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 PICO format provides the maximum opportunity to present research on diverse themes to the widest possible audience.

Causal relationship between mass extinctions, major volcanic eruptions, large bolide impacts and extreme climate and environmental changes in the Phanerozoic has been reliably demonstrated using different approaches. This session invites contributions presenting the latest advances about the end-Ordovician, Late and end-Devonian, end-Permian, end-Triassic, end-Cretaceous, and other paleoenvironmental crises, such as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum and Oceanic Anoxic Events. The goal of the session is to bring together researchers from geological, geophysical, and biological disciplines to improve our knowledge of the cause-effect scenario of these major environmental changes.

Back in 1982, Judith McKenzie published a scientific article entitled Carbon-13 Cycle in Lake Greifen: A Model for Restricted Ocean Basins (*). Two systems in which she worked and made noteworthy contributions are mentioned in the title: Lakes and oceans. Her career, on the other hand, was completely unrestrictive. She used isotope geochemistry, a significant new method, to study the development of dolomite in the Abu Dhabi sabkha for her PhD thesis. When it came to establishing isotope geochemistry in sedimentology, paleoceanography, and limnology, Judy was a pioneer. She had a key role in the establishment of the stable-isotope laboratory at the ETH Zürich, one of the first isotope labs in European Earth Science departments at the time. The Mediterranean salinity crisis was one of her early exciting research themes where she made a number of significant scientific contributions. She played a pivotal role in fostering the participation of numerous scientists in international ocean drilling programs, catalyzing the careers of countless early-career researchers. Since the early 90’s her research refocused on exploring the interface between geology and biology and in particular the influence of microbes on the formation of dolomite and other minerals. Judy's groundbreaking achievements have significantly advanced sedimentary geology within the realms of limnogeology, paleoceanography, chemical sedimentology and geomicrobiology. To honor her career and celebrate her scientific achievements we invite contributions from both established and early-career scientists dealing with the various aspects of Judith McKenzie’s research that show the incredible legacy she leaves behind.

(*) Judith A. McKenzie, 1982, Carbon-13 Cycle in Lake Greifen: A Model for Restricted Ocean Basins. In: Nature and origin of Cretaceous Carbon-rich Facies (S.O. Schlanger and M. B. Cita, eds.). Academic Press, 197-207.

Restricted evaporitic basins through geologic time are cradles of biotic and abiotic change. They are controlled by straits linking the open ocean with marginal basins which in turn play an important role in driving global thermohaline circulation through the exchange of heat and salt. When these marine gateways allow only very limited exchange, typically during early stage opening and the final stages of closure, marginal seas can experience extreme fluctuations in salinity, from brackish to hypersaline conditions, with knock-on consequences for the density of the overflow. Restricted gateway exchange in mid-latitude settings can result in the formation of large evaporite deposits or “salt giants”.
In addition to their profound local impact, these salt giants can be sufficiently large to change the chemistry of the ocean, impact the carbon cycle and marine ecosystems, and modify climate on a global scale.
We welcome presentations from researchers investigating the opening or closing of marine gateways, modern or ancient, and their climatic, sedimentological and/or biological consequences. We encourage both modellers and empirical researchers to share their insights into the causes and consequences of marine connectivity change. We seek to draw together scientists focussed on a variety of salt giants including the evaporites that formed as the South Atlantic opened, the Zechstein salt basin, as well as the Mediterranean Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC). The session will be one of the earliest opportunities to share initial results from IODP Expedition 401 (Dec 2023-Feb 2024), the offshore element of the IMMAGE land-2-sea drilling project which targets the late Miocene records of Mediterranean-Atlantic exchange.

