This session offers stratigraphers, sedimentologists and palaeontologists an opportunity to present papers that do not fall within research areas covered by this year's special themes. The vPICO format provides the maximum opportunity to present research on diverse themes to the widest possible audience.

Scientific ocean and continental drilling provides unique opportunities to investigate the workings of the interior of our planet, Earth’s cycles, natural hazards and the distribution of subsurface microbial life. The past and current scientific drilling programs IODP (International Ocean Discovery Program) and ICDP (International Continental Scientific Drilling Program) have brought major advances in many multidisciplinary fields of socio-economic relevance, such as climate and ecosystem evolution, palaeoceanography, the deep biosphere, deep crustal and tectonic processes, geodynamics and geohazards. This session encourages contributions that outline perspectives and visions for future drilling projects, in particular projects using a multi-platform approach, and invites contributions that present and/or review recent scientific results from deep Earth sampling and monitoring through ocean and continental drilling projects.
This year, a particular focus will be given on contributions based on sedimentary records from outcrops or the often more complete sedimentary sections recovered by scientific drilling that reconstruct sedimentary processes and their products preserved in deltas, canyons and submarine fans (former session SSP 2.9).

This session will investigate how massive volcanism and meteorite impacts may cause mass extinctions and global environmental changes. We hope to bring together researchers from the geological, geophysical, and biological disciplines to present new and exciting results, and encourage interdisciplinary and modelling studies. The session will focus on the five major Phanerozoic crises (end-Ordovician, end-Devonian, end-Permian, end-Triassic, end-Cretaceous) and other related paleoenvironmental crises (e.g. Anthropocene, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) and Oceanic Anoxic Events (OEAs) in the Mesozoic).

The study of deep-time (pre-Quatrenary) climate evolution is important not only for understanding Earth’s habitable history but also for providing insights to present and future changes of the Earth system. To investigate deep-time climate, several international modelling intercomparsion projects, for example DeepMIP, MioMIP, PlioMIP, have been initiated. All these MIPs pay attention to the Cenozoic climate. However, relatively fewer modelling studies simulate climate in deeper time before the Cenozoic. This session invites works on deep-time climate simulations and reconstructions over the tectonic time scales, including, but not limited to, idealized and comprehensive model simulations, geological, geochemical, and paleontological reconstructions. We wish this session could integrate our knowledge of deep-time climate and environment evolution in the spirit of an integrated Earth system.

Carbonate (bio)minerals have played an essential role in the history of life on Earth, forming one of the most important archives for past climate and environmental change. Geochemical investigations have been crucial for understanding the evolution of microbial habitats and the paleobiology of carbonate biomineralizers since the Precambrian. With this session, we encourage contributions from sedimentology, geochemistry and biology that utilize carbonate (bio)minerals (e.g., microbialites, mollusk shells, and foraminifera) with the aim to reconstruct past environments, seasonality, seawater chemistry, and paleobiology in a wide range of modern to deep time settings, including critical intervals of environmental and climatic change. This includes theoretical or experimental studies of trace element partitioning and isotope fractionation and studies into original skeletal carbonate preservation and diagenetic alteration.

Reliable information on past environmental and climatic conditions is crucial for understanding the evolution of life and the Earth System as a whole. Skeletal components of marine or aquatic organisms are among the most important and widely-used natural archives capturing information about the environment and fluid chemistry during precipitation in the form of geochemical signatures and/or specific mineralogies or micromorphologies. Over the past decades, a refined understanding of (bio)mineralisation, together with the development of new isotopic and elemental proxies (e.g. clumped isotopes Δ47, boron isotopes δ11B, or elemental ratios such as Li/Mg), has led to numerous breakthroughs in palaeoclimate research (e.g. on the evolution of seawater chemistry, causes and consequences of mass extinctions, or greenhouse vs. icehouse climate sensitivities). Simultaneously, geochemical, petrographic and crystallographic approaches have brought novel insights into (bio)mineral formation processes and alteration pathways of a variety of organisms. Critically, however, our knowledge of the incorporation of elements into the crystal lattice, and the quality and reliability of extracted climatic and environmental records, depends on careful proxy calibrations, and evaluation of secondary controls such as kinetic or vital effects and diagenetic influences.

This session seeks contributions on geochemical proxy development, including but not limited to new proxies, calibrations, modelling frameworks, and analytical or methodological advances. We invite experimental and observational studies dealing with biogenic but also inorganic mineral precipitation, transformation and alteration, including interface geochemistry, geomicrobiology or new perspectives on biomineralisation from culturing of calcifying organisms. We also welcome examples on how mechanistic understanding of marine or terrestrial carbonates and/or application of novel approaches results in an improved understanding of the global carbon(ate) cycle and Earth history. The aim of this session is to synthesize recent advances in geochemistry and (bio)mineralisation to further palaeo-proxy development and application that will result in a comprehensive understanding of past global changes.

Speleothems and continental carbonates (e.g. travertines, pedogenic, lacustrine, subglacial and cryogenic carbonates) are important terrestrial archives, which can provide precisely dated, high-resolution records of past environmental and climate changes. The field of carbonate-based paleoclimatology has seen (1) continuously improving analytical capacity, producing detailed records of climate variability integrating established as well as novel and innovative techniques. (2) Long-term monitoring campaigns facilitating the interpretation of high-resolution proxy time series from carbonate archives. (3) At the same time proxy-system models can help understanding the measured proxies, by describing processes such as water infiltration, CO2 and carbonate dissolution, and carbonate precipitation and diagenesis. Applied together, advancements in these cornerstones of carbonate related research pave the way towards developing highly reliable quantitative terrestrial climate reconstructions.
Here, we invite contributions that show progress in one of the three outlined domains. We especially welcome integrated and interdisciplinary studies, connecting these branches of carbonate related research in order to better understand the climate system on various time scales.

Connectivity with the ocean and climate strongly control the physical and chemical properties of restricted marine basins, sometimes leading to the formation of large evaporite accumulations known as salt giants. As a result of these processes, salinity, water oxygenation and nutrient availability may develop trends distinct from those of the global ocean, resulting in extreme salinity – from brackish to evaporitic – and driving ecosystems through specific patterns of origination and extinction. Reversely, the genesis and demise of such physico-chemically distinct water bodies changes global ocean circulation patterns, affects climate and leads to shifts in the location of global biodiversity hotspots. Our session mostly includes presentations on the Mediterranean, the Dead Sea, using modelling, sesimic stratigraphic, (bio)geochemical, sedimentologic and micropaleontological methods to investigate feedbacks between hydroclimate, tectonics and marine biota.

