A 40 m long sediment core from Chew Bahir/southern Ethiopia was already recovered in April 2014 funded exclusively by the CRC 806. Since the core opening the material is processed in the lab facilities of the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Cologne.Preliminary results of sedimentological and palaeobiological proxies are already internally discussed and we work currently on a first age model to put the palaeolimnological processes in time perspectives.
We are confident to give first information in course of the upcoming CRC-conference in February 2015.
Next and still ongoing (November to December 2014), Frank Schäbitz and his team is again in Ethiopia and work hard to retrieving additional and probably older material. This is done within the international framework of the Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP). For further reading about their current progress you are invited to follow the updates on their project site: https://hspdp.asu.edu/
Finally, the drill rig is set up. The team is ready. Temperatures and expectations are high. Photo: courtesy of HSPDP |