This session is entirely dedicated to the Medal Lecture by this year’s Jean Baptiste Lamarck Medalist, Elisabetta Erba. The session is convened by Marc De Batist (SSP Division President), Helmut Weissert (Chair of the Medal Committee) and Stephen Lokier (SSP Science Officer).

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 drilling through the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) continues to provide 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 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 invites contributions that present and/or review recent scientific results from deep Earth sampling and monitoring through ocean and continental drilling projects. Furthermore, we encourage contributions that outline perspectives and visions for future drilling projects, in particular projects using a multi-platform approach.

The Phanerozoic has been punctuated by five mass extinctions and several major environmental perturbations, which were contemporaneous with massive volcanism and meteorite impacts. The session aims to gather researchers from geological, geophysical, and biological disciplines to highlight the recent advances of the causes and consequences of these environmental events. Therefore, contributions dealing with all aspects of the end-Ordovician, end-Devonian, end-Permian, end-Triassic, end-Cretaceous) and other related paleoenvironmental crises (e.g. the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) and Oceanic Anoxic Events (OEAs) in the Mesozoic are welcome.

What role did climate dynamics play in human evolution, the dispersal of different Homo species within and beyond the African continent, and key cultural innovations? Were dry spells, stable humid conditions, or rapid climate fluctuations the main driver of human evolution and migration? In order to evaluate the impact that different timescales and magnitudes of climatic shifts might have had on the living conditions of prehistoric humans, we need reliable and continuous reconstructions of paleoenvironmental conditions and fluctuations from the vicinity of paleoanthropological and archaeological sites. The search for the environmental context of human evolution and mobility crucially depends on the interpretation of paleoclimate archives from outcrop geology, lacustrine and marine sediments. Linking archeological data to paleoenvironmental reconstructions and models becomes increasingly important.

As a contribution towards a better understanding of these human-climate interactions the conveners encourage submission of abstracts on their project’s research on (geo)archaeology, paleoecology, paleoclimate, stratigraphy, and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. We especially welcome contributions offering new methods for dealing with difficult archive conditions and dating challenges. We hope this session will appeal to a broad audience by highlighting the latest research on paleoenvironmental reconstructions in the vicinity of key sites of human evolution, showcasing a wide variety of analytical methods, and encouraging collaboration between different research groups. Conceptual models, modelling results and model-data comparisons are warmly welcomed, as collaborative and interdisciplinary research.

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.

In this crossover session, we invite studies on the latest advancements in analytical and experimental techniques from all relevant fields dealing with geochemical processes or applying chemical/isotope data to assess the dynamics in geological systems. Relevant are all-new achievements of techniques more or less established in Earth sciences. Moreover, new techniques or experiments brand-new to Earth sciences are of particular interest. Techniques are welcome from mass spectrometry, photon/electron-based spectroscopy, including microscopy and measurements under various conditions (ambient to non-ambient) and spatial resolutions. The overarching breadth of this session will foster the exchange between the communities.

Continental rifting is a complex process spanning from the inception of extension to continental rupture or the formation of a failed rift. This session aims at combining new data, concepts and techniques elucidating the structure and dynamics of rifts and rifted margins. We invite submissions highlighting the time-dependent evolution of processes such as: initiation and growth of faults and ductile shear zones, tectonic and sedimentary history, magma migration, storage and volcanism, lithospheric necking and rift strength loss, influence of the pre-rift lithospheric structure, rift kinematics and plate motion, mantle flow and dynamic topography, as well as break-up and the transition to sea-floor spreading. We encourage contributions using multi-disciplinary and innovative methods from field geology, geochronology, geochemistry, petrology, seismology, geodesy, marine geophysics, plate reconstruction, or numerical or analogue modelling. Special emphasis will be given to presentations that provide an integrated picture by combining results from active rifts, passive margins, failed rift arms or by bridging the temporal and spatial scales associated with rifting.