Limnogeologists and paleolimnologists investigate ancient to recent lakes, either from geological archives preserved in sedimentary basins, or from sediment cores collected from the bottom of lakes. We all come from different disciplines (sedimentology, biology, geochemistry, geophysics, geomorphology, paleontology, archeology, …) and analyse a great diversity of archives (exposures, cores, multibeam bathymetric maps, seismic profiles, landforms, …) in order to reconstruct the story of past lacustrine geo-eco-systems, and to reveal the various factors that have driven their evolution over time, often with annual-seasonal resolution.
This session examines how we can transfer our tremendous knowledge about the evolution of lakes in the past, to realistically imagine and anticipate the near future of lakes? The ongoing climate change and the growing demand on natural resources has already started to impact continental hydrosystems (rivers, lakes, and wetlands), and this is likely to increase in the next few decades, leading to significant water-level changes for many lakes around the world. As such, the near future of lakes, firstly terminal lakes but ultimately all lakes, sounds rather uncertain.
We welcome all contributions concerning past and present lakes, and orientated toward a better understanding of future evolution of lakes (water balance, sediment budget, algal blooms, hydrodynamics, shoreline trajectory, coastal erosion, storm surges, water quality, …) and their consequences on social-ecological systems (biodiversity and human activities). All abstracts submitted should include a reflection of the main results towards the future development of lakes.

Arid to sub-humid regions contribute > 40 % to the global land surface and are home of more than 40 % of the world’s population. During prehistoric times many important cultures had developed in these regions. Due to the high sensitivity of dryland areas even to small-scale environmental changes and anthropogenic activities, ongoing geomorphological processes but also the Late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental evolution as recorded in sediment archives are becoming increasingly relevant for geomorphological, palaeoenvironmental and geoarchaeological research. Dryland research is also boosted by methodological advances, and especially by emerging linkages with other climatic and geomorphic systems that allow using dryland areas as indicator-regions of global environmental change.
This session aims to pool contributions from the broad field of earth sciences that deal with geomorphological processes and different types of sediment archives in dryland areas (dunes, loess, slope deposits, fluvial sediments, alluvial fans, lake and playa sediments, desert pavements, soils, paleosols etc.) at different spatial and temporal scales. Besides case studies from individual regions and archives, methodical and conceptual contributions, e.g. dealing with the special role of eolian, fluvial, gravitational and biological processes in dryland environments, their preservation over time in the sedimentary records, and emerging opportunities and limitations to resolve past and current dynamics, are especially welcome in this session.

The Earth’s subsurface hosts enormous methane volumes either trapped in the shallow sediments, gas hydrates and permafrost, or naturally escaping the sediment through methane seepage to enter the hydrosphere/atmosphere. Such environments are highly sensitive to climate change. Despite an increasing awareness about the positive feedback between global warming and methane seepage, the response of these complex and dynamic systems to climate change is still unclear due to complex geo/hydro/atmosphere interactions.
Fossil cold seeps, long-term observatory studies and modern examples form the foundations to understand the mutual dependences between climate and seepage, and to develop robust models to forecast future scenarios at the Earth-system scale. For this session, we welcome geologists, geophysicists, geochemists, biologists, model developers, and any others who have contributed to new case studies in modern and fossil hydrocarbon seeps in the marine and terrestrial environment, gas hydrate and permafrost settings, to describe both new methods/technologies and the scientific outcomes.

Theme A- Orogenic plateaus and plateau margins
Orogenic plateaus and their margins are integral parts of modern mountain ranges and offer unique opportunities to study feedbacks between tectonics and climate at the Earth’s surface. Complex interactions among a wide range of parameters may lead to rapid shifts in surface elevation and the growth, recycling, and destruction of lithosphere. These controlling factors, which include crustal deformation and basin growth, surface uplift and atmospheric circulation, precipitation and erosion, landscape and biological change, result in lateral plateau growth and its characteristic morpho-climatic domains: humid, high-relief margins that contrast with (semi-)arid, low-relief plateau interiors.

Theme B- Bridging records of tectonic and climatic forcings on the evolution of Central Asia: from Paleozoic origins to Cenozoic aridification
Central Asia witnessed profound changes in tectonic and climatic environments over its geologic past: Paleozoic to Mesozoic closures of deep oceans and the amalgamation of major tectonic blocks laying the groundwork for Cenozoic fault reactivations since the India/Asia collision. The Cenozoic rise of intracontinental mountain ranges such as the Tianshan was accompanied by the retreat of Paratethys and the onset of intracontinental aridification. Major efforts bridging tectonic, geomorphic and climatic records are underway to understand i) the tectonic origins of Central Asia and how these control its present-day landscape, ii) individual responses to climatic and tectonic forcings, and their contribution to erosion and sediment deposition patterns, iii) long-term interactions between climatic change and tectonic activity, iv) and the role of topographic barriers, inland seas and global climate change in shaping regional climate and the aridification of the continental interior.

Session Goals
The two primary goals of this session are: 1) creating a discussion forum on the complex interactions and feedbacks among climatic, surficial, and geodynamic processes that challenge the notion of comprehensive mechanisms for the formation of orogenic plateaus and their margins, as well as for the evolution of Central Asia since the Paleozoic; and 2) encouraging future collaborations that not only overcome spatio-temporal scales but also bridge observations across disciplines leading to a more holistic view of landscape evolution from an integrative tectonic, climatic and geomorphic perspective.

This session aims to showcase an interesting diversity of state-of-art advances in all aspects of Phanerozoic stratigraphy, paleoceanography, paleoclimatology, and orogeny on long- and short timescales in marine and terrestrial environments. Within this broad topic, contributions include but are not limited to case studies of organic and inorganic geochemistry, sedimentology, paleontology, and modelling, alongside integrated approaches to understand evolving earth processes, particularly climate transitions and their consequences.

