Suguta Valley Project (DFG)

PI: apl. Prof. Dr. Martin Trauth Geologist, UP, trauth@geo.uni-potsdam.de
Co-PI: Prof. Manfred Strecker Geologist, UP, strecker@geo.uni-potsdam.de
Members: Dipl.-Geol. Annett Junginger Geologist, Graduateschool GRK1364

Veronica Acosta Torres Geologist, Graduateschool GRK1364

Lydia Olaka, MSc Geologist, Graduateschool GRK1364

Dr. Nicole Stroncik Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum GFZ

Prof. Ralph Tiedemann Biologist, UP, tiedeman@rz.uni-potsdam.de
Partners: Prof. Lisa Hildebrand Archeologist and Paleobotanist, Stony Brook University, USA

Dr. Alan Deino Geochronologist, BGC, USA

Dr. Sybille Roller Sedimentology, University of Darmstadt, Germany

Prof. Dr. Mark Maslin Paleoclimatologist,University College London, UK

Prof. Dr. E. Odada Paleoclimatologist, University of Nairobi, Kenya

Dr. Daniel Olago Paleolimnologist, University of Nairobi, Kenya

Prof. Paul Valdes Climate Modeler, University of Bristol, UK

Dr. Olaf Zielke Paleoseismology, University of Arizona, USA
  Dr. Christine Hertler Paleontology, ROCEEH Frankfurt, Germany
Logistics: Benjamin Simpson Helicopter Pilot, Tropic Air Kenya

