It's a small grant but it is indeed very exciting!

So we have a lot of fieldwork planned in Aotearoa NZ and Tasmania this coming winter & spring 🌏 as well as the 11th IAG International Conference on Geomorphology

Watch this space....

#SouthernDustscapes #Palaeoclimate #NewZealand #Tasmania #Geochronology

We can tackle this gap by studying past dust levels and deposits (loess). But to date Southern Hemisphere has been under-studied, with a handful of sites with continuous record in comparison to 100 high-resolution terrestrial sites in Northern Hemisphere.

Dust plays a crucial role in the Earth system. Its impacts include:
•Climate—heating/cooling the atmosphere
•Ecosystems—fertilising land & oceans, driving CO₂ uptake
•Health—contributing to respiratory & cardiovascular disease
But we still lack data on how much dust is in the atmosphere at any time.

Together with @lydiamackenzie.bsky.social @University of Tasmania, Peter Almond @Lincoln University, Callum Rees & Alan Palmer @Massey University we will investigate aeolian deposits in New Zealand and Tasmania, developing chronologies +environmental reconstructions to trace Quaternary dusty history

Oh caveat 🫂

This supports chronological information derived from nearby Mumba Rockshelter, Lake Eyasi, Nasera Rock-shelter, and Enkapune Ya Muto Rockshelter in southern Kenya.

The new dates provisionally bracket the entire Middle Stone Age (MSA) to Later Stone Age (LSA) transition at Olduvai between roughly 63,000 years ago (the provisional age for the youngest MSA tools in the underlying Ndutu Beds) and 34,000 years ago (the oldest LSA tools in the Naisiusiu Beds).