A Stellenbosch University (SU) sedimentology researcher and a master’s student recently embarked on an expedition to Mongolia in East Asia. They plan to study the climate patterns of the mid-Cretaceous period by analysing and age-dating fossils and sedimentary rocks.
Although the Cretaceous period ended 66 million years ago, the findings of this research may reveal insights into humanity’s influence on the climate.
This is according to Kira Venter, the master’s student who left for Mongolia with her supervisor, Dr Ryan Tucker, on 19 July, with plans to return in September.
The Stellenbosch University department of earth sciences is based within the Chamber of Mines building, on Ryneveld Street. Research expeditions are regular for postgraduate earth sciences students, according to Dr Susanne Fietz, the head of the department. PHOTO: Marthinus Botes
“We compare [the Cretaceous climate] to today’s temperatures and the rate at which our climate is changing compared to back then. So it’s kind of to see how much influence humans are having on the climate itself, and how we are actually making it change faster,” she said.
Not only are fossils found in Mongolia often exceptionally well preserved, but the region’s prehistoric sediments have not yet been extensively age-dated, making it an exciting location for studying fossils and sediments, according to Venter.
International collaboration
During their six-week expedition, Tucker and Venter will be joined by Dr Lindsay Zanno, the head of palaeontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and his colleague of over a decade, said Tucker.
The expedition has been funded by the National Geographic Society, according to an article published by the SU faculty of Science on 10 July.
The Stellenbosch University Chamber of Mines building is home to hundreds of paleontological and geological samples. Often, postgraduate students are tasked with collecting samples in the field, and then bringing them back to the department of earth sciences for laboratory analysis, according to the department head, Dr Susanne Fietz. PHOTO: Marthinus Botes
Collaboration with other universities and academic institutions, and research expeditions are the norm in the SU department of earth sciences, according to the head of the department, Dr Susanne Fietz.
“In some fields of research the main work of the postgraduate is done in the field. In other areas, the postgraduate students collect samples in the field and then analyse them in the laboratory at SU or partner institutions. Few students do modelling desk-studies only,” she said.
The inside of the Chamber of Mines building, where the Stellenbosch University department of earth sciences operates from. Master’s student, Kira Venter, said that her academic interest in palaeontology was the result of a childhood obsession with dinosaurs that simply never subsided. PHOTO: Marthinus Botes