Geoscience underpins many aspects of the energy mix that fuels our planet and offers a range of solutions for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions as the world progresses towards net zero. The aim of this session is to explore and develop the contribution of geology, geophysics and petrophysics to the development of sustainable energy resources in the transition to low-carbon energy. The meeting will be a key forum for sharing geoscientific aspects of energy supply as earth scientists grapple with the subsurface challenges of remaking the world’s energy system, balancing competing demands in achieving a low carbon future.
Papers should show the use of any technology that was initially developed for use in conventional oil and gas industries, and show it being applied to either sustainable energy developments or to CCS, subsurface waste disposal or water resources.
Relevant topics include but are not limited to:
1. Exploration & appraisal of the subsurface aspects of geothermal, hydro and wind resources.
2. Appraisal & exploration of developments needed to provide raw materials for solar energy, electric car batteries and other rare earth elements needed for the modern digital society.
3. The use of reservoir modelling, 3D quantification and dynamic simulation for the prediction of subsurface energy storage.
4. The use of reservoir integrity cap-rock studies, reservoir modelling, 3D quantification and dynamic simulation for the development of CCS locations.
5. Quantitative evaluation of porosity, permeability, reactive transport & fracture transport at subsurface radioactive waste disposal sites.
6. The use of petrophysics, geophysics and geology in wind-farm design.
7. The petrophysics and geomechanical aspects of geothermal reservoir characterisation and exploitation including hydraulic fracturing.
Suitable contributions can address, but are not limited to:
A. Field testing and field experimental/explorational approaches aimed at characterizing an energy resource or analogue resources, key characteristics, and behaviours.
B. Laboratory experiments investigating the petrophysics, geophysics, geology as well as fluid-rock-interactions.
C. Risk evaluations and storage capacity estimates.
D. Numerical modelling and dynamic simulation of storage capacity, injectivity, fluid migration, trapping efficiency and pressure responses as well as simulations of geochemical reactions.
E. Hydraulic fracturing studies.
F. Geo-mechanical/well-bore integrity studies.

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.

Surface and subsurface sediments and landscapes provide a unique opportunity for unraveling Earth’s complex geomorphic processes. We seek to explore the relationship between climate, tectonic, and anthropogenic signals in source-to-sink systems across timescales. Our interdisciplinary session aims to use techniques from geomorphology, stratigraphy, sedimentology, modeling, geochemistry, geospatial analysis, and tectonics.

Geomorphology and sedimentology have historically been used to great effect to reveal the climate conditions of Earth’s past. However, it is becoming increasingly recognised in the Earth Science community that in order to understand how our planet may change in the future, we need to scrutinize Earth surface processes from source to sink, drawing on knowledge from a range of sub-fields. This will enable us to disentangle anthropogenic signals in the geomorphic archive, and provide insight on climate change, geohazards and natural resource management.

We invite submissions addressing the impact of autogenic and allogenic forcings as well as anthropogenic influences on source-to-sink systems across varying timescales and geomorphic landscapes, including fluvial, coastal, and marine systems, as well as aeolian and glacial domains. We particularly encourage researchers drawing on integrated approaches involving numerical modeling of landscapes and basins, stratigraphy and sedimentary analogs, provenance analysis, seismic data, remote sensing, GIS and (paleo-)hydrology. This session aims to illuminate the growing understanding of landscape dynamics in the past, present and future.

Geologic processes are generally too slow, too rare, or too deep to be observed in-situ and to be monitored with a resolution high enough to understand their dynamics. Analogue experiments and numerical simulation have thus become an integral part of the Earth explorer's toolbox to select, formulate, and test hypotheses on the origin and evolution of geological phenomena.

To foster synergy between the rather independently evolving experimentalists and modellers we provide a multi-disciplinary platform to discuss research on tectonics, structural geology, rock mechanics, geodynamics, volcanology, geomorphology, and sedimentology.

We therefore invite contributions demonstrating the state-of-the-art in analogue and numerical / analytical modelling on a variety of spatial and temporal scales, varying from earthquakes, landslides and volcanic eruptions to sedimentary processes, plate tectonics and landscape evolution. We especially welcome those presentations that discuss model strengths and weaknesses, challenge the existing limits, or compare/combine the different modelling techniques to realistically simulate and better understand the Earth's behaviour.

To retrieve the variation of the Earth’s magnetic field in the past, in scales varying from hundreds to millions of years, indirect records from archaeological material, volcanic rocks, sediments, and speleothems are necessary. Such data can be used for geomagnetic field reconstructions and field modeling, contributing to a better understanding not only of the field changes at the Earth’s surface but also at the core-mantle boundary, offering indirect evidence of the processes that take place in the Earth’s core. This session welcomes abstracts presenting new directional and palaeointensity data from short- (secular variation) to long- (magnetic reversals) time scales, methodological advances, and archaeo/palaeomagnetic reconstructions at regional and global scales. Particular attention is focused on the investigation of the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) and other regions of weak intensity field, exploring the interactions of the SAA with the biosphere and forecasting its possible connection with climate and the corresponding radiation effects on the upcoming Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite missions. Applications in the fields of geomagnetism, stratigraphy, volcanology, absolute and relative chronology, climate, geobiology, and geospace are welcome.