Earth history is punctuated by major extinction and dispersal events, by perturbations of global biogeochemical cycles and by rapid climate shifts. Such Earth System dynamics are relevant both on geologic (10^4-10 year) and human (10^2 - 10^4 year) timescales. Investigations of slow evolutions and fast events in Earth history are based on accurate and integrated stratigraphy. This, in turn, enables the interpretation of a wide variety of geoarchives, documenting the evolution of our planet and its inhabitants. This session will bring together specialists in litho-, bio-, chemo-, magneto-, cyclo-, sequence-, and chronostratigraphy with paleontologists, paleoclimatologists, paleoceanographers and archaelogists. An emphasis is placed upon the use of a variety of tools for deciphering sedimentary records and their stratigraphy across intervals of major environmental change and/or human evolution. This session is organized by the International Subcommission on Stratigraphic Classification (ISSC) of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) and it is open to the Earth science community at large.

The pacing of the global climate system by orbital variations is clearly demonstrated in the timing of e.g. glacial-interglacial cycles. The mechanisms that translate this forcing into geoarchives and climate changes continue to be debated. We invite submissions that explore the climate system response to orbital forcing, and that test the stability of these relationships under different climate regimes or across evolving climate states (e.g. mid Pleistocene transition, Pliocene-Pleistocene transition, Miocene vs Pliocene, and also older climate transitions). Submissions exploring proxy data and/or modelling work are welcomed, as this session aims to bring together proxy-based, theoretical and/or modelling studies focused on global and regional climate responses to astronomical forcing at different time scales in the Phanerozoic.

The geological record provides insight into how climate processes may operate and evolve in a high CO2 environment and the nature of the climate system during a turnover from icehouse to greenhouse state — a transition that may potentially occur in the near future. In recent years we have seen major advances in many geochemical techniques and an increase in the complexity of Earth System Models. The aim of this session is to share progress in our understanding of global changes occurring during the pre-Quaternary based on the integration of geochemical/paleobotanical/sedimentological techniques and numerical models. Specifically, we encourage submissions describing research in which both model and data approaches are embedded. We invite abstracts that reconstruct Earth’s climate from the Cambrian to the Pliocene, investigate how the interconnections of the key surface reservoirs (vegetation-ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere-biogeochemistry) impact climate, and identify tipping points and thresholds. Pertinent themes may include greenhouse-icehouse transitions and intervals testifying for extreme changes.

The session asks for well-dated geoarchives that document the physical evidence of the transition from the Late Holocene (Meghalayan) to the Anthropocene. These may include artificial deposits, lake, estuary or marine sediments, peat, speleothems, ice core or biological hosts such as trees or corals, displaying good chronologies. The evidence for an Anthropocene can include transitions in the types and abundance of physical materials, biota, or distinct geochemical signals; ideally the study should provide multiple proxies or consider innovative new techniques in recognising the Anthropocene. We are interested in presentations that show continuous to near continuous records that can extend hundreds or even thousands of years back in time, but should also include comparable analysis through the mid-20th century to near present day. The presentations should explain how, if at all, the Anthropocene can be distinguished in these archives. Studies from any continent will be considered, though presentations on archives from South America and Africa are especially encouraged.

Terrestrially derived sediments in sedimentary archives are regularly used to reconstruct past climatic or tectonic conditions. Sediments are generally produced in mountainous areas and transported via sediment routing systems (SRS) to a zone of final deposition. Environmental reconstructions are based on the assumption that perturbations in climatic or tectonic conditions generate signals within the transported sediment. However, experimental and numerical studies have shown that not all signals are faithfully transmitted, but can be modified, buffered or even lost during transport along the SRS. Oftentimes, it is stated that signals can only be faithfully transmitted if the response time of the SRS is short relative to the period of the forcing. However, individual signals in response to a perturbation can already be generated early during the transient response phase. Hence, signals can be transported through and stored within the SRS as a measurable change of a sedimentary parameter (or ‘proxy’) even before the SRS has returned to steady state conditions, i.e. before the characteristic response time has passed. Therefore, it is important to gain quantitative insight into the time scales required for a portion of sediment, which carries a change in proxy information, to travel to the sedimentary archive.
We seek to bring together new concepts and results on sedimentary proxy generation during environmental changes, as well as proxy transport and archiving during the transient state of the SRS. We welcome studies addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Numerical & analog modeling of proxy generation, transport and deposition along sediment routing systems
• Field studies of proxy generation, transport and deposition along sediment routing systems
• Comparison of proxy propagation measured on different grain-size ranges
• Tracing of environmental signals through a system
• Novel proxy methodologies
• The connectivity of sediment routing systems and proxy transport

This session will be supported by a special issue in Frontiers in Earth Sciences.

The Quaternary Period (last 2.6 million years) is characterized by frequent and abrupt climate swings that were accompanied by rapid environmental change. Studying these changes requires accurate and precise dating methods that can be effectively applied to environmental archives. A range of different methods or a combination of various dating techniques can be used, depending on the archive, time range, and research question. Varve counting and dendrochronology allow for the construction of high-resolution chronologies, whereas radiometric methods (radiocarbon, cosmogenic in-situ, U-Th) and luminescence dating provide independent anchors for chronologies that span over longer timescales. We particularly welcome contributions that aim to (1) reduce, quantify and express dating uncertainties in any dating method, including high-resolution radiocarbon approaches; (2) use established geochronological methods to answer new questions; (3) use new methods to address longstanding issues, or; (4) combine different chronometric techniques for improved results, including the analysis of chronological datasets with novel methods, e.g. Bayesian age-depth modeling. Applications may aim to understand long-term landscape evolution, quantify rates of geomorphological processes, or provide chronologies for records of climate change.

Africa is the world’s second largest continent, encompassing diverse ecosystems in numerous climate classifications, ranging from tropical forests to subarctic drylands on its highest mountain peaks. All these different environments underwent tremendous climatic fluctuations in the geological past, causing severe environmental changes. Further, Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to future climate change, with widespread and till now uncertain impacts on African environments and society, as predicted by the recent IPCC report.
This session aims to convene studies about climate and environmental variabilities in Africa on various time scales, in past and future. The session will be open for studies from marine and continental records, using any kind of archive and proxy data, such as sedimentological records, tree rings, speleothems, ice cores, fossil pollen as well as modern monitoring data and modeling studies.

