Tracing and Dating the Role of Water Vapour in the Hyperarid Atacama and Namib Deserts from Miocene to Present with Novel Isotope Tools (D03)

• Subject Area: Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry
• Term: since 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 268236062

We have developed novel methods in stable triple-O isotope hydrology and reproducible age-dating by U-Pb and 230Th-U on the same gypsum material leading to dated quantitative reconstructions of meteorological variables for the Plio- and Miocene Atacama Desert. We plan to (1) map the present-day atmospheric vapor isotope structure as reference for past changes; (2) date the time pattern of desert pluvials - Atacama and Namib, (3) increase the temporal resolution of quantitative hydro-climatic mean state reconstruction, (4) unravel global subtropical and locally amplified aridification causes by comparing Atacama Desert - with contemporary Andean Mts uplift - and Namib Desert - without mountain uplift.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1211: Earth - Evolution at the Dry Limit
• Applicant Institution: Universität zu Köln
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Daniel Herwartz, until 6/2020; Professor Dr. Carsten Münker, since 7/2024; Professor Dr. Michael Staubwasser