The recent methodological and instrumental advances in paleomagnetism and magnetic fabric research further increased their already high potential in solving geological, geophysical, and tectonic problems. Integrated paleomagnetic and magnetic fabric studies, together with structural geology and petrology, are very efficient tools in increasing our knowledge about sedimentological, tectonic or volcanic processes, both on regional and global scales. This session is intended to give an opportunity to present innovative theoretical or methodological works and their direct applications in various geological settings. Especially welcome are contributions combining paleomagnetic and magnetic fabric data, showing novel approaches in data evaluation and modelling to reconstruct and analyze paleogeography on the regional to global scale across all timescales.

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 interdisciplinary fields of socio-economic relevance, such as climate and ecosystem evolution, palaeoceanography, the deep biosphere, sustainable georesources, 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, and present research originated from the use of scientific drilling legacy data.

LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersexual, Asexual, plus; or LGBT for short) geoscientists are likely to have to face several obstacles throughout their career compared to their cisgender/heterosexual colleagues. These obstacles can take many forms, e.g., inflexible bureaucratic limits on name/gender marker, changes on documentation, a lack of training for cruise/field leaders on LGBT topics, a lack of support for transgender and gender non-conforming (GNC) people on field trips and research cruises, and safety and medical considerations LGBT people must account for when travelling for either field work/cruises or when moving countries for a new position. These obstacles can be abated and overcome; with adequate understanding by colleagues and initiatives, LGBT academics can thrive, allowing them to contribute to research without obstacles.

In this short course, our invited speakers will discuss some of these topics, present their experience with the obstacles they have faced in their careers, and share how they have dealt with or overcome these obstacles. We will also highlight the changes that have occurred in recent years on an institutional level and on a General Assembly level and discuss future challenges and improvements to come.

Speakers
- Sean Vrielink, University of Twente, the Netherlands
- Karsten Haustein, Leipzig University, Germany
- Louis Rivoire, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

Societal challenges in the 21st century are interconnected and complex. The amount of information needed to make an informed decision that adequately considers policy options is increasing and a broad range of scientific evidence is required to deal with them. However, despite the demand for more information, it can be difficult for scientists to know where their expertise is needed and how to create policy impact.

This session will provide an introduction into some key ‘science for policy’ themes and provide specific details about when and how scientists can engage with policy to increase the impact of their efforts. It will also provide resources and tips for scientists so that they can start their science for policy journeys. The last part of the Short Course will include a Q&A with those working on the science-policy interface. This session will be relevant to all career levels and scientific disciplines.

In this short course, we will introduce students and early-career researchers to the principles of Open Science, data, and software, as well as the benefits open practices can have for their own research careers, for science, and for society. Participants will have the opportunity to explore the practical impact of Open Science for their work. Participants will develop their digital presence, including using an ORCID to build a permanent profile of their work, and will make a plan to share their data, software, and publications as openly as possible. We will go over the open science outcomes and tools that advance research and collaboration and practice hands-on skills to advance participants’ careers through open science practices.
Participants in this short course will be able to define open science, discuss the benefits and challenges of open science, and identify practices that enable open science. Participants will develop their digital presence, including using an ORCID to build a permanent profile of their work, and will learn strategies for sharing research outputs, data, and software as openly as possible. This course is designed for students or other researchers new to open science; no previous experience with publishing research is required.

Dynamic phenomena in geoscientific systems are often characterized by observational or modelled time series or spatio-temporal data, exhibiting nonlinear multiscale behavior in both time and space. Over the past decades, significant advancements have been made in dynamical system theory, information theory, and stochastic approaches. These developments have provided valuable insights into a wide range of phenomena, such as weather and climate dynamics, turbulence in fluids and plasmas, and chaos in dynamical systems.
In this short course, we will present an overview of contemporary topics that employ complex systems-based approaches in the geosciences. We will explore successful applications across the geosciences, including climate change. Our primary focus will be on understanding tipping points and early warning indicators associated with them, identifying causal relationships among sets of observables, and integrating these approaches within a multi-scale dynamical framework. By employing these data analysis tools, various aspects of both recurrent and emergent physical processes can be investigated.

