Land-ocean coupling as driver of Atacama palaeoclimate (A04)

• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 268236062

With the successful recovery of deep drilling cores from claypans, the improved stratigraphic correlation and paleoceanographic characterization of upwelling deposits exposed along the coast of northern Chile, and the large-scale collection of tephra samples during the Phase 1 and 2, we now have unprecedented access to detailed archives of the hydrological cycle of northern Chile that span the past 17 Myrs. Quantitative paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic data from these archives can be integrated also through the hydrogen isotopic composition of volcanic glass, which potentially allows for the identification of the moisture source for precipitation in the Atacama in the past. These proxy data will make fundamental contributions to the ground-truthing of modelling experiments on Atacama’s past hydrological cycle.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1211: Earth - Evolution at the Dry Limit
• Applicant Institution: Universität zu Köln
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Patrick Grunert; Dr. Jassin Petersen, until 6/2024; Dr. Volker Wennrich, since 7/2024; Dr. Martin Werner, since 7/2024