sediments, ice, or land snails) are often highly temporally resolved (subdecadal to seasonal) and may provide more direct information about atmospheric processes than marine archives. The wide variety of archive types available on land also allows for intercomparison and ground-truthing of results from different techniques and different proxies, and multi-proxy reconstructions from the same archive can disentangle local and supra-regional environmental conditions.

This session aims to highlight recent advances in the use of innovative and quantitative proxies to reconstruct past environmental change on land. We welcome studies of any continental archive, including but not limited to carbonates (caves, paleosols, snails), sediments (lakes, rivers, alluvial fans), ice, and biological proxies (tree rings, fossil assemblages, plant biomarkers). We particularly encourage studies involving the calibration of physical and chemical proxies that incorporate modern transfer functions, forward modeling and/or geochemical modeling to predict proxy signals, and quantitative estimates of past temperature and precipitation amounts. We also welcome reconstructions of temperature and hydrologic variability over large spatial scales, including paleoclimate data assimilation studies. This session will provide a forum for discussing recent innovations and future directions in the development of terrestrial palaeoenvironmental proxies on seasonal to multi-millennial timescales.

We hope you will enjoy this session.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Hope to see you in Vienna and

Merry Christmas!
Seb, Beth, Jessica and Adam

Session page at the EGU website:
http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2018/session/28897

A very active southern hemisphere team!

At the end of November, Beth and Cinthya had a very fruitful time while participating at the annual conference 2017 of the Geoscience Society of New Zealand, presenting preliminary findings of speleothem magnetism and cave monitoring in and around Waipuna cave.

In the meantime, Adam, Inken, and Cinthya had an intense work in the field visiting Waipuna cave to carry out the SH summer monitoring collecting water samples from the drip points and taking measurements of the physicochemical properties. Additionally, the team installed the first sampling device for the analysis of cave organic aerosols, with the objective of characterizing the cave´s response to external conditions. After, 5 field trips and a lot of hours of intense work underground, the team returned home tired but very happy, with many samples and a bunch of data ready to be analyzed at the Waikato University, University of St Andrews, and Johannes Gutenberg-Universität laboratories. Now, all of us are looking forward to the next adventure.

Sampling in the Waipuna cave