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.

Over the past 500 million years of Earth's history, mass extinction episodes and other extreme environmental changes occurred during times of major volcanic eruptions, sometimes also accompanied by bolide impact events. Causal relationship has been demonstrated using different proxies and approaches, but our understanding of the wider context and nature of environmental changes before, during, and after these events is still incomplete. This session invites contributions presenting the latest advances about the end-Ordovician, Late and end-Devonian, end-Permian, end-Triassic, end-Cretaceous, and other periods of biotic crisis and/or global climate, such as e.g. Oceanic Anoxic Events or the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. The goal of the session is to bring together researchers from geological, geochemical, geophysical, and biological disciplines to improve our knowledge of the cause-effect scenario of the five major mass extinction events and other lesser-known events of environmental and climatic crisis.

Maria Bianca Cita can be remembered as a champion of interdisciplinarity. Starting her career as a female geologist in the 1950s, she contributed as a stratigrapher to the definition of the Planktonic foraminifera zonation established in Trinidad in 1957 for the Italian and Mediterranean region, opening the way to the global application of such zonation from the Lower Cretaceous to the Recent. Stratigraphy is essential in drilling, and she was soon invited to join DSDP Leg 2 (1968) as the first non-US Shipboard scientist and one of the two first women scientists on the Glomar Challenger, thus contributing to the definition of sea-floor spreading in the central Atlantic. Scientific ocean drilling triggered her interest in the new (at that time) discipline of Marine Geology, and her research in Italy mostly focused on the stratigraphy and sedimentology of the Mediterranean Sea. With Bill Ryan and Ken Hsü, she formulated on DSDP Leg 13 (1970) the hypothesis of Mediterranean desiccation during the Messinian salinity crisis by studying the foraminiferal microfaunas in the sediments deposited immediately after the end of the salinity crisis, documenting a sudden transition to a deep marine environment. That hypothesis prompted hundreds of publications across generations until today. She also made a series of scientific discoveries in the Mediterranean. These included deep-seated hypersaline brine lakes (a consequence of the presence of Messinian salts in the subsurface); mud volcanoes, from a sporadic finding in the Eastern Mediterranean later extended to a Mediterranean belt hosting hundreds of mud volcanoes; and the 'Homogenite' megaturbidite, originally attributed to the Minoan eruption of the Santorini volcano (the chronology was later revised, but the depositional model remained the same).
This session wishes to honor Maria Bianca Cita and her scientific legacy as an incubator of lines of research across disciplines in sedimentary geology and as an extraordinary teacher for generations of students to whom she gave exceptional opportunities.

With the decommissioning of the JOIDES Resolution in August 2024, much of the Cretaceous to Cenozoic history of our oceans still remain unexplored. Despite the decommissioning of the JOIDES Resolution, core materials collected since the late '60s remain in archives and await researchers to unlock their secrets. From the Deep-Sea Drilling Project (DSDP), Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), and the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), thousands of cores from the ocean floor worldwide remain to be examined by micropalaeontologists. These ocean drilling materials are invaluable for producing scientific insight into the evolution of life on Earth over the past 140 million years. The nature of notable global events such as global anoxic events, extinctions, radiations, turnovers, hyperthermals, climatic optima, and global cooling recorded in these sediments can be revealed by micropaleontological study. In this session, we invite micropalaeontologists and others working with drill core archives all around the world to contribute and display their findings in order to untangle the complex marine history through the lens of the microscope. We also welcome research based on marine sediment cores from other expeditions, such as Holocene-age materials from piston cores and other shallow drilling. We encourage participants to present their findings to help reveal the secrets of our world's oceans, in order to better understand past conditions, acknowledge the present, and embrace the uncertain future

Intramountain Basins are essential components of the mountain ranges. As such, they serve as crucial recorders of deformation, deposition, erosion, volcanic events, topographic changes, regional and global climate changes, and biotic evolution and organism dispersal. Therefore, their sedimentary successions and fossil record offer valuable insight into connections, interactions, and feedback mechanisms between tectonics, climate, and biota.
We encourage contributions using multi-disciplinary approaches focusing on intramountain basins and their sedimentary successions for retrieving information about (1) depositional dynamics, (2) climatic, tectonic and/or biotic evolution and interaction and (2) orogen dynamics. Contributions are welcome from field observations, subsurface studies, and physical and numerical modelling studies across all temporal and spatial scales. We look forward to receiving contributions focusing on intramountain basins in various tectonic settings such as the Andes, North American Cordillera, Dinarides, Apennines, Caucasus, Tibet, Anatolia, etc.

