28th IAS Meeting of Sedimentology

I spent my last week in Zaragoza for the 28th IAS annual meeting. It is a nice place, though it is a little hotter than Bremen. Many famous sedimentologists came from all over the world and had a scientific meeting. This is my first international congress and I feel very lucky to take part in it. I got the travel grant from the IAS, Which means a lot to me. I don't have the chance to give a talk, but a poster is OK for me.My pester is about my work in China on differential diagenesis of limestone-marl alternations. Here is my poster and me.

The morphology of foraminifera tests

The morphology of foraminifera tests

Modern Foraminifera

by

Barun K. Sen Gupta

Foraminifera

Foraminifera


http://www.foraminifera.eu/AtoC.html A good website for Foraminifera genera both in english and german.

Geology Collection/ planktonic foraminifera/ Mediterranean 


NTOU-Marine Education Digital Archive-國立台灣海洋大學-海洋教育數位典藏-台灣鄰近海域海洋岩心 [Globigerinoides ruber] 

Globigerinoides ruber white (d´Orbigny, 1839)

ITCZ: The Intertropical Convergence Zone

Near the equator, from about 5° north and 5° south, the northeast trade winds and southeast trade winds converge in a low pressure zone known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone or ITCZ. Solar heating in the region forces air to rise through convection which results in a plethora of precipitation. The ITCZ is a key component of the global circulation system.
Weather stations in the equatorial region record precipitation up to 200 days each year, making the equatorial and ITC zones the wettest on the planet. The equatorial region lacks a dry season and is constantly hot and humid.
The migration of the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ) in Africa affects seasonal precipitation patterns across that continent.

ITCZ

From: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/ITCZ_january-july.png

Seasonal Migration of the ITCZ in Africa 

From: http://people.cas.sc.edu/carbone/modules/mods4car/africa-itcz/index.html 

Climate change in East Africa

Tropical Africa have a great impact on global climate change. It is influenced by Indian and Atlantic oceans. Comparative with lots of research work in Atlantic oceans, we know little on west Indian ocean around this area. So far, the information that we understand the climate change mostly is from lake sediments.
The East Africa Rift Lakes provide excellent records of paleoclimate from LGM. A lot of work has been done with variety of methods. Many factors has been proposed to explain the region climate change, such as the migration of ITCZ, Indian monsoon,SST of Indian ocean(IOD).
In order to better understand the climate change of East Africa, research from west Indian ocean is necessary.

Picture from http://geology.com/articles/east-africa-rift/figure1.jpg

The 2009 version of the International Stratigraphic Chart

The 2009 version of the International Stratigraphic Chart can be downloaded from the following address:http://www.stratigraphy.org/upload/ISChart2009.pdf
I have transformed it into jpeg format.

The 2009 stratigraphic scale has a new definition of Pleistocene.

Trace fossil?

We found these trace fossils in our field work. But I don't know what their paleo-oxygenation facies implications?
Here are the photos.
Age: Middle Permian
Place: South China
Depositional environment: shallow marine carbonate platform, because much green algae is present.

 Dasycladalean alga 

 Trace fossil 1

Trace fossil 2

MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences

marum - MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences

I will be here in the next four years! A nice place!