The Cretaceous and Cenozoic stratigraphy and palaeoclimate of southern coastal Tanzania: results from a decade of fieldwork and scientific drilling
Date: Thursday, 17th October 2013
This presentation will take place at the Royal Cambrian Academy headquarters in Crown Lane, Conwy at 6.30pm. Refreshments from 6.00pm.
Speaker Overview:
Paul Pearson is a micropalaeontogist and palaeoclimatologist at the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University. Paul received a BA in geology at Oxford University and a PhD on the evolution of planktonic foraminifera at Cambridge University. He worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at Cambridge and Bristol before moving to Cardiff in 2003. Paul is interested in biostratigraphy, evolution and palaeoclimate, focusing mainly on the Cenozoic era. He has helped develop palaeoclimate proxy methods such as oxygen isotope palaeothermometry and boron isotope pCO2 reconstruction. Paul has sailed twice with the Ocean Drilling Program and has conducted fieldwork in many places including Tanzania, Mozambique, Java, New Zealand and Trinidad. He has directed onshore scientific drilling projects in Tanzania and Java.
Abstract of talk:
The Late Cretaceous to Oligocene Kilwa Group of southern coastal Tanzania is a thick succession of hemipelagic clays with accessory siliciclastic and limestone inter-beds. It is renowned for the spectacular preservation of its carbonate microfossils (forams, calcareous nannoplankton and others) which are important for taxonomy, stratigraphy, and the application of palaeoclimate proxies. A campaign of shallow coring using small mobile rigs at 40 sites distributed over about 100 km of strike has allowed us to recover about half of the stratigraphy in core, including important new records through the Paleocene / Eocene and Eocene / Oligocene transition intervals.
This work has been augmented by offshore piston coring and seismic surveying. Detailed study has resulted in over 35 peer-reviewed publications so far, including a new appreciation of tropical climate evolution since the Cretaceous, and insights into the structural geology and hydrocarbon potential of the area. There is still much potential for further discovery: A new deep cored reference section is planned onshore by the International Continental Drilling Project, with scientific aims linked to a planned offshore drilling expedition by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program.
Directions to the venue:
RCA, Crown Lane, Conwy, LL32 8AN