Michael Watson Helicopter Pilot, Tropic Air Kenya

Helen Douglas-Dufresne Fieldcamp, Wild Frontiers Kenya

Pete Ilsley Fieldcamp, Wild Frontiers Kenya

Edward Njoroge Local logistics and Transport, Cassandra Rent-A-Car
Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft GRK 1364, TR419/6-1 and TR419/6-3 since June 2007
Permit: MOST 13/001/30C 59/22 by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Kenya.
Summary: A two-week expedition in June 2007 was carried out to investigate the late Cenozoic structural inventory and lacustrine deposits of the Suguta Valley in Northern Kenya. The first objective of this study is the mapping of tectonic structures to better understand the structural evolution, depositional environment, and drainage networks in the Northern Kenya Rift. The second objective of this expedition is to map paleo-lake shorelines, sample lacustrine strata and paleosoils, datable tephras, and volcanic flows to reconstruct the environmental history of the region. This study will close a crucial 200-km-long gap in the tectonic and sedimentary record of East Africa. This new information will provide data needed for a better understanding of environmental changes in the course of the volcano-tectonic evolution and climate fluctuations during the last five million years. Ultimately, paleoclimate records from the Northern Kenya Rift may help provide new insights into (1) the spatial and temporal synchroneity of the Early Holocene climate optimum in East Africa, (2) the role of the tropics in glacial-interglacial transitions during the Pleistocene, and (3) the linkages between Plio-Pleistocene climate changes and hominin evolution in East Africa.
  A second two-week expedition was done in June 2008. This second trip to the Suguta Valley visited more or less the same sites we have work on during the 2007 expedition. Sampling of the Holocene and Mid-Pleistocene sites was done at higher resolution, mapping of the structural inventory and measuring the paleoshorelines in greater detail. During three days, we also have a TV team around Graham Townsley (NOVA, PBS) with us.
  The third two-week expedition was done in May 2010. We are currently expanding our team of 14 researchers from four countriesincluding new disciplines such as paleontology, archaeology and biology with our Kenyan partners. We have obtained a solid set of radiometric age data, GPS measurements, structural data, sedimentological and micropaleontological data from the Suguta Valley.
  The fourth two-day expedition was done in September 2011. This expedition explored the potential of the Mid Pleistocene sites in the valley for paleontological research in collaboration with ROCEEH at Senckenberg Research Institute Frankfurt.
Publications: Donges, J.F., Donner, R.V., Trauth, M.H., H.-J. Schellnhuber, Kurths, J. (in press): Nonlinear detection of paleoclimate-variability transitions possibly related to human evolution. PNAS, in press.
  Garcin, Y., Melnick, D., Strecker, M.R., Olago, D., Tiercelin, J.-J., 2012, East African mid-Holocene wet–dry transition recorded in palaeo-shorelines of Lake Turkana, northern Kenya Rift: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, in press.
  Melnick, D., Garcin, Y., Quinteros, J., Strecker, M.R., Olago, D., Tiercelin, J.-J., 2012, Steady rifting in northern Kenya inferred from deformed Holocene lake shorelines of the Suguta and Turkana basins: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, in press.
  Donges, J.F., Donner, R.V., Rehfeld, K., Marwan, N., Trauth, M.H., Kurths, J. (in press): Identification of dynamical transitions in marine palaeoclimate records by recurrence network analysis, Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics, in press.
  Wichura, H., Bousquet, R., Oberhänsli, R., Strecker, M.R., Trauth, M.H. (2011): The Mid-Miocene East African Plateau: a pre-rift topographic model inferred from the emplacement of the phonolitic Yatta lava flow, Kenya, Geological Society of London Special Publications, 357, 285-300.
  Trauth, M.H., Maslin, M.A., Deino, A., Junginger, A., Lesoloyia, M., Odada, E., Olago, D.O., Olaka, L., Strecker, M.R., Tiedemann, R., 2010, Human Evolution and Migration in a Variable Environment: The Amplifier Lakes of East Africa.Quaternary Science Reviews, 29, 2981-2988.
  Olaka, L., Odada, E., Trauth, M., 2010, The sensitivity of East African rift lakes to climate fluctuations.Journal of Paleolimnology, 44, 629–644.
  Wichura, H., Bousquet, R., Trauth, M.H., Oberhänsli, R., Strecker, M.R. (2010): Early Uplift of the East African Plateau at 13.5 Ma.Geology, 38, 543–546.
  Epp, L., Stoof, K.R., Trauth, M.H., Tiedemann, R (2010): Historical genetics on sediment core from Kenyan lake sediments: Intraspecific genotype turnover in a tropical rotifer is related to past environmental changes.Journal of Paleolimnology, 43, 939-954.
  Bergner, A.G.N., Strecker, M.R., Trauth, M.H., Deino, A., Gasse, F., Blisniuk, P., Dühnforth, M. (2009): Tectonic versus climate influences on the evolution of the lakes in the Central Kenya Rift.Quaternary Science Reviews, 28, 2804-2816.
  Trauth, M.H., Larrasoaña, J.C., Mudelsee, M. (2009): Trends, rhythms and events in Plio-Pleistocene African climate.Quaternary Science Reviews, 28, 399-411.
  Maslin, M.A., M.H. Trauth (2009): Plio-Pleistocene East African Pulsed Climate Variability and its influence on early human evolution, in "The First Humans - Origins of the Genus Homo" (editors F. E. Grine, R. E. Leakey and J. G. Fleagle), in press.
  Garcin, Y., Junginger, A., Melnick, D., Olago, D.O., Strecker, M.R., Trauth, M.H. (2009): Late Pleistocene-Holocene rise and collapse of the Lake Suguta, northern Kenya Rift.Quaternary Science Reviews, 28, 911-925.
  Trauth, M.H., Maslin, M.A., Deino, A., Strecker, M.R., Bergner, A.G.N., Dühnforth, M. (2007): High- and low-latitude forcing of Plio-Pleistocene African climate and human evolution.Journal of Human Evolution, 53, 475-486.
  Trauth, M.H., Maslin, M.A., Deino, A., Strecker, M.R. (2005): Late Cenozoic Moisture History of East Africa.Science, 309, 2051-2053.
Media Coverage: "Geological Journey II" by Nick Eyles and Kenton Vaughn, CBC Television Documentary, October 2010. – "In der Welt der ersten Menschen", by Lars Abromeit, Jörn Auf dem Kampe, Christian Ziegler, GEO, March 2010. –"Becoming Human" by Grahman Townsley, PBS/NOVA Televison Documentary, November 2009. – "Wiege der Menschheit", by Ina Matthes, Märkische Oderzeitung, June 2009. – "Knochenjob im Norden Kenias",RadioEins Interview by Jörg Thadeusz, June 2009. –"Suche nach der Wiege der Menschheit", by Mario Beltschak, Badische Neuste Nachrichten, December 2008. – "In die Wiege der Menschheit geschaut", by Elke Partovi, Rheinpfalz, November 2008. – "Die große Stunde der Generalisten",original text by Jan Kixmüller, Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten, September 2008. – "Rocking the cradle of humanity",original text by Beth Christensen, M. Maslin, Geotimes, January 2008. – "Knochenjob bei sengender Sonne",original text by by Bettina Micka, PORTAL, October 2007. – "A Changing Climate for Human Evolution",original text by M. Maslin, M. Trauth, B. Christensen, Geotimes, September 2005. – "Mit den Füßen im Wasser",original text by C. Meinke, Scienzz Ticker, September 18, 2005. – "Climate Flux Could Have Forstered Human Evolution, Speciation, Diatom Study Suggests",original text by K. Wong, Scientific American, August 19, 2005.

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