Polar regions are particularly sensitive to climate variability and play a key role in global climate and environmental conditions through various feedback mechanisms. In this session we invite contributions dealing with all aspects of Phanerozoic (i.e. Cambrian to Holocene) geology from high latitude regions: stratigraphy, paleoenvironment, paleoclimate, and modelling.

Significant advances in our understanding of the Meso- and Cenozoic development of polar regions have been made over the last two decades by studying continental shelf, slope, or deep-sea sediment sequences. These include detailed reconstructions of the climatic, oceanographic, and tectonic evolution of high northern and southern latitudes over various time scales, as well as reconstructions of past ice-sheet dynamics and studies of marine geohazards. Data have been obtained from conventional and high-resolution 2D and 3D seismic surveying, from a growing number of short sediment cores, and from targeted high-latitude deep drilling expeditions (e.g. IODP, MeBo). The same techniques have also been applied in fjords, which link the continental margins with the interiors of landmasses and act as “miniature ocean basins”. Fjord settings allow us to study similar geological processes to those that acted on glaciated continental margins but at smaller scales. The variety of sediment inputs (e.g. glacial, fluvioglacial, fluvial, biological) to fjord basins along with relatively high sedimentation rates provides the potential for high-resolution palaeoclimatic and palaeooceanographic records on decadal to centennial timescales.

The aim of this session is to bring together researchers working on both northern and southern high latitudes processes spanning various spatio-temporal scales from fjords to the deep sea, to provide a multi-disciplinary picture of polar regions. We welcome submissions focussing on (but not limited to) records of past climatic change, tectonics, oceanography and ecosystems, and the associated links with ice sheets and glacier behaviour, ice-ocean interactions and glacial-marine sedimentary processes. Studies that integrate different datasets, data types, or that marry observations with numerical modelling are also encouraged.

We dedicate this session to our dear colleague and co-convener, Christian Hass, whose enthusiasm and knowledge helped shape this session over many years.

The mountain ranges of the Pamir, Tian Shan, and the Himalaya-Tibetan orogen form the most prominent morphological features in central Asia. Much of this morphology results from uplift related to the Cenozoic India-Asia collision. However, this is built upon a complex pre-Cenozoic history of ocean closures (Proto- and Paleo-Tethys, Paleo-Asian), terrane accretions and the related reorganization of Asia's southern margin. This long-lasting history of consecutive accretionary events left behind a complex mosaic of high- and low-strain domains, magmatic arcs, allochthonous blocks (terranes) and intervening suture zones. A significant challenge is to correlate and date those domains, which are often used as large-scale structural markers for quantifying large structural offsets. Quantifying pre-collisional topography and crustal thickness is crucial. Both the pre-Cenozoic history and the timing and kinematics of young deformation must be well-constrained in order to reconstruct the orogenic evolution in time and space and to understand how pre-existing structures influenced Cenozoic deformation. To promote discussion on this topic, we invite contributions from geoscientists who are working on various aspects of the geologic evolution of Central Asia, including structural geology, geochemistry, sedimentology, detrital studies, as well as geophysical or modeling studies.

Lakes, as well as engineered reservoirs, can be affected by geohazards at various temporal and spatial scales. Examples of such geohazards include gravitational mass movements that occur either subaqueously at the lateral slopes of lakes, or subaerially as rockfalls or landslides that enter water bodies. It has been documented that both these types of mass movements have caused lake tsunamis in the past. Other examples of geohazards in lakes can be caused by meteorological and volcanic phenomena, as well as human activity. As shorelines of many lakes are densely populated, the knowledge and assessment of lacustrine geohazards is essential. Apart from such geohazards directly related to the lake itself, lacustrine sediments can record a wide range of geohazards affecting their catchment, such as volcanic activity, earthquake shaking, and more climate related hazards such as floods and droughts. Lakes thus provide valuable archives to analyse recurrence patterns of geohazards, which can feed into hazard assessments. Due to their relatively small scales compared to the marine realm, lakes constitute very valuable environments for analysing, modelling, and monitoring natural hazards. However, the lakes’ small scales also constitute an obstacle for early warning systems related to lacustrine geohazards.
We encourage contributions by experts from science and praxis that address the broad topic “Geohazards in lacustrine settings”, from hazard documentation to mitigation strategies.

Documenting the diversity of human responses and adaptations to climate, landscapes, ecosystems, natural disasters and the changing natural resources availability in different regions of our planet, cross-disciplinary studies in Geoarchaeology provide valuable opportunities to learn from the past. Furthermore, human activity became a major player of global climatic and environmental change in the course of the late Quaternary, during the Anthropocene. Consequently, we must better understand the archaeological records and landscapes in context of human culture and the hydroclimate-environment nexus at different spatial and temporal scales. This session seeks related interdisciplinary papers and specific geoarchaeological case-studies that deploy various approaches and tools to address the reconstruction of former human-environmental interactions from the Palaeolithic period through the modern. Topics related to records of the Anthropocene from Earth and archaeological science perspectives are welcome. Furthermore, contributions may include (but are not limited to) insights about how people have coped with environmental disasters or abrupt changes in the past; defining sustainability thresholds for farming or resource exploitation; distinguishing the baseline natural and human contributions to environmental changes. Ultimately, we would like to understand how strategies of human resilience and innovation can inform our modern strategies for addressing the challenges of the emerging Anthropocene, a time frame dominated by human modulation of surface geomorphological processes and hydroclimate.

During the past decades numerous sediment records have become available from lakes and paleolakes through shallow and (ICDP) deep drilling. These records have proven to be valuable archives of past climate and environmental change, human activities as well as tectonic and volcanic activity. We invite contributions emphasizing quantitative and spatial assessments of rates of change, causes and consequences of long- and short-term climate variability, impact, magnitude, and frequency of tectonic and volcanic activity as deduced from sedimentological, geochemical, biological, and chronological tools.

