Midway evaluation in Geology - Catherine Elizabeth Girvan Langford

Title: The Nihewan Basin (China): depositional history and hominins

Doctoral candidate: Catherine Elizabeth Girvan Langford

Doctoral committee:
Dr. Steffen Mischke, Professor at the Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland (supervisor)
Dr. Jón Eiríksson, Prófessor emeritus at the Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland
Dr. Árný Erla Sveinbjörnsdóttir, Research Scientist at the Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland
Dr. Mark Williams, Professor at  the School of Geography, Geology & the Environment, University of Leicester, UK

Abstract

Early Paleolithic artefacts in the Nihewan Basin (China) are embedded in thick sequences of fine-grained fluvio-lacustrine deposits. High-resolution magnetostratigraphic dating of several exposed 70-130 m long sections showed that the sediments were continuously accumulated during the early and middle Pleistocene (c. 3.0-0.1 Ma). The tool-bearing layers revealed ages between 1.7 to 1.1 Ma. Although numerous sedimentological, geochemical and palaeontological studies were conducted in the past, a detailed assessment of the long-term depositional history and environmental reconstruction of past lake conditions (water depth, presence or lack of outflow, salinity, turbidity, bottom water oxygenation, dust influx) has not been conducted so far. A combination of detailed sedimentological and micropalaeontological analyses (lithological field descriptions, grain-size analysis, ostracod analysis) and sophisticated statistical analyses (end-member modelling analysis of grain-size data; ostracod-based transfer function application for conductivity (or salinity) reconstructions) will be applied
(1) to reconstruct the early and middle Pleistocene depositional history of the Nihewan Basin,
(2) to assess the environmental conditions during early hominin occupation periods, and
(3) to establish a detailed correlation scheme for the most important artefact-bearing key sections in the Nihewan Basin using sedimentological and micropalaeontological data.