Birth, evolution, and demise of sedimentary basins result from the interplay of several factors such as the geodynamic/tectonic regime, stress field, thickness and thermal state of the lithosphere, rheological properties of both basement and sedimentary fill, and faults architecture. Integrated studies, including the analyses of structural setting and thermal maturity of stratigraphic successions, have shown to be successful in unravelling the tectonic evolution of active basins as well as fossil ones that have been later incorporated into orogenic belts.
In this session, we welcome contributions from researchers in all fields of geosciences, applying different analytical methods to the study of worldwide active and fossil sedimentary basins. These methods can include, but are not limited to, structural analyses (both on outcropping and subsurface rocks), thermal maturity assessments, fault dating, geochronological and thermochronological dating, and isotopic analyses on carbonates. Multidisciplinary approaches are greatly welcomed. The aim is to foster discussion on which are the best procedures to better understand the geological processes that drive the tectonic and thermal history of sedimentary basins and their surrounding regions.

Citizen science (the involvement of the public in scientific processes) is gaining momentum across multiple disciplines, increasing multi-scale data production on Earth Sciences that is extending the frontiers of knowledge. Successful participatory science enterprises and citizen observatories can potentially be scaled-up in order to contribute to larger policy strategies and actions (e.g. the European Earth Observation monitoring systems), for example to be integrated in GEOSS and Copernicus. Making credible contributions to science can empower citizens to actively participate as citizen stewards in decision making, helping to bridge scientific disciplines and promote vibrant, liveable and sustainable environments for inhabitants across rural and urban localities.
Often, citizen science is seen in the context of Open Science, which is a broad movement embracing Open Data, Open Technology, Open Access, Open Educational Resources, Open Source, Open Methodology, and Open Peer Review. Before 2003, the term Open Access was related only to free access to peer-reviewed literature (e.g., Budapest Open Access Initiative, 2002). In 2003 and during the “Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities”, the definition was considered to have a wider scope that includes raw research data, metadata, source materials, and scholarly multimedia material. Increasingly, access to research data has become a core issue in the advance of science. Both open science and citizen science pose great challenges for researchers to facilitate effective participatory science, yet they are of critical importance to modern research and decision-makers.

We want to ask and find answers to the following questions:
Which approaches and tools can be used in Earth and planetary observation?
What are the biggest challenges in bridging between scientific disciplines and how to overcome them?
What kind of participatory citizen scientist involvement (e.g. how are citizen scientists involved in research, which kind of groups are involved) and open science strategies exist?
How to ensure transparency in project results and analyses?
What kind of critical perspectives on the limitations, challenges, and ethical considerations exist?
How can citizen science and open science approaches and initiatives be supported on different levels (e.g. institutional, organizational, national)?

It is now well known that the coupling between tectonics, climate and surface processes governs the dynamics of mountain belts and basin. However, the amplitude of these couplings and their exact impact on mountain building are less understood. First order quantitative constraints on this coupling are therefore needed. They can be provided by geomorphic and sedimentary records including longitudinal river profiles, fluvial terraces, downstream fining trends, growth strata, sediment provenance, sequence stratigraphy, and changing depositional environments. Moreover, the increasing integration of geochronological methods for quantifying erosion rates and source-to-sink sediment transfer with landscape evolution, stratigraphic, climatic, and tectonic models allows to advance our understanding of the interactions between surface processes, climate and tectonic deformation.

We invite contributions that use geomorphic and/or sedimentary records to understand tectonic deformation, climate histories, and surface processes, and welcome studies that address their interactions and couplings at a range of spatial and temporal scales. In particular, we encourage coupled catchment-basin studies that take advantage of numerical/physical modelling, geochemical tools for quantifying rates of surface processes (cosmogenic nuclides, low-temperature thermochronology, luminescence dating) and high resolution digital topographic and subsurface data. We invite contributions that address the role of surface processes in modulating rates of deformation and tectonic style, or of tectonics modulating the response of landscapes to climate change.