Volcanoes are inherently complex and dynamic geological systems, acting as the source of diverse sediment types and as a control on varied sediment transport processes within surrounding environments, both during and after their life. This can manifest as an accumulation of thick primary volcaniclastic sequences from pyroclastic (e.g. pyroclastic density currents, tephra falls), laharic and flank instability processes, secondary volcaniclastic sequences from the reworking/redeposition (or both) of primary deposits and their interaction with non-volcanic sedimentary processes, or deposits from the weathering of lava flows. The diversity of processes that may be involved in the generation of volcaniclastic sequences makes often difficult to describe and interpret them. As the comprehension of the generation, transportation and accumulation mechanisms of volcaniclastic sequences is of extreme importance for natural hazard and economic perspectives, to reduce uncertainties and move forward in the identification of volcano-sedimentary processes and potential effects, modern and ancient volcaniclastic sequences must be studied and interpreted hand in hand. Thus, the proposed session aims to bring together studies that explore the volcaniclastic record of modern and ancient environments. Contributions are welcomed in areas including, but not limited to, the identification of volcanic features in ancient sedimentary records, multidisciplinary (e.g., stratigraphic, petrographic, geophysical) approaches to the study of modern subaerial and submarine volcaniclastic sequences as analogue sites, and examples of the modification of sedimentary systems across syn- and inter-eruptive periods.

The interactions between aerosols, climate, and weather are among the large uncertainties of current atmospheric research. Mineral dust is an important natural source of aerosol with significant implications on radiation, cloud microphysics, atmospheric chemistry and the carbon cycle via the fertilization of marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

In addition, properties of dust deposited in sediments and ice cores are important (paleo-)climate indicators.

This interdivision session --building bridges between the EGU divisions CL, AS, SSP, BG and GM-- is open to contributions dealing with:

(1) measurements of all aspects of the dust cycle (emission, transport, deposition, size distribution, particle characteristics) with in situ and remote sensing techniques,

(2) numerical simulations of dust on global and regional scales,

(3) meteorological conditions for dust storms, dust transport and deposition,

(4) interactions of dust with clouds and radiation,

(5) influence of dust on atmospheric chemistry,

(6) fertilization of ecosystems through dust deposition,

(7) any study using dust as a (paleo-)climate indicator including sediment archives in loess, ice cores, lake sediments, ocean sediments and dunes.

We especially encourage to submit papers on the integration of different disciplines and/or modelling of past, present and future climates.

In 2021 we look forward to hear three solicited speakers present their latest work.

We are proud to announce:

1) Siyu Chen, professor at Lanzhou University, China.
Siyu will present her work on modelling emission, transport and radiative effects of Asian mineral dust

2) Kevin Ohneiser, PhD student at TROPOS, Leipzig, Germany

Kevin will present his latest findings on aerosols observed during the MOSAIC campaign

3) Jeff Munroe, professor at Middlebury College, USA

Jeff will present his latest findings from the DUST^2 project; a source-to-sink investigation of the modern dust system in SW North America

Share: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/session/40684

Topographic sediment features arise from the complex interaction between flow and transport of sediment under the action of a current - unidirectional, oscillatory, combined or multidirectional. Depositional bedforms occur in a wide variety of environments, including deserts, rivers, estuaries, deltas, beaches, continental shelves, deep seas, volcanic regions, and sub- and pro-glacial environments. They are generated and affected by a wide range of flows and forcings, such as aeolian transport, waves, tidal currents, offshore storms, temperate glacier flows, turbidity currents and subaqueous mass flows, deep-sea currents, pyroclastic currents on Earth and other flows on extra-terrestrial bodies. Bedforms leave a unique signature in sedimentary records, allowing stratigraphic interpretation and reconstruction of contemporary and past climate and landscape evolution in terrestrial and other planetary environments.

This session aims to highlight many aspects of the complex interaction between flow, bedforms and sedimentary structures on Earth as well as on extra-terrestrial surfaces, from their description to interpretation, and from modelling to experiments and field quantification, with studies ranging across differing spatial and temporal scales, from large-scale organisation patterns down to the grain-scale, as well as the palaeo-dynamic and morphodynamic aspects of control and feedback between flow, sediment transport and bedform evolution.

The session welcomes contributions from field, laboratory, theoretical, and numerical approaches intended to advance our knowledge of how to decipher information contained in terrestrial and extra-terrestrial sedimentary bedforms, and help foster fruitful discussions between sedimentologists, geomorphologists, hydrologists, physicists and all researchers working on understanding bedform dynamics and their sedimentary signatures.

Minerals are formed in great diversity under Earth surface conditions, as skeletons, microbialites, speleothems, or authigenic cements, and they preserve a wealth of geochemical, biological, mineralogical, and isotopic information, providing valuable archives of past environmental conditions. Interpreting these archives requires fundamental understanding of mineral formation processes, but also insights from the geological record.

In this session we welcome oral and poster presentations from a wide range of research of topics, including process-oriented studies in modern systems, the ancient rock record, experiments, computer simulations, and high-resolution microscopy and spectroscopy techniques. We intend to reach a wide community of researchers sharing the common goal of improving our understanding of the fundamental processes underlying mineral formation, which is essential to read our Earth’s geological archive.

Description: The shoreline–shelf setting includes a complex array of sedimentary systems (coastal-deltaic, paralic and shallow marine), which are influenced by dynamic interactions between physiography, sediment supply, biology, and depositional processes, amongst other factors. The shoreline–shelf transect is defined by the location, geometry and nature of critical transition zones, e.g. the fluvial-marine transition zone (FMTZ) and shelf-edge rollover zone (SERZ). Within these transition zones, major changes in sediment transport and depositional processes occur. Across and between these zones, studies have recognised the complexities in the preserved stratigraphic record and the impact of climatic and physiographic controls. However, many challenges remain for understanding shoreline–shelf settings e.g. 1) the distribution of facies, ichnofacies and architecture in mixed-process systems; 2) understanding process interaction and sedimentary preservation across a broader range of physiographic settings; and 3) constraining the along-strike and down-dip variability in resulting stratigraphic architecture. Therefore, in this session we invite contributions from modern, ancient and numerical modelling studies of shoreline–shelfal depositional environments to consolidate and improve our understanding of the complex interaction of numerous factors in this segment of source-to-sink systems.

