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Palaeoenvironments

The Palaeoenvironments Group specialise in environmental reconstruction on times scales that range from thousands to millions of years.

About

The Palaeoenvironments Group is a collection of research scientists that specialise in environmental reconstruction on times scales that range from thousands to millions of years for both marine and terrestrial environments. These reconstructions extend the record of climate behaviour and variability beyond those observed in the modern, and provide insights on processes (e.g., the response of ice-sheets) that act on longer timescales.

We investigate cave precipitates, lake sediments, corals and reef sediments, marine sediments and ice cores to construct records of past environmental change. These records are invaluable for providing context for recent environmental change, as well as providing crucial data for ground-truthing climate models.

Currently projects include past changes in sea level, ocean temperature and carbonate chemistry, Antarctic climate, and Australian dust. We use a diverse range of proxies and have we have an array of (in house) cutting edge laboratories in which to make the measurements.

Facilities

Palaeomagnetic Laboratory

The Black Mountain Palaeomagnetic laboratory is equipped with a 2G superconducting rock magnetometer, a Quantum Design MPMS for magnetic mineral identification, a Princeton Measurements Corporation Vibrating Sample Magnetometer, and a suite of other instruments for palaeo- and rock magnetic measurements.

X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanning

The ANU Research School of Earth Sciences operates a cutting-edge X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) scanning facility, capable of non-destructive elemental analysis from magnesium to uranium on a variety of samples including sediment cores and rocks.

Projects

Palaeomagnetism & Environmental Magnetism

Magnetic minerals are almost ubiquitous in nature, which means magnetic techniques can be used to understand Earth’s magnetic field and deep-Earth dynamo processes, and act as proxies for system processes in palaeoclimate, paleoceanography, pollution tracing, and archaeology.

Status

Potential

People

Deep-sea chemistry and atmospheric CO2

The project aims to reconstruct deep water carbonate ion and nutrient contents at millennial timescales using high sedimentation cores from the Atlantic Ocean.

Status

Current

People

Professor Jimin Yu

Geophysical and environmental signals from magnetic biominerals

Magnetotactic bacteria biomineralise magnetic nanoparticles. They are ubiquitous in aquatic environments, so their inorganic remains (magnetofossils) should give rise to sedimentary palaeomagnetic signals. Ancient magnetofossil identifications were sparse until new techniques recently demonstrated their extensive...

Status

Current

People

Weathering history of the Australian continent

Paleogeographic reconstructions indicate that parts of the Australian continent have been exposed above sea level for hundreds of millions of years. Paleomagnetic dating of giant weathering profiles (up to 100 m deep) in open pit mines reveals three major periods of deep oxidation: Late Cenozoic (20 Ma to present...