This session aims to showcase an exciting diversity of state-of-the-art advances in all aspects of Phanerozoic (Cambrian to Quaternary) stratigraphy, paleoceanography, and paleoclimatology. We invite case studies of organic and inorganic geochemistry, sedimentology, and paleontology from marine and terrestrial environments, as well as multidisciplinary and modeling studies. 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. We further invite contributions that provide insight into the evolution of the Earth on short and long timescales, including climate perturbations and their consequences.

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

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

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 operate and evolve in response to different than modern boundary conditions and forcings. Understanding deep-time climate evolution is paramount to progressing on understanding fundamental questions of Earth System feedbacks and sensitivity to perturbations, such as the behaviour of the climate system under elevated atmospheric CO2 levels—relative to the Quaternary—, or the existence of climatic tipping points and thresholds. In recent years, geochemical techniques and Earth System Models complexity have been greatly improved and several international projects on deep-time climates (DeepMIP, MioMIP, PlioMIP) have been initiated, helping to bridge the gap between palaeoclimate modelling and data community. This session invites work on deep-time climate simulations and proxy-based reconstructions from the Cambrian to the Pliocene. We especially encourage submissions featuring palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, palaeoclimate modelling, and the integration of proxies and models of any complexity.

The rates and dates of processes occurring at tectonic-plate scale can be quantified using evidence derived from actively deforming settings, including geomorphic markers (e.g., topography and rivers, fluvial deposits, marine terraces) and sedimentary archives (e.g., syntectonic sedimentation, stratigraphic evidence).
When used as key natural laboratories at adequate time spans, such evidence provides essential clues to understand large-scale tectonics. These focused studies may contribute to unravel the motion, deformation, and evolution of tectonic plates, as well as changes in their potential geodynamics and boundary conditions.
We invite contributions focusing on understanding the dynamics and evolution of deforming plate interiors and active plate boundaries through interdisciplinary, geomorphic, or sedimentary data-based approaches. We welcome all types of studies that aim to quantify the rates of active plate deformation and the dates of tectonic events, regardless of their spatio-temporal scale or methodology.

Geomorphic and geologic observations at the Earth's surface reflect the combined effects of mantle, lithospheric, and surface processes. Hence surface observations provide important constraints on mantle convection patterns and plume-plate interactions both at plate boundaries and in intraplate settings through space and time. These observations complement geophysical data and are important constraints for theoretical models and numerical simulations. For instance, at plate boundaries, surface observations can provide key constraints on the rheology and kinematics of lithospheric and mantle processes. In both plate boundary and intraplate settings, mantle plumes can trigger continental rifting and break-up, subduction initiation, orogeny, microcontinent formation, and/or the development of dynamic topography. However, using surface observations to constrain mantle processes is complicated by (1) our as yet incomplete understanding of how mantle dynamics manifest at the surface, and (2) spatio-temporal variations in tectonic processes, climate, isostatic adjustment, lithology, biota, and human alteration of landscapes. In this session, we aim to bring together researchers interested in mantle-surface and plume-plate interactions. We welcome studies that cover a range of techniques from data-driven approaches to numerical modelling or laboratory experiments.
We hope this session will provide opportunities for presenters from a range of disciplines, demographics, and stages of their scientific career to engage in this exciting and emerging problem in Earth Science.

Volcanoes are inherently complex and dynamic geological system, 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.

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.

Carbonate sediments have formed in a wide range of marine and non-marine settings through the complex interplay of biological, chemical and physical processes. Precisely-constrained high-resolution stratigraphic records are important for determining past global change and understanding the complex interactions between climatic processes, oceanographic and environmental changes, the biosphere, stratigraphic architecture and subsequent diagenesis. The complementary study of Recent carbonate depositional systems is crucial to the interpretation of these systems. This session invites contributions from general and interdisciplinary topics within the diverse fields of Carbonate Sedimentology, Stratigraphy and Diagenesis, the session will explore a broad range of geochemical, biological and stratigraphic proxies and their applications to understanding Earth history.