R is a free, open-source programming language popularly used for data science, statistical analysis, and visualization. Spatial data analysis has been strongly supported by the R community, that provides tools for data reading, writing and downloading, and for spatial processing, visualizing and modelling. The R-Spatial package ecosystem relies on common libraries for geospatial analysis such as GDAL, GEOS, and PROJ. In this workshop, we will introduce participants to spatial data analysis in R. For this, there will be demonstrations of key R packages like {sf}, {stars}, {terra} for vector and raster data processing. We will also focus on spatial data visualization using the {tmap} package. We will focus on datasets strongly used by the Geoscience community, including satellite imagery.

This session encompasses two significant ares of sedimentology and stratigraphy:

Part 1: Integrated Stratigraphy - Recent advances in stratigraphic systems and age modelling
This session encompasses two important ares of sedimentology and stratigraphy, in Part 1….etc
Earth history is marked by significant disruptions in global climate, changes in geochemical cycling, and faunal turnover events. The investigation of these events across Earth history is based on accurate and integrated stratigraphy, utilizing a broad range of geological and geophysical techniques, unique stratigraphic morphologies, and established and novel paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental proxies. This session will bring together specialists in all branches of stratigraphy, paleoclimatology, and paleontology, spanning from the Archean to the Holocene. The aim is to introduce new techniques and methods that help improve the stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental toolbox.

This session is organized by the International Subcommission on Stratigraphic Classification (ISSC) of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) and is open to the Earth science community at large

Part 2: Carbonates - archives of time, space and change
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.

The history of Planet Earth has been marked by profound variation to its marine and terrestrial environments, both through gradual evolution lasting many millions of years and during abrupt intervals of local or global change. These developments have been driven through a multitude of factors, such as changes in continental configuration, oceanic circulation, surface climate (both at a local and global scale), and biospheric evolution, highlighting the dynamic relationships between different phenomena across the Earth system. Sedimentary rocks from the marine (e.g., carbonates, organic-rich shales) and terrestrial (e.g., fluvio-lacustrine deposits, coals) provide an invaluable archive of times of long-term stability, gradual change and abrupt perturbations in different settings. In recent decades, a wide variety of sedimentological, palaeontological, and (in)organic geochemical approaches have been developed to fully utilise the power of these archives, especially in combination with climatic, oceanographic, and biogeochemical models that can further realise how Earth’s environment operated and evolved in the geological past. Moreover, the deposition and/or subsequent destruction of certain lithologies sometimes significantly altered numerous biogeochemical cycles at the Earth’s surface (e.g., carbon and sulphur), with a multitude of climatic and environmental consequences.

This session showcases an exciting diversity of state-of-the-art advances in all aspects of palaeoenvironmental, palaeoceanographic, and palaeoclimatological work. We include investigations of both marine and terrestrial environments from the Pre-Cambrian to today, spanning sedimentology, inorganic and organic geochemistry, palaeontology, modelling studies, and multidisciplinary approaches that provide insight into the evolution of Planet Earth throughout its history, and their implications for current and future climatic changes.

The East African Rift System (EARS) provides a complex and unique landscape where interactions between geo-tectonic and hydro-climatic processes have greatly influenced human-landscape co-evolution, ranging from early hominin mobility to present-day human livelihood strategies. These important relationships are interpreted from the investigations of various, albeit complex, paleoenvironmental archives such as lacustrine and marine sediments and outcrop geology.
The sensitive archives of the EARS enable us to study important climatic cycles and relationships between main atmospheric parameters [T, moisture, CO2, etc.] in the past and during modern periods, thus allowing global projections for future developments. Today, the valuable natural tectono-hydro-climatic signals recorded by the archives are increasingly masked by modern human activities such as industry and urbanization. Consequently, it becomes increasingly difficult to confidently distinguish between sources and processes, as well as between “triggers” and “responses” in natural archives.
In order to better integrate and link the continuous information stored by the archives of the EARS in space and time, in this interdisciplinary session we welcome contributions such as, but not restricted to: 1) challenges and novel strategies to retrieve environmental information from continuous archives [e.g., dating, mineralogy, analytical tools], 2) local and regional paleoclimate, paleo-environment, and ecosystem reconstructions, 3) past and present influence of tectonic surface faulting and volcanic activity on hydrology, climate, and soil nutrient distribution, 4) anthropogenic stress factors on saline-alkaline and fresh-water EARS lake ecosystems and catchments during modern periods (i.e., past 50-100 years). We encourage contributions which showcase refined and novel analytical- and modelling approaches or/and a combination between these in order to link causalities, or show a lack of co-dependence between the various environmental indicators recorded by the EARS archives. Model-data comparisons are also welcomed to stimulate discussion and develop new strategies to decode and disentangle complex and mixed environmental and anthropogenic signals.

