Dr. Ellen Corrick

Reconstructing past abrupt climate changes using geochemical signals preserved in cave stalagmites

Supervisors: Ellen Corrick
Field of study: Paleoclimatology, Geochemistry, Speleothem Science, Abrupt climate change
Support offered (e.g. analytical costs, fieldwork travel): All analytical costs will be covered.
Collaborating organisations: The University of Melbourne, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, ANSTO.

Past abrupt climate changes act as important analogues for understanding how the climate system may respond to future abrupt climate change. Some of the best examples of naturally occurring abrupt climate change occurred during the last glacial period (115,000 to 11,500 years ago). In this Honours project, you will reconstruct past climate conditions during the last glacial period to determine the nature of climate teleconnections between the North Atlantic region and western Europe during abrupt climate changes. You will analyse various geochemical signals in cave stalagmites, which preserve information about rainfall, temperature, and vegetation conditions at the time the stalagmite grew. You will gain experience in producing paleoclimate reconstructions from stalagmites, undertake various geochemical analytical techniques, and building paleoclimate interpretations from reconstructions.

For more information contact: Ellen Corrick

Understanding the timing and sequence of climate changes during Glacial Termination IIIA using geochemical signals preserved in cave stalagmites.

During the Quaternary Period (the last 2.5 million years) Earth’s climate has cycled between interglacial periods, with a climate similar to today, and much colder and drier glacial periods, where ice sheets were present across large parts of North America, Europe and Scandinavia. The change between glacial and interglacial periods (known as glacial terminations) represents massive shifts in the climate and system, happening within hundreds to a few thousands of years. Understanding the timing of glacial terminations and the sequence of events that took place is critical to understanding Earth’s natural climate drivers and how the climate system responds to abrupt changes. In this Honours project, you will reconstruct past climate conditions across glacial termination IIIA that took place around 217,000 years ago. You will analyse various geochemical signals in cave stalagmites, which preserve information about rainfall, temperature, and vegetation conditions at the time the stalagmite grew. You will gain experience in producing paleoclimate reconstructions from stalagmites, undertake various geochemical analytical techniques, and building
paleoclimate interpretations from reconstructions.

For more information contact: Ellen Corrick