| Plio-Pleistocene volcanism of Lower Bed I, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania: transportation mechanisms, volcaniclastic sedimentation and ecological significance. The Plio-Pleistocene Bed I succession at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania is renowned for hominin remains, rich artefacts and fossil assemblages. Tuff beds provide the basis for the stratigraphic framework and for the correlation and dating of archaeological finds. The Tuff IA to Tuff IB interval (c. 1.98-1.84 Ma), choosen for this study, is especially important from a multidisciplinary perspec¬tive: (a) It provides the earliest record of Homo habilis in the Gorge, (b) it records the earliest antiquity of Human technology, known as Oldowan culture, (c) it is associated with several impor¬tant "occupation floors", and (d) it includes dated Palaeo-lake Olduvai sequences that have records of orbital forcing across the Plio-Pleistocene boundary. The tuff beds themselves provide important archives of (e) the correlation between the eastern and the yet poorly studied western Olduvai Basin, (f) a change from bimodal basaltic-rhyolitic to trachytic-phonolitic compositons, (g) the occurrence of flow-stripping/decoupling effects when pyroclastic flows crossed synsedimentary active faults, (h) the interaction of volcanic systems with the ecologically attractive eastern lake margin zone, and (i) the relative importance of volcanic effects versus regional climate influences on flora and fauna.
A detailed dataset is to be developed using high resolution sedimentological logging, facies, petro¬graphic and geochemical analysis. Lateral correlations and process-oriented facies analyses across palaeo-Lake Olduvai will be the critical aim of this research, allowing a thorough under¬standing of the complex interactions between the volcanics and the ecology of the lake. The project integrates data on palaeoenvironments, palaeoclimate, synsedimentary tectonism and volcanism with hominin land use models contributed by palaeoanthropologists and archaeologists of the multidisciplinary OLAPP research group. OLAPP trenches excavated over the next few years will provide an exceptional opportunity for combined sedimentological, volcanological and palaeoecological studies at an extremely high resolution (mm to cm scale).
| Project manager:
Prof. Dr. Harald Stollhofen
Project participants:
Dr. rer. nat. Jörg Habermann, Stanistreet, I.G., McHenry, Lindsay, Bamford, Marion, Masao, Fidelis, Albert, Rosa, Njau, Jackson, Pante, Mike, de la Torre, Ignacio , Blumenschine, R.J.B.
Keywords:
sedimentology; volcanology; Oldowan palaeoanthropology
Duration: 8.7.2010 - 31.12.2014
Sponsored by:
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Mitwirkende Institutionen:
University of Liverpool, Großbritannien
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA
University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, Südafrika
University of Dar es Salaam, Tansania
University of Barcelona, Spain
University of Indiana, USA
Colorado State University, USA
Contact:
Stollhofen, Harald
Phone +49 9131-85-22617, Fax +49 9131-85-29295, E-Mail: harald.stollhofen@fau.de
| | Publications |
|---|
McHenry, L.J. ; Stollhofen, Harald ; Stanistreet, I.G.,: Use of single-grain geochemistry of cryptic tuffs and volcaniclastic sandstones improves the tephrostratigraphic framework of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.. In: Quaternary Research 80 (2013), pp 235-249
[doi>10.1016/j.yqres.2013.05.006] | Blumenschine, R.J. ; Stanistreet, I.R. ; Njau, J.K. ; Bamford, M.K. ; Masao, F.T. ; Stollhofen, Harald ; Andrews, P. ; Fernández-Jalvo, Y. ; Prassack, K.A. ; Albert, R.M. ; McHenry, L.J. ; Camilli, E.L. ; Ebert, J.I.: Environments and activity traces of Oldowan hominins across the FLK Peninsula during Zinjanthropus times (1.84 Ma), Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. In: J. Human Evolution 63 (2012), No. 2, pp 364-383
[doi>10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.10.001] | Blumenschine, R.J. ; Masao, F.T. ; Stollhofen, Harald ; Stanistreet, I.G. ; Bamford, M.K. ; Albert, R.M. ; Njau, J.K. ; Prassack, K.A.: Landscape Distribution of Oldowan Stone Artifact Assemblages across the Fault Compartments of the Eastern Olduvai Lake Basin during Early Lowermost Bed II Times. In: J. Human Evolution 63 (2012), No. 2, pp 384-394
[doi>10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.05.003] | Stollhofen, Harald ; Stanistreet, I.R.: Plio-Pleistocene syn-sedimentary fault compartments underpin lake margin paleoenvironmental mosaic, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. In: J. Human Evolution 63 (2012), No. 2, pp 309-327
[doi>10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.10.002] |
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