In the last decades, the use of environmental magnetism in geophysical and geological sciences has increased. Environmental magnetism provides indispensable information about sedimentary and tectonic processes, environmental redox conditions during sedimentation, diagenesis, and biological activity among others. The purpose of this session is to integrate diverse applications of environmental magnetism in the domain of geosciences

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 in nonlinear ways into geoarchives and climate changes continue to be debated.
In this regard, paleoclimate signals from Iberian margin sediment cores are exceptional, because these can be correlated precisely to polar ice cores from both hemispheres and with European terrestrial records, providing a rare opportunity to study ocean-ice-land interactions. Moreover, the Iberian continental slope provides a bathymetric gradient that intersects each of the major subsurface water masses of the North Atlantic, which is ideal for reconstructing past changes in Atlantic thermohaline circulation and ventilation. Given the seminal importance of the Iberian margin for marine-ice-terrestrial correlations, it has been a prime target for the recovery of sediment cores.
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 especially older climate transitions). Further, we deliberatiely focus on contributions that bring together recent research using the Iberian margin sediment archive to reconstruct climate variability on millennial-to-orbital timescales and integrate marine, atmospheric (ice core), and terrestrial signals to understand causal mechanisms of global climate change. 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.
David De Vleeschouwer will give an invited presentation on 'Pre-Cenozoic cyclostratigraphy and paleoclimate responses to astronomical forcing'.

Paleoclimate archives provide unique insights into the links between atmosphere, ocean, and cryosphere during abrupt climatic changes. Understanding these interactions helps to better forecast the effects of potential future changes. Whilst past climate reconstructions serve as important benchmarks to test climate models, uncertainties due to varying proxy sensitivities and imprecise chronologies may undermine the determination of environmental drivers, feedbacks, and threshold mechanisms involved in abrupt climate events. The INTIMATE network aims to reduce uncertainties in paleoclimate proxy records and their chronological frameworks to improve inter-site comparisons of ice, marine, and terrestrial records and expose processes that link these systems.

This session invites contributions that focus on the identification, quantification, and modelling of abrupt climatic changes, associated ice-ocean-atmosphere processes, and/or the impact of these changes on ecosystem, landscape, and societies during the INTIMATE timeframe (~125 kyrs to present). This session has a particular interest in novel proxy-based reconstructions, state-of-the-art chronological techniques and statistical approaches, and innovative model-generated climate records that allow new insights into rapid (natural) climate variability and spatiotemporal differences.

INTIMATE is an open paleoclimate research community that facilitates the reconstruction of Quaternary climate changes by INTegrating Ice core, MArine and TErrestrial paleoclimate records. This session intends to bring these scientists together and serve as a hub for them. There will be a social/networking event associated to this session.

Sedimentary systems are excellent archives of past environmental change across the globe and have contributed significantly to our understanding of the Earth’s planetary system. The increasing number of available short and long (ICDP) sediment cores, along with seismic and bathymetric data, continues to be pivotal for assessing climate and environmental change, human activities as well as tectonic and volcanic activity, among others.
We invite contributions that use sedimentological, geochemical, biological, and chronological tools in lacustrine and marine systems and their sedimentary records. Contributions should aim to deduce quantitative and spatial rates of change, causes and consequences of long- and short-term climate variability, and/or assess the impact, magnitude, and frequency of tectonic and volcanic activities in these systems. We particularly encourage submissions about novel analytical approaches (destructive and non-destructive) and data analysis (statistics, machine learning, AI) that guide future research directions in marine and lacustrine sedimentology.

The ocean floor hosts a tremendous variety of forms that reflect the action of a range of tectonic, sedimentary, oceanographic, biological and (bio)geochemical 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 drivers of seafloor geomorphic changes. 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, combined with borehole petrophysics and geological cores, 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. We also aim at providing a window into the cross-disciplinary research of seismic geomorphology, exposing participants to differing perspectives, the latest workflows, examples of data integration, and, importantly, the potential pitfalls of equifinality in seismic interpretation and treating geophysical cross-sections as if they are outcrops. Emphasis will be given to contributions illustrating how the reflection seismic data have been investigated and how the results have been applied (e.g. paleogeography/paleoenvironmental reconstruction, seafloor engineering, or carbon/nuclear storage).

