Paper No. 219-8
Presentation Time: 3:35 PM
DEEP DRILLING IN THE TURKANA BASIN PROJECT: EXPLORING THE LINK BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AND HOMININ EVOLUTION OVER THE PAST 4 MYR
BECK, Catherine, Dept of Geosciences, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY 13323, ROWAN, Christian, Marine & Polar Geophysics Division, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, 61 Rt. 9W, Rm. 302C, Oceanography Building, Palisades, NY 10964-8000, FOERSTER, Verena, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Institute of Geography Education, University of Cologne, Gronewaldstr. 2, Köln, D-50931, Germany, MUIRHEAD, James D., University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, ROBERTS, Helen, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Llandinam Building, Penglais Campus, Aberystwyth, SY23 3DB, United Kingdom, BERKE, Melissa A., Civil & Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, CANTNER, Kat, Continental Scientific Drilling Facility, 116 Church Street SE, Tate Hall Room 175, Minneapolis, MN 55455, FEIBEL, Craig, Earth and Planetary Sciencies and Anthropology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, MIBEI, Geoffery, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, NOREN, Anders, Continental Scientifc Drilling Facility, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 68588, OLAKA, Lydia, Department of Geoscience and Environment, School of Physics and the Environment, The Technical University of Kenya, P.O Box 52428-00200, Nairobi, Kenya; Department of Earth and Climate Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 30197, Nairobi, Kenya, SCHOLZ, Christopher A., Earth and Environmental Sciences, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244 and DDTB PROJECT TEAM, The, Various
Scientific drill cores provide unique windows into geologic processes past and present. In the dynamic tectonic, environmental, climatic, and ecological setting of eastern Africa, these records enable us to examine change through time in unprecedented ways. Cores from the East African Rift System provide valuable information about the context in which hominins evolved. The Turkana Basin in northern Kenya provides an unparalleled opportunity to understand our origins due to its remarkably rich fossil record, which has been intensely studied for over six decades. Building upon extensive outcrop records, drilling will allow more complete and systematic sampling of sediment proxies shielded from major diagenetic effects and complex lateral facies variation.
The Deep Drilling in the Turkana Basin (DDTB) project seeks to explore the impact of several types of evolution (tectonic, climatic, biological) on ecosystems and environments. This project will provide insight into the sequence and significance of climate and environmental change in this key locality. It will help constrain the paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic context of our hominin ancestors, while addressing fundamental questions about past climatic dynamics, basin evolution, tectonics and magmatism, and how the paleorecord can inform our understanding of Earth system dynamics into the future.
A workshop held in Nairobi, Kenya, in July 2022 concluded that the best approach to acquire the target record is through a 2-phase drilling project: Phase 1 being a land-based transect of four 400 m overlapping cores from West Turkana, spanning the interval between 4 Ma to Middle/Late Pleistocene (<0.7 Ma), and Phase 2 as a lake-based core targeting the interval between ~0.7 Ma to present from the Central Basin of Lake Turkana. Proposed drill sites are strategically located based on seismic characterization, overlap requirements, and facies character. The proposed core transect will provide unparallelled access to a record spanning the past 4 Myr.
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