Throughout Earth’s history, there have been few periods, when the climate was sufficiently cold to sustain large volumes of ice to cover the planet’s surface. Glaciers and ice-sheets in polar and mountain regions repeatedly grew during the Quaternary, advancing far into mid-latitudes and adjacent lowlands, respectively. Traces of this glacial activity can be manifested in characteristic deposits, e.g. vast till-covered and outwash plains, and landforms such as moraines and drumlins. At glacial-interglacial timescales, multiple glacial advances tend to overprint landforms and create fragmented terrestrial sedimentary successions. There are inherent challenges to understand the records, e.g. how glacial activity varies and affects landscapes over multiple glacial-interglacial cycles. How did landscapes evolve under glacial influence? What is the impact of early glaciations? How well were different glaciations chronicled? How did climate patterns and gradients affect glaciation? These questions will be addressed in this session.

The abundance of proxy data on timing, extent, and driving mechanisms of the last glacial cycle has significantly improved the understanding of the last c. 100 ka of landscape evolution. However, landscape evolution and trends in topographic preconditioning remain poorly constrained for previous cycles.
Glacial sedimentary records can be investigated through various methods to overcome some of the limitations imposed by the records’ fragmentation. Firstly, discovering and retrieving persistent glacial deposits, for example contained in subglacially formed basins (overdeepened basins, tunnel valleys), extend the accessible sedimentary record. Secondly, modern and ancient analogues help to understand erosion and deposition mechanisms in a glacial environment. Thirdly, relative and absolute chronostratigraphy allow the development of a temporal framework, and reconstructing landscape and environment evolution.

This session aims to stimulate discussions concerning terrestrial glacial records. Contributions may include investigations based on field observations, scientific drilling, geophysical measurements, and/or modelling of modern, Quaternary, and pre-Quaternary glacial settings. Possible topics cover: (a) glacial and interglacial stratigraphic successions, (b) subglacial erosion and deposition, (c) glaciation chronology, and (d) landscape evolution.

Fluvial systems cover much of the Earth’s surface; they convey water, sediments, and essential nutrients from the uplands to the sea, intermittently transferring these materials from the river channel to the adjacent floodplain. The routing of sediment and water through the channel network initiates complex process-form interactions as the river bed and banks adjust to changes in flow conditions. Despite their ubiquity, little is known about the landform-driven morphodynamic interactions taking place within the channel that ultimately determine patterns of sedimentation and changes of channel form. Furthermore, an understanding of how these process-form interactions scale with the size of the fluvial system is also currently lacking. Recent technological and methodological advances now afford us the opportunity to study and to quantify these process-form interactions in detail across a range of spatial and temporal scales.

This session aims to bring together interdisciplinary researchers working across field, experimental, and numerical modelling approaches who are advancing methods and providing new insights into: (i) sediment transport and morphodynamic functioning of fluvial systems, (ii) evaluating morphological change at variable spatial and temporal scales, such as at event vs. seasonal scales, and (iii) investigating the sedimentology of these river systems. We particularly welcome applications which investigate the morphodynamic response of fluvial systems in all types and sizes and we specifically would like to encourage submissions from early career researchers and students.

The ocean floor hosts a tremendous variety of forms that reflect the action of a range of tectonic, sedimentary, oceanographic and biological processes at multiple spatio-temporal scales. Many such processes are hazards to coastal populations and offshore installations, and their understanding constitutes a key objective of national and international research programmes and IODP expeditions. High quality bathymetry, especially when combined with sub-seafloor and/or seabed measurements, provides an exciting opportunity to integrate the approaches of geomorphology and geophysics, and to extend quantitative geomorphology offshore. 3D seismic reflection data has also given birth to the discipline of seismic geomorphology, which has provided a 4D perspective to continental margin evolution.

This interdisciplinary session aims to examine the causes and consequences of geomorphic processes shaping underwater landscapes, including submarine erosion and depositional processes, submarine landslides and canyons, sediment transfer and deformation, volcanic activity, fluid migration and escape, faulting and folding, and other processes acting at the seafloor. The general goal of the session is to bring together researchers who characterise the shape of past and present seafloor features, seek to understand the sub-surface and surface processes at work and their impacts, or use bathymetry and/or 3D seismic data as a model input. Contributions to this session can include work from any depth or physiographic region, e.g. oceanic plateaus, abyssal hills, mid-ocean ridges, accretionary wedges, and continental margins (from continental shelves to abyss plains). Datasets of any scale, from satellite-predicted depth to ultra high-resolution swath bathymetry, sub-surface imaging and sampling, are anticipated.

This session is organised by the IAG Submarine Geomorphology Working Group.

Tsunamis and storm surges pose significant hazards to coastal communities around the world. Geological investigations, including both field studies and modelling approaches, significantly enhance our understanding of these events. Past extreme wave events may be reconstructed based on sedimentary and geomorphological evidence from low and high energy environments, from low and high latitude regions and from coastal and offshore areas. The development of novel approaches to identifying, characterising and dating evidence for these events supplements a range of established methods. Nevertheless, the differentiation between evidence for tsunamis and storms still remains a significant question for the community. Numerical and experimental modelling studies complement and enhance field observations and are crucial to improving deterministic and probabilistic approaches to hazard assessment. This session welcomes contributions on all aspects of paleo-tsunami and paleo-storm surge research, including studies that use established methods or recent interdisciplinary advances to reconstruct records of past events, or forecast the probability of future events.

Geomorphic processes (e.g fluvial, erosion, slope, aeolian, glacial) shape landscape and affect sediment fluxes in a variety of environments across different spatial and temporal scales. Quantifying processes requires understanding both the effect of landscape components (natural and anthropic) and dynamics responsible for sediment/soil mobilization, storage and delivery (sources-pathways-sinks).
We welcome contributions using traditional methods and/or innovative techniques (e.g. field-based measurements, compositional analysis, GIS-based morphometry, remote sensing, sediment tracing or fingerprinting, cosmogenic and fallout radionuclides, statistical tools, modelling approaches…) for quantifying morphodynamic and sedimentary processes.
The session seeks contributions from any discipline investigating:
(i) topographic, lithologic, climatic and tectonic controls on sediment production and transport from source to sink;
(ii) connectivity and links among geomorphic components;
(iii) quantification of erosion/sedimentation/weathering rates and their variability in space and time;
(iv) environmental signal propagation in Sediment Routing Systems;
(v) redistribution processes through soil, sediment tracing and particle trajectory;
(vi) autogenic processes regulating sediment transport, temporary storage, and deposition;
(vii) interplay between geo-environmental and anthropic processes in geomorphic and sedimentary dynamics;
(viii) compositional analysis of the erosional products;
(ix) forward modelling of sedimentary and geomorphic response to climate change.
Multi- and inter-disciplinary studies are particularly encouraged. We hope to use the session to discuss different perspectives in the viewpoint of an integrated framework, filling the gaps among disciplines.