In recent decades, substantial progress has been made in comprehending how landscapes react to climate, tectonics and connectivity. Much research has focused on timescales of landscape reaction, response and equilibrium within source-to-sink sedimentary systems. But equally important is understanding the effect of signal magnitude. How sensitive is the landscape to changes in forcing mechanisms? Sensitivity accounts not only for equilibrium timescales but also the magnitude and direction of change in both the driving forces and the landscape's response. This motivates further examination of fluxes that are integral to understanding the role of connectivity in landscape evolution
We encourage submissions on sedimentary landscape responses to climate, tectonics, and connectivity changes. This includes erosion processes, river systems, coastal and deep-marine environments, and weathering studies, linking with the concept of landscape sensitivity. New methodologies for understanding landscape response are also welcomed. Through this collective effort, we aim to advance our understanding of landscape dynamics in response to environmental shifts.

Currently arid to sub-humid regions are home to >40% of the world’s population, and many prehistoric and historic cultures developed in these regions. Due to the high sensitivity of drylands to also small-scale environmental changes and anthropogenic activities, ongoing geomorphological processes under the intensified climatic and human pressure of the Anthropocene, but also the Late Quaternary geomorphological and paleoenvironmental evolution as recorded in sediment archives, are becoming increasingly relevant for geological, geomorphological, paleoenvironmental, paleoclimatic and geoarchaeological research. Dryland research is constantly 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 changes.
This session aims to pool contributions dealing with past to recent geomorphological processes and environmental changes spanning the entire Quaternary until today, as well as with all types of sedimentary and morphological archives in dryland areas (dunes, loess, slope deposits, fluvial sediments, alluvial fans, lake and playa sediments, desert pavements, soils, palaeosols etc.) studied on different spatial and temporal scales. Besides case studies on archives and landscapes from individual regions and review studies, cross-disciplinary, 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 and their preservation in deposits and landforms, the role of such processes for past and present societies, methods to obtain chronological frameworks and process rates, and emerging geo-technologies.

The interactions between aerosols, climate, weather, and society 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. Together with other light-absorbing particles, dust
impacts snow and ice albedo and can accelerate glacier melt. 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 AS, CL, CR, 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) interactions with the cryosphere, including also aerosols other than dust,
(8) any study using dust as a (paleo-)climate indicator, including sediment archives in loess, ice cores, lake sediments, ocean sediments and dunes,
(9) impacts of dust on climate and climate change, and associated feedbacks and uncertainties,
(10) implications of dust for health, transport, energy systems, agriculture, infrastructure, etc.

We especially encourage the submission of papers that integrate different disciplines and/or address the modelling of past, present, and future climates.

Solicited speaker: Keri Nicoll, University of Reading, "Recent developments in dust electrification research"

Coastal and marine sedimentary systems are crucial components of the global carbon cycle and potentially play an important role in global climate regulation over varying timescales. Coastal vegetated habitats (classical Blue Carbon) such as seagrass, saltmarsh and mangroves, alongside marine sedimentary environments are estimated to trap and store globally significant quantities of carbon and potentially provide an important climate regulation service. Though these environments are clearly valuable both for carbon storage and climate change mitigation, these ecosystems are under growing natural and anthropogenic pressure with seagrass and saltmarsh extent decreasing annually and marine sediments being regularly disturbed (e.g., trawling, dredging).

These anthropogenic activities can modify sedimentary alkalinity generation and the burial efficiency of carbon, either through direct disturbance of the seafloor or indirectly by changing carbon supply, physical fields and/or ecosystem functions. These activities, their connection to the global carbon cycle, and implications for marine spatial management strategies are clearly significant. However, the magnitude of C release from such disturbance and what effect this has on the climate remains poorly quantified, hindering the development of policy and management.

To tackle the science questions and fill the policy needs in the field of Blue Carbon, we seek to bring together expertise from across the geosciences (e.g., ecology, biogeochemistry, sedimentology, minerology, spatial modelling). In this multidisciplinary session, we invite presentations from across these disciplines, scales (local, national, and/or global) and across study types (observational, experimental, modelling, and/or theoretical) to discuss recent advances in coastal and marine sedimentary carbon research.