Speleothems and other 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, supporting the compilation of detailed records of climate variability integrating established as well as novel and innovative techniques. (2) Long-term environmental monitoring campaigns facilitating the interpretation of high-resolution proxy time series from carbonate archives. (3) The continuous development of proxy-system models that can help understand the measured proxies, by describing processes such as water infiltration, carbonate dissolution, precipitation and diagenesis. (4) The development of proxy databases such as SISAL (Speleothem Isotope Synthesis and AnaLysis) which enable regional-to-global scale analysis of the relationship between the proxy and the environmental parameter using a variety of large data analysis and data-model comparison techniques.

Applied together, advancements in these cornerstones pave the way towards developing highly reliable and quantitative terrestrial climate reconstructions. This session aims to bring together integrated and interdisciplinary studies in order to better understand the precipitation environment of continental carbonates and the incorporation of climate-sensitive proxies at various time scales. We especially invite contributions that show progress in one of the four outlined domains, and welcome speleothem and carbonate-based modern and paleoenvironmental studies, including new records of past climatic changes. In addition, research contributing to current international co-ordinated activities, such as the PAGES working group on Speleothem Isotopes Synthesis and AnaLysis (SISAL) and others are welcome.

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.

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.

The action of a fluid moving over a mobile surface often generates bedforms which in turn influence the flow and how particles are transported. On Earth, bedforms are found in many environments: deserts, rivers, estuaries, continental shelves, deep seas, volcanic regions and glacial environments. Bedforms have also been observed in extra-terrestrial environments, such as on Mars and Venus.

Understanding the links between flow, particle transport, and bedform morphodynamics and stratigraphy is of interest for a wide range of applied and fundamental research. For example, this knowledge is used to manage contemporary environments, such as rivers and coastal seas. Recently, the societal relevance of bedform research has been highlighted, as bedforms are shown to interact with offshore structures. Furthermore, bedform morphology and sedimentology can provide insights into fluid movement across modern and ancient, otherwise unknown, landscapes.

This session aims to highlight many aspects of the complex interaction between flow, sediment transport, stratigraphy and bedforms in terrestrial and planetary environments. The session welcomes contributions from theoretical, field, laboratory and numerical approaches related to bedforms found in aeolian, shallow and deep waters, glacial and planetary environments. The session intends to advance our knowledge of how to decipher information contained in terrestrial and extra-terrestrial bedforms and help foster fruitful discussions on understanding bedform morphodynamics and stratigraphy.

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.

Arid to sub-humid regions are home for >40% of the world’s population, and many prehistoric and historic cultures developed in these regions. Due to the high sensitivity of drylands to small-scale environmental changes and anthropogenic activities, ongoing geomorphological processes but also the Late Quaternary geomorphological and palaeoenvironmental evolution as recorded in sediment archives are becoming increasingly relevant for geological, geomorphological, palaeoenvironmental, palaeoclimatic and geoarchaeological research. Dryland research is constantly boosted by technological methodological advances, and especially by emerging linkages with other climatic and geomorphic systems that allow using dryland areas as indicator-regions of global environmental changes.
This session aims to pool contributions that deal with current and former geomorphological processes and environmental changes, as well as with all types of sediment archives in dryland areas (dunes, loess, slope deposits, fluvial sediments, alluvial fans, lake and playa sediments, desert pavements, soils, palaeosols etc.) at different spatial and temporal scales. Besides case studies from individual regions and archives and review studies, methodical and conceptual contributions are especially welcome in this session, e.g. dealing with the special role of aeolian, fluvial, gravitational and biological processes in dryland environments, sediment preservation, methods to obtain chronological frameworks and process rates, emerging geo-technologies and the role of such processes for current and former societies.

