The Department of Geological Sciences Colloquium Series presents Dr. Christopher Scholz on “Climate Change and Human Origins: New Discoveries through Scientific Drilling in East Africa’s Great Rift Valley” on Friday, March 28, at 2 p.m. in Clippinger 205.
Dr. Christopher Scholz
Scholz is Professor of Earth Sciences at Syracuse University. He uses marine geological techniques such as reflection seismology and offshore scientific drilling to study records of past climate in the continental tropics, the evolution of extensional basins and the sedimentary architecture of rift basin fills. His current projects are focused on large lakes in the East African Rift Valley, where new sedimentary records document the dynamic interaction of tropical climate variability and active divergent tectonics, and provide the environmental background to human origins.
Abstract: New scientific drill cores from the East African Rift Valley lakes provide records of environmental variability that are unparalleled in terms of their fidelity, continuity, and duration. By extracting multiple independent measurements of environmental change from the deep lake sediments, it is possible to assess climate impacts on populations of early modern humans, on past migrations and on population bottlenecks. These new records are also allowing detailed examination of lake level changes and their impact on the evolution of aquatic organisms.
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