Transport of sediments in geophysical flows occurs in mountainous, fluvial, estuarine, coastal, aeolian and other natural or man-made environments on Earth, while also shapes the surface of planets such as Mars, Titan, and Venus. Understanding the motion of sediments is still one of the most fundamental problems in hydrological and geophysical sciences. Such processes can vary across a wide range of scales - from the particle to the landscape - which can directly impact both the form (geomorphology) and, on Earth, the function (ecology and biology) of natural systems and the built infrastructure surrounding them. In particular, feedback between fluid and sediment transport as well as interparticle interactions including size sorting are a key processes in surface dynamics, finding a range of important applications, from hydraulic engineering and natural hazard mitigation to landscape evolution and river ecology.

Specific topics of interest include (but are not restricted to):

A) particle-scale interactions and transport processes:
- mechanics of entrainment and disentrainment (for fluvial and aeolian flows)
- dry granular flows
- momentum (turbulent impulses) and energy transfer between turbulent flows and particles
- upscaling and averaging techniques for stochastic transport processes
- interaction among grain sizes in poorly sorted mixtures, including particle segregation

B) reach-scale sediment transport and geomorphic processes
- links between flow, particle transport, bedforms and stratigraphy
- discrete element modelling of transport processes and upscaling into continuum frameworks
- derivation and solution of equations for multiphase flows (including fluvial and aeolian flows)
- shallow water hydro-sediment-morphodynamic processes
- scouring around structures

C) large-scale, highly unsteady and complex water-sediment flows:
- flash floods, debris flows and landslides due to extreme rainfall
- natural and build dam failures and compound disasters (due to landslides, debris flow intrusion and downstream flooding)
- reservoir operation schemes and corresponding fluvial processes
- design of hydraulic structures such as fish passages, dam spillways, also considering the impact of sediment
- dredging, maintenance and regulation for large rivers and navigational waterways

This session is promoted by the IAHR committee on Experimental Methods and Instrumentation.

Micropaleontological data provides unique insights into the dynamics and tipping points of past environments and climate through changes in the fossil record, such as assemblage composition, morphology, and evolutionary patterns. Micropaleontology lies at the heart of biostratigraphy and provides a fundamental tool to reconstruct and stratigraphically constrain past changes in the Earth system. Our session aims to gather a broad spectrum of micropaleontologists to showcase recent advances in applying micropaleontological data in paleoenvironmental, paleoclimatological, and stratigraphic research in both marine and terrestrial settings.

We invite contributions from the field of micropaleontology that focus on the development and application of microfossils (coccolithophores, diatoms, dinoflagellates, foraminifera, radiolarians, pollens) as proxies for paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatological reconstruction and tools of stratigraphic correlation. We particularly encourage the submission of multi-proxy approaches, merging micropaleontological information with geochemical and paleobiological information. The application of microfossils as stratigraphic markers and advancing multivariate statistical techniques with a focus on microfossil assemblages is encouraged.

The fossil record provides a robust archive of changes in biotic communities, environmental conditions and climatic patterns over time. This session aims to bring together the broad spectrum of researchers that utilise palaeontological data, both marine and terrestrial, with the goal of showcasing the latest research demonstrating how fossils can be used to reconstruct Earth history, and identifying best practices in the application of fossil data to broader questions in the bio- and geosciences.

We welcome submissions across a wide range of topics, including, but not limited to: palaeobiology; palaeoecology; macroevolution; biostratigraphy; past environmental and climatic change reconstructed from fossil data; mass extinction events; and methodological advances in palaeontological research. We especially encourage multi-disciplinary studies, particularly those studies where fossil faunal and/or floral data are combined with, and interpreted in light of, geochemical and other geological proxies.

Marine and terrestrial ecosystems and species are drastically affected by today's changing climate and other anthropogenic stressors. Understanding how climate change drives changes in seasonality and weather variability on the human timescale (hours to decades) requires detailed records of variability at this resolution throughout (geological) history. However, monitoring the ecological consequences of climate and environmental impacts on biodiversity is difficult. By covering only recent decades, scientific surveys, climate records and monitoring are limited in time and space and, therefore, insufficient to fully assess the long-term human impacts and ecosystem status.

