Project Details
Description
9905383
Swisher
Olduvai Gorge incises the Serengeti Plain of northern Tanzania and exposes a 25 kilometer-long window into the Plio-Pleistocene continental record of east Africa. The exposed continuous two million year paleoenvironmental history contains an extensive vertebrate record (including hominids) and a rich cultural record of central importance in the study of human evolution. Important correlation problems discovered during recent work in the Gorge can be resolved by using field stratigraphic measurements combined with geochemical 'fingerprinting' of tuffs to constrain radiometric and paleomagnetic
dating. The product of a single volcanic eruption, in theory, has unique chemical characteristics and provides an isochronous marker. Each tuff can be 'geochemically fingerprinted' using mineralogy, and major, minor, and trace element abundances data for individual glass shards and then 40Ar/39Ar dated using potassium-rich individual feldspar crystals. The paleomagnetic record will provide an independent verification of our correlations. The combined data set will provide the crucial chronological framework for interpreting the local record and correlating with global environmental, paleoanthropolgical and paleomagnetic records.
Status | Finished |
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Effective start/end date | 9/1/99 → 8/31/02 |
Funding
- National Science Foundation: $99,080.00