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Palaeoenvironments

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

science Research area

Climate & Ocean Geoscience

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

Micropaleontology and limnology laboratories

State of the art micropaleontological laboratory and microfossil collection from The Australian region.

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.

Stable Isotope Laboratories

The Palaeoenvironment Stable Isotope Laboratory at RSES has a number of mass spectrometer facilities dedicated to particular types of analyses for δ13C and δ18O of carbonate samples, and δD, δ18O and δ17Oexcess of waters.

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

Evolution of Lake George

This research is part of an ARC Linkage project. Read more about it in this news story.

Status

Current

People

Expedition 342 of the International Ocean Drilling Program

Expedition 342 of the IODP

Status

Completed

People

Dr Bradley Opdyke

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

Groundwater and surface water geochemistry

Groundwater is a vital water resource in Australia, and the world, and understanding the dynamics of recharge from and discharge to surface waterways is necessary for using our water resources wisely.
At ANU, we are developing hydrogeochemical methods to understand groundwater dynamics, including...

Status

Current

People

Dr Marc Norman

How do sediments become magnetized?

The magnetism of sediments provides information on the past behaviour of the Earth's magnetic field. This project will study sediments from the oceans around Australia to understand how the field was recorded and use this information to construct a new generation of computer models that will provide insights into...

Status

Current

People

How fast do soils form?

Rates of soil formation in North Queensland are being studied on basalt lava flows which are dated by K/Ar. In the semi-arid Hughenden- Charters Towers region (500-600 mm/year rainfall), soils form at rates of ~0.3 mm/1000 years. On the Atherton Tableland, (rainfall 1200-3500 mm/year) rates are significantly faster...