A key goal within geomorphic research is understanding the processes linking topographic form, erosion rates, sediment production, transport and deposition, and external forcings such as tectonics, biotic or climatic. Numerical modelling, by allowing the creation of controlled analogues of natural systems, provides exciting opportunities to explore landscape evolution and generate testable predictions.

In this session, we invite contributions that use numerical modelling to investigate landscape evolution in a broad sense, and over a range of spatial and temporal scales. We welcome studies using models to constrain one or more of: erosion rates and processes, sediment production, transport and deposition, and biotic, climatic or tectonic forcings. We also particularly wish to highlight studies that combine numerical modelling with direct Earth surface process monitoring techniques, such as topographic, field, stratigraphic, geophysical or geochronological data. Contributions using numerical models to unravel the interaction between deep processes, such as mantle dynamics, or biotic processes with topographic patterns are further encouraged. There is no geographical restriction: studies may be focused on mountain environments or sedimentary basins, or they may establish links between the two.

The production, transport, and deposition of sediment govern the fluxes and distribution of solid mass on the surface of the Earth. The frequency, magnitude, and physical and chemical properties of these fluxes are initially controlled by external forcing (climate and tectonics) before being modulated by the complex interplay of surface processes. Understanding the interplay of these processes and how they are affected by external forcing is vital to understanding how sediment fluxes have changed through time.
A growing body of studies continues to develop a process-based understanding of the coupling between climate, tectonics, and the production and transport of solids across catchments. Important insights into sediment recycling and residence time have been provided by recent advances in geochemical and geophysical techniques, highlighting the dynamic nature of sediment transport. However, many challenges remain including; (1) fully quantifying the temporal- and spatial scales of sediment transport, (2) assessing the importance of large and infrequent events in controlling erosion and sediment transport and, (3) bridging the gap between short- and long-term or small- and large-scale records of sediment production and fluxes.
In this session we welcome field-based, experimental, and modelling studies, that (1) constrain mechanisms, rates, and scales of erosion, transport, and deposition processes, (2) analyse the influence of internal and external forcing on these processes, (3) investigate the propagation of geochemical or physical signals across the earth surface (such as changes in sedimentary fluxes, grain size distributions, cosmogenic nuclide concentrations).
Contributions across all temporal and spatial scales are welcome.

Invited presentation : Sebastien Carretier - Delayed sedimentary grains

Mountain belts are characterized by the fastest rates of physical erosion and chemical weathering around the world, making them one of the best places to observe sediment production (e.g. erosion, weathering) and transport processes. In these settings, varied processes such as rockfall, debris flow, hillslope failure, glacial and periglacial erosion, fluvial erosion, transport and deposition, and chemical weathering operate, often simultaneously, over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales.

As a result, tracking the interactions between denudation, climatic forcing, tectonic activity, vegetation and land use is complex. However, these feedbacks affect both long- and short-term natural surface processes, landscape development, and human interactions with the environment. Many of these processes also pose serious threats to the biosphere, mountain settlements and infrastructure. Therefore, understanding and quantifying rates of erosion, weathering, and deposition within mountain landscapes is a challenging, but crucial research topic in Earth surface processes.

We welcome contributions that (1) investigate the processes of production, mobilisation, transport, and deposition of sediment in mountain landscapes, (2) explore feedbacks between erosion and weathering due to natural and anthropogenic forcings, and (3) consider how these processes contribute to natural hazards specific to mountain landscapes. We invite presentations that employ observational, analytical or modeling approaches in mountain environments across a variety of temporal and spatial scales. We particularly encourage early career scientists to apply for this session.

Two significant flow hazard cascades have been captured with unprecedented detail, with events in Elliot Creek and Bute Inlet (Canada) and the Chamoli and Uttarakhand (India) both occurring with the past few months. These events both have a suite of background observations and baseline datasets on which to contextually place and explore these flows end events in a depth and breadth of detail that is unprecedented, potentially unlocking new understanding of hazard cascades from source to sink.
We welcome contributions that (i) investigate the processes of production, mobilisation, transport, and deposition of sediment in these two events, (ii) explore the feedbacks between erosion and deposition of the flows through these systems, (iii) consider how these flows shape new understanding of hazards cascades through the source to sink linkages. We invite papers that are observational, analytical or modelling based in their approach, across a variety of temporal and spatial scales. We particularly welcome new and innovative methodologies that show potential to unlock new understanding.

Palaeontology is a vast discipline that encompasses the study of all living organisms in Earth’s history. Advances in the methodologies used to answer palaeontological questions have opened up new fields of study since the mid-20th century. In this session we would like to explore the state of-the-art methods that provide insights into a broad range of palaeontological/palaeobiological topics, ranging from biogeography, palaeoecology and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions to the treatment of big data, or the different applications of modern scanning techniques. We particularly intent to focus on how large datasets and modern imaging techniques, which are gaining prominence in palaeo-analyses, are structured and treated differently depending on aims and hypotheses.
This way, we hope to bring together researchers from different sub-fields of Palaeontology to discuss their common scientific/methodological or multidisciplinary approaches and exchange on this basis.

The comprehension of the future state of our planet is a dramatically pressing matter. Among the major global challenges we face today, a great deal of research is constantly made on the effects of global warming, excess CO2, ocean acidification, eutrophication and anoxia; those all act as stressors compromising ecosystem resilience. In light of these adverse developments, studies on modern biota through laboratory experiments and extant taxa are vital for measuring ecosystem resilience at short-term timescale. Concurrently, the geological record offers an excellent archive to document at medium- and long-term timescales past major climate changes that may have generated devastating tipping points, with ephemeral or permanent modification in pelagic and neritic systems.
The study of these perturbations that can be supported by several biotic and geochemical proxies is particularly intriguing because they allow us to compare the resilience of the past marine biota with the extant ecosystems that can be affected by change in abundance, diversity and productivity.