This session will explore how interdisciplinary approaches to the geological record can enhance the interpretation of past ecosystems and short-term climate dynamics, and thus provide context and guidance for the future of modern ecosystems. We will showcase geohistorical records through case studies at various spatial and temporal scales, including high-resolution records of environmental and climate variability that bridge the gap between the (palaeo)weather and climate using a wide range of tools and analytical approaches from palaeontology, geochemistry, geology and historical ecology.

We hope to foster discussion of the (dis)advantages of certain techniques, archives and statistical methods and provide a breeding ground for collaborations between researchers working in different sub-domains whose research goals are aligned.

The planet is warming due to human-made greenhouse gas emissions, which have increased drastically since the industrial revolution. To grasp potential pathways for future climate, we need to understand what the impacts of elevated greenhouse gas emissions are on the global heat budget and how the climate system functions in conditions warmer than today. Geological archives and model simulations of past climate states are the key to better understanding climate dynamics in different, warmer-than-today climate conditions. Past warm climates also help to benchmark climate model simulations used to predict future climate and have contributed increasingly to successive IPCC reports.

In this session, we welcome contributions ranging from proxy data to model results aimed at reconstructing and understanding Earth’s climate state and its dynamics over the past 100 million years. We welcome submissions across a wide range of time scales, including those investigating long-term change, Milankovitch cyclicity and/or short-lived events, from the Cretaceous to the Present. Submissions working on chronological or stratigraphic fundamentals underpinning this interval are also encouraged. We invite contributions seeking to better assess Earth system sensitivity in past climate states by reconstructing atmospheric CO2 concentrations and global or regional temperatures. As analogues of biodiversity in a warmer world can only be found in the past, we encourage submissions on marine and terrestrial ecosystem dynamics and disruptions in warmer worlds.

The session intends to bring together the diverse community studying the nature of the warm climate states found in the Cretaceous and Cenozoic. This session also aims to bring together the paleoclimate data and modelling communities to evaluate lessons learned from the Deep-time Model Intercomparison Project (https://www.deepmip.org/) and explore future directions moving forward. We consciously welcome a broad range of approaches to facilitate synergies to learn from past warm climate conditions to navigate into the future warmer world.

Joint topics
Topic 1. Stable and radiogenic isotopic records have been successfully used for
investigating various settings, such as palaeosols, lacustrine, loess, caves, peatlands, bogs, arid, evaporative and marine environments. We are
looking for contributions using isotopes along with mineralogical, sedimentological, biological, paleontological and chemical records in
order to unravel the past and present climate and environmental changes.
The session invites contributions presenting an applied as well as a
theoretical approach. We welcome papers related to both reconstructions
(at various timescales) as well as on fractionation factors, measurement, methods, proxy calibration, and verification.

Topic 2
Sedimentary records preserve information on their environments at the time of deposition. Such information can be accessed using a growing number of isotopic proxies. Modern sediments are crucial to calibrate such proxies and allow the sedimentary rock record to be deciphered, providing important clues to better understand the future response of the Earth system under climate change.

The sediments deposited along the transitional zone (fluvial system, continental shelf, and continental slope) to the final sink in the deep-marine basin accumulate chemical information on changes in the atmosphere, on land, and in the oceans. Specifically, changes in climate and environmental conditions, such as weathering, oxygenation, bio-productivity, and ocean circulation, can lead to variable element accumulation, isotope mixing, and isotopic fractionation.

We welcome contributions that reconstruct changes in climate and environmental conditions using sediments and sedimentary rocks from the recent to the ancient past (e.g., Last Glacial Maximum, Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum, Great Oxidation Event), using traditional, non-traditional, stable, and radiogenic isotope systems (e.g., Li, Mg, Cr, Fe, Sr, Mo, Nd, Pb, U). To account for the diversity of sedimentary archives, contributions on all types of archives are welcome, from carbonates to siliciclastic muds, and from biogenic to abiotic. We also encourage submissions relating to field or laboratory calibrations of these isotopic proxies.

This session aims to bring together a diverse group of scientists who are interested in how life and planetary processes have co-evolved over geological time. This includes studies of how paleoenvironments have contributed to biological evolution and vice-versa, linking fossil records to paleo-Earth processes and the influence of tectonic and magmatic processes on the evolution of life. As an inherently multi-disciplinary subject, we aspire to better understand the complex coupling of biogeochemical cycles and life, the links between mass extinctions and their causal geological events and how fossil records shed light on ecosystem drivers over deep time. We aim to understand our planet and its biosphere through both observation- and modelling-based studies.