Land-ocean coupling between the Humboldt Current System and Atacama paleoclimate in the Neogene (A04)

• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 268236062

Today’s hyperarid conditions in the Atacama Desert are determined by the inhibition of moisture influx from the South Atlantic and South-eastern Pacific and its location north of the Southern Westerlies. We intend to explore land-ocean coupling between paleoclimatic fluctuations in the region and the Humboldt Current System on different time-scales throughout the Neogene. A multi-proxy approach using sclerochronology (long-lived bivalves) and microfossils (foraminifera; assemblages and shell geochemistry) will allow us to determine variations in sea-surface temperatures and upwelling properties, key-parameters for moisture flux to the hinterland, as well as continental runoff on seasonal to orbital time scales from Lower Miocene to Pliocene marine sediments exposed in northern Chile.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1211: Earth - Evolution at the Dry Limit
• Applicant Institution: Universität zu Köln
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Patrick Grunert; Dr. Jassin Petersen