We welcome contributes aimed to characterize modifications on extant marine ecosystems and to document Phanerozoic environmental perturbations through biotic, geochemical, and sedimentological approaches.

This session will focus on the emerging discipline of Conservation Paleobiology that uses the data from the fossil record and sedimentary archives to inform biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management. Even though humans have altered ecosystems for millennia, direct ecological observations rarely encompass more than the last few decades. At the same time, the accelerating pace of global climate change requires better understanding of the long-term resilience and adaptive capacities of ecosystems facing multiple stressors. The youngest fossil record can offer high-resolution insights into ecosystem change on timescales well beyond the limits of ecological monitoring, enabling the reconstruction of ecological baselines and natural range of variability. Additionally, the pre-Quaternary geologic record provides a series of natural experiments allowing assessment of biotic responses to major environmental perturbations, strengthening the theoretical foundations of conservation science.

We invite presentations offering both the near-time and deep-time perspective on ecological and evolutionary processes operating during times of rapid environmental changes, ranging from the Anthropocene biodiversity crisis to Phanerozoic mass extinction events. We also welcome contributions highlighting potential biases affecting the fossil record by linking stratigraphic, taphonomic and ecological patterns. We hope to stimulate discussion on novel opportunities and limitations of using different types of geohistorical data to address some of the most urgent questions in Conservation Biology.

This 60-minute short course aims to introduce non-geologists to structural and petrological geological principles, which are used by geologist to understand system earth.

The data available to geologists is often minimal, incomplete and representative for only part of the geological history. Besides learning field techniques to acquire and measure data, geologists need to develop a logical way of thinking to close gaps in the data to understand the system. There is a difference in the reality observed from field observation and the final geological model that tells the story.

In this course we briefly introduce the following subjects:
1) Geology rocks: Introduction to the principles of geology and field data acquisition
2) Failing rocks: From structural field data to (paleo-)stress analysis
3) Dating rocks: Absolute and relative dating of rocks using petrology and geochronology methods
4) Crossover rocks: How geology benefits from seismology and geodynamic research and vice-versa

Our aim is not to make you the next specialist in geology, but we would rather try and make you aware of the challenges a geologist faces when they go out into the field. Additionally, the quality of data and the methods used nowadays are addressed to give seismologists and geodynamicists a feel for the capabilities and limits of geological research. This course is given by Early Career Scientist geologists and geoscientists and forms a trilogy with the short course on ‘Geodynamics 101 (A&B)’ and ‘Seismology 101’. For this reason, we will also explain what kind of information we expect from the fields of seismology and geodynamics and we hope to receive some feedback in what kind of information you could use from our side.

Age models are applied in paleoclimatological, paleogeographic and geomorphologic studies to understand the timing of climatic and environmental change. Multiple independent geochronological dating methods are available to generate robust age models. For example, different kinds of radio isotopic dating, magneto-, bio-, cyclostratigraphy and sedimentological relationships along stratigraphic successions or in different landscape contexts. The integration of these different kinds of geochronological information often poses challenges.
Age-depth or chronological landscape models are the ultimate result of the integration of different geochronological techniques and range from linear interpolation to more complex Bayesian techniques. Invited speakers, Sebastian Breitenbach from CL division and Rachel Smedley from the GM division, will share their experience in several modelling concepts and their application in a range of Quaternary paleoenvironmental and geomorphologic records. The Short Course will provide an overview of age models and the problems one encounters in climate science and geomorphology. Case studies and practical examples are given to present solutions for these challenges. It will prepare the participants from CL, GM and other divisions for independent application of suitable age-depth models to their climate or geomorphologic data. For registration please send a request via this email address (ecs-cl@egu.eu) prior to 15th April.

With increasing data complexity and growing data volumes, effective and efficient data visualization for data analysis is becoming more important. Different data sets and analysis tasks require different visualization strategies. Geoscience data, being typically multivariate, multidimensional, time-varying, large and sometimes also with uncertainty, demands special attention and care.

This short course aims at providing an overview of commonly available visualization tools that are especially well suited to analyze earth science data sets. We demonstrate the functionality of two selected tools, the general-purpose tool ParaView (www.paraview.org) and the meteorology-specific Met.3D visualization framework (met3d.wavestoweather.de). We show how to easily create meaningful visualizations (including interactive and 3D displays) of gridded atmospheric, oceanic and earth system model data with these tools with only a few steps.

In Hamburg's geoscience community (including the German Climate Computing Centre DKRZ and Universität Hamburg), we have many years of experience in the visualization of earth science data sets. The goal of this workshop is to pass some of our knowledge on to you. More information will be available before the workshop at https://www.dkrz.de/egu2021.

The work of scientists does not end with publishing their results in peer-reviewed journals and presenting them at specialized conferences. One side of the work that is becoming more and more relevant and often is required by funding agencies to be specified in one’s project proposal is outreach. What does outreach mean? Very simply, it means to engage with the non-scientific public and a wider audience than you are commonly used to. There are many ways to do outreach, from blogging and vlogging, using social media, write for a science dissemination journal, participate as a speaker to local science festivals, organize open-days in the laboratory and so on.
With this short course, we aim at giving you some practical examples of different outreach activities and tips and suggestions from personal and peers experiences. In the last part of the course, you will work singularly to come up with an outreach idea based on your research activity. You may use it on your next proposal, you never know!

“Science isn't finished until it's communicated. The communication to wider audiences is part of the job of being a scientist, and so how you communicate is absolutely vital.” - Professor Sir Mark Walport, Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK government

Science is vital to society. It allows civilisations to advance, economies to prosper and provides solutions to societal problems. Unfortunately, the benefits of science aren’t automatically understood by the wider public – they must be communicated!

Communicating your science to a broader audience can also be hugely beneficial on a personal level – potentially boosting you profile as an expert, connecting you with new research and/or industry partners, and sparking ideas for new areas of research. Communicating your research to citizens is obviously important but how to communicate effectively to a non-scientific community isn’t always so straightforward. The first half of this session will outline some tips to communicate your research with the public, the challenges that scientists may face and how these can be overcome.

The second half of the session will feature speakers who are working to bridge the gap between research and society. They will outline some institutionalised routes that scientists can take to connect with citizens and provide examples of when it has had unexpected benefits.