The geological records of glaciations provide information on the Earth’s past climate and on the efficiency of glaciers in modifying landscapes. Traces of glacial activity are manifested in characteristic depositional and erosional landforms. The focus of this session is to stimulate discussions about the challenges and advances in understanding glaciations and glacial records with a special emphasis on the Quaternary period: How do landscapes and erosion rates evolve under the repeated impact of glaciations? What is the impact of early vs. late glaciations during an ice age? What are the (chrono-)stratigraphic challenges for better constraining glacial periods, especially during earlier periods of the Quaternary? How do climatic conditions affect glaciations and vice versa? How do Quaternary sediments compare to deposits of ice ages earlier in Earth’s history?
Repeated glaciation of an area tends to overprint older landforms and creates fragmented sedimentary successions. For the last glacial cycle, for instance, timing, extent, and driving mechanisms are increasingly well understood, whereas landscape evolution and trends in topographic preconditioning remain poorly constrained for previous glacial cycles. This complexity tends to accentuate when pre-Quaternary glaciations are considered.
We are therefore particularly interested in contributions that demonstrate how some of the limitations imposed by the geological records’ fragmentation can be overcome. For instance, by the following approaches:
1. Uncovering and characterizing glacial deposits, for example preserved in subglacially formed basins (overdeepened basins, tunnel valleys, and fjords), extend the accessible sedimentary record.
2. Modern and ancient analogues help to understand erosion and deposition mechanisms in glacial environments.
3. Relative and absolute chronostratigraphy allows the development of a temporal framework of landscape evolution and environmental conditions.
Contributions may include investigations based on field observations, scientific drilling, geophysical measurements, and/or modelling of present-day, 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.

Present-day glacial and periglacial processes in cold regions, i.e. arctic and alpine environments, provide modern analogues to processes and climatic changes that took place during the Pleistocene, including gradual retreat or collapse of ice sheets and mountain glaciers, and thawing and shrinking of low-land permafrost. Current geomorphological and glaciological changes in mid-latitude mountain ranges could also serve as a proxy for future changes in high-latitude regions within a context of climate change. Examples are speed-up or disintegration of creeping permafrost features or the relictification of rock glaciers.

For our session we invite contributions that either:
1. investigate present-day glacial and/or periglacial landforms, sediments and processes to describe the current state, to reconstruct past environmental conditions and to predict future scenarios in cold regions; or
2. have a Quaternary focus and aim at enhancing our understanding of past glacial, periglacial and paraglacial processes, also through the application of dating techniques.

Case studies that use a multi-disciplinary approach (e.g. field, laboratory and modelling techniques) and/or that highlight the interaction between the glacial, periglacial and paraglacial cryospheric components in cold regions are particularly welcome.

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 interdivisional session --building bridges between the EGU divisions CL, AS, SSP, BG and GM-- had its first edition in 2004 and it 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, regional, and local 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 the submission of papers that integrate different disciplines and/or address the modelling of past, present and future climates.

Aeolian processes are active on various planetary surfaces throughout the Solar System and yield similar landforms across a wide range of spatial scales despite differences in atmospheric and surface properties. They are typically associated with the movement of sediments driven by an atmospheric flow but can also be controlled by other modes of matter transport such as ice sublimation. The combination of terrestrial and extra-terrestrial experiments and observations provides the opportunities as well as challenges for improving our fundamental theories and numerical models for better understanding of these aeolian environments. Innovations in instrumentation and experimental techniques continue to yield novel insights on Earth, while space missions and remote probes constantly deliver new and surprising evidence from aeolian environments on other planetary bodies. This session welcomes research on all aspects of aeolian processes and landforms, contemporary and ancient, on planetary surfaces across the Solar System.

Integrating sedimentology, geomorphology, and structural geology to better understand the weathering, erosion, transfer, and storage of sediment from source to sink is an inherently interdisciplinary field. Disentangling signals and their landscape response has a breadth of implications within managing present-day resources, reconstructing paleoenvironments, and fostering understanding of the evolution of our planet. More recently, anthropogenic actions add further complexity within signal interpretations and alter landscape dynamics.

Within the source to sink approach, sediments are generally produced in mountainous areas through weathering and transported via sediment routing systems (SRS) to a zone of final deposition. Terrestrially derived sediments in sedimentary archives are regularly used to reconstruct past climatic or tectonic conditions. 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. Therefore, quantifying the spatial and temporal constraints of signal transfer and storage (eg: transience vs steady-state conditions and basin response times) are just as critical to sedimentary interpretation as the understanding the magnitude and duration of the source signal (eg: periodicity of the environmental forcing).

We would like to encourage discussion and build an international community between researchers within academic circles and industry who are applying a comprehensive source to sink systems approach. We are especially interested in sedimentary proxy generation during environmental changes (eg: surface and regolith biogeochemical weathering or physical grain size signals), transport (eg: modern autogenic dynamics, palaeohydraulics, and signal tracing), and archiving (eg: reservoir prediction) controls on the SRS. Contributions across diverse approaches (eg. modeling to field-based studies), environments (continental to marine), and time scales (human to geologic) are encouraged.

The never-ending growth of the ground penetrating radar applications reserves continuously small and less small discoveries, and deserves a space for discussion and reciprocal listening also at the EGU conference.
The pandemic has meaningfully hindered many activities but to our knowledge not too much the interest in the GPR instrumentation and technique at an applicative level, even if exchanges of experiences at international conferences have been of course necessarily reduced. So, we hope that this session can meet the interest of many researchers, professionals, PhD students as well skilled GPR users as geologists, engineers, geophysicists and possibly archaeologists and architects.
Contributions are welcome with regard to all the aspects of the GPR technique, ranging from the hardware of the systems to the data processing and any theoretical aspect, including innovative applications or procedures as well as results of particular relevance, possibly achieved within an integrated measurement campaign including also different data.
Hope to see you in Vienna.

This 105-minute short course aims to introduce non-geologists to structural and petrological geological principles, which are used by geologists 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) Grounding rocks: Introduction to the principles of geology.
2) Collecting rocks: The how, what, and pitfalls of field data acquisition.
3) Failing rocks: From structural field data to (paleo-)stress analysis.
4) Dating rocks: Absolute and relative dating of rocks using petrology and geochronology methods.
5) Shaping rocks: The morphology of landscapes as tectonic constraints
6) Crossing rocks over: How geology benefits from seismology, geodynamic and geodesy research, and vice-versa.
7) Q&A!

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 other earth scientists a feel for the capabilities and limits of geological research. This course is given by Early Career Scientist geologists and geoscientists and forms a quartet with the short courses on ‘Geodynamics 101 (A&B)’, ‘Seismology 101’, and ‘Geodesy 101’. For this reason, we will also explain what kind of information we expect from the fields of seismology, geodynamics and geodesy, and we hope to receive some feedback in what kind of information you could use from our side.

Within this course, the attendees are taught how to identify possible cyclicities in paleoclimate data (e.g., sediments, speleothems) or any other geological record. We will start from the basics of which data can be analysed, go over power spectra, and discuss the application of filters and Wavelet Analysis. We will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different methods, and give some examples from Earth Sciences to highlight common pitfalls. The aim of this course is to give a brief overview of the most common techniques and give participants the insight to prepare and analyse their data themselves. A variety of computational platforms are available for time-series analysis. In this course, we will introduce different tools and techniques by making use of the programming language R.

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 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.

MTEX (https://mtex-toolbox.github.io/) has become a standard tool for the quantification of crystallographic textures and microstructural-derived physical properties in geological materials. From the quantification of crystallographic preferred orientations (CPOs), intracrystalline deformation, grain sizes and shapes in geological materials, to determination of CPO-derived physical properties (e.g., elastic, piezoelectric), all is possible with MTEX.
In the first part of the short course, we will introduce basic concepts on how MTEX works. In the second part, we will run demonstrations of some application in geological materials.

The following topics will be covered:

1) Importing EBSD data, pre-processing;
2) Checking orientations, ODF quantification, plot of pole figures;
3) Grain segmentation, calculation of grain sizes and shapes;
4) Intracrystalline deformation analysis, subgrains, new grains;
5) Tensors and CPO-derived seismic properties

Demonstrations will be made using the MTEX toolbax in Matlab. Note, however, that familiarity with the toolbox is not required. - This is a short course, not a workshop.

Please email us if you want to participate (ruediger.kilian@geo.uni-halle.de or luiz.morales@scopem.ethz.ch)

Meet editors of internationally renowned journals in geo- and biogeoscience and gain exclusive insights into the publishing process. After a short introduction into some basics, we will start exploring various facets of academic publishing with short talks given by the editors on

- What are the duties and roles of editors, authors and reviewers?
- How to choose a suitable journal for your manuscript and what is important for early career authors?
- How can early career scientists get involved in successful peer-reviewing?
- What is important for appropriate peer-reviewing?
- What are ethical aspects and responsibilities of publishing?

Together with the audience and the editors, we will have an open discussion of the key steps and factors shaping the publication process of a manuscript. This short course aims to provide early career scientists across several EGU divisions (e.g. AS, BG, CL, GM, NH, SSP and SSS) the opportunity of using first hand answers of experienced editors of international journals to successfully publish their manuscripts and get aware of the potentials and pitfalls in academic publishing.

Publishing your research in a peer reviewed journal is essential for a career in research. All EGU-affiliated journals are fully open access which is great, but the unique open discussion and transparent peer review process can be daunting for first time submitters and early career scientists. This short course will cover all you need to know about the publication process from start to end for EGU journals, and give you a chance to ask the editors some questions. This includes: what the editor looks for in your submitted paper, how to deal with corrections or rejections, and how best to communicate with your reviewers and editors for a smooth transition from submission to publication. Ample time will be reserved for open discussion for the audience to ask questions to the editors, and for the editors to suggest ‘top tips’ for successful publication. This course is aimed at early-career researchers who are about to step into the publication process, and those who are yet to publish in EGU journals. Similarly, this course will be of interest to those looking to get involved in the peer-review process through reviewing and editing. This short course is part of the “Meet the EGU Journal Editors” webinar series that was held prior to the EGU General Assembly 2022.

The work of scientists does not end with publishing their results in peer-reviewed journals and presenting them at specialized conferences. In fact, one could argue that the work of a scientist only starts at this point: outreach. What does outreach mean? Very simply, it means to engage with the wider (non-scientific) public about science. There are many ways to do outreach, including blogging and vlogging, using social media, writing for a science dissemination journal, participating as a speaker at local science festivals, organising open days in the laboratory, and so on.

With this short course, we aim to give practical examples of different outreach activities, how to start an outreach project and tips and suggestions from personal and peers’ experiences. Specific attention will be paid to science communication issues, including the proper ‘translation’ of the jargon of science into language the public understands, the selection of the content being conveyed, and the best format in which it is presented according to the different targets (policymakers, the general public, school-age children, etc.).
In the last part of the course, you will work singularly to come up with an outreach idea based on your research. You may use it on your next proposal; you never know!

Rationale
The proper and deep education on ethical issues in geosciences has been evolving in recent times, although not as quickly and deeply as necessary. Many of the professionals dedicated to Earth Sciences have been not in touch with such new concepts and tendencies. Geoethics is the research and reflection on the values that underpin appropriate behaviors and practices, wherever human activities interact with the Earth system. It provides a framework to define ethical professional behaviors in Earth sciences and engineering and to determine how these should be put into practice for the benefit of environment and society. The Short Course is directed towards introducing and training Earth scientists in those new concepts and ideas as well as exposing the perspectives of this field. Social-ecological Systems and the anthropic impact on land, ocean, and atmosphere are at the cores issues to be discussed under the umbrella of geoethics, as a tool to cope with Climate Changes and other earth-society related challenges.

Completing this course, participants
1. Will know the basic principles of ethics and how these lead to geoethics
2. Will be aware of the dilemmas involved in making geoethical decisions
3. Will have gained some experience in taking a geoethical approach to real world cases

Course Content: (provisional):
1. From Ethics to geoethics: definition, values, tools
2. Responsible conduct of research and professionalism
3. Tools for confronting (geo)ethical dilemmas
4. Geoethics for society: sustainable development and responsible mining
5. Geoethics in natural hazards
6. Education challenges in geoethics
7. Geoethics in geoscience communication
8. Recent developments in geoethical thinking
9. Perspectives of geoethics
10. Geoethics’ case studies: Water Management, Ocean Governance, etc.