As Charles Lyell famously wrote: “the past is key to the present”. Over the past two million years, the Earth has experienced a diverse range of environmental catastrophes. Defined as significant disruptions in the natural environment caused by phenomena such as abrupt climate change, volcanic eruptions, floods, droughts, and storms (including tropical cyclones), their effects can have profound impacts on the function of terrestrial environments and the resilience of the organisms within them. This includes Homo sapiens, for whom environmental crises have been a frequent feature of their evolutionary history. Today, humanity is becoming increasingly vulnerable to an increasing range of environmental extremes. This calls for a renewed focus on developing long-term, paired records of past environmental extremes and their resulting crises worldwide.

This session will explore how different environmental catastrophes have affected the Earth's system over the past two million years. We invite abstracts with interests ranging from analyses of paleo-environmental archives, development of new geochemical proxies, and refinements in robust quantitative and sophisticated statistical techniques – all of which can be applied to the long-term synthesis of diverse research fields and an understanding of the complex relationships between natural and anthropogenically driven impacts on the climate system.

Specific foci may include:

1. Crises throughout human history: Investigating past environmental extremes and their impacts on humans and their societies.
2. Earth system crises: Examining the environmental consequences of environmental crises driven by natural processes (e.g., volcanism, earthquakes, hydrological extremes, and abrupt climate shifts)
3. Quantitative exploration of qualitative phenomena: Utilizing large datasets to understand the occurrence and drivers of environmental crises.

Scientific drilling in the ocean and on continents 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 of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), the International Ocean Drilling Programme (IODP3) and the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) bring 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.

This inter- and transdisciplinary session examines the relationship between the scientific concept of the Anthropocene epoch, based on analysis of stratigraphic archives, with our societies and the issues they face. The Anthropocene epoch, as a unifying concept, helps us (1) understand the transformed bioclimatic conditions in which we live, (2) appreciate how fragile they are, how rapidly they are shifting, and their implications for humanity, and (3) explain the importance of containing climatic, biological, and attendant societal runaway effects, through deeper understanding of the Earth System. The Anthropocene epoch, as represented by the AWG’s proposal, is characterised by a sharply expressed and lasting change in the habitability of the Earth that is now human-driven but in which planetary feedbacks and tipping points will likely become increasingly important. In detail, it is a complex concept. However, in broad terms it is straightforward to communicate to a wide audience, given that many of the component phenomena (e.g. the rises in greenhouse gases) are clearly, even dramatically, expressed. This Anthropocene concept, in its many guises, provides links between the global climate, the biosphere and societies and their respective dominant processes that include runaway effects and tipping points, collapse and acceleration.
Stratigraphic evidence-based and systemic in scope, the Anthropocene epoch also carries an ethical responsibility for conveying the concerns of scientific communities about the worsening of bioclimatic living conditions. Here the questions studied during the presentations become innumerable: (1) How can we pass on the knowledge of the Anthropocene (stratigraphic, systemic and from the human and social sciences) to young people without undermining their ability to envisage their future? (2) What use can we make of the Anthropocene to challenge public policy? (3) How can we make the systemic power of the Anthropocene concept not eradicate all hope for the sustainability of human life in society? How can we combine the power of the diagnosis of this new geological epoch with an intellectually honest hope that will mobilise people to transform societies? Studies from any continent will be considered.

The Quaternary Period (last 2.6 million years) is characterized by frequent and abrupt climate swings and rapid environmental change. Studying these changes requires accurate and precise dating methods that can be effectively applied to environmental archives. 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. In contrast, radiometric methods (radiocarbon, cosmogenic in-situ, U-Th) and luminescence dating provide independent anchors for chronologies that span 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 and anthropogenic effects on Earth's system.

The study of rock magnetism in both natural and synthetic materials provides valuable insights into the magnetic properties of iron-bearing minerals and their responses to various physical, chemical, and environmental processes.
This session aims to serve as an open forum for the exploration of magnetism in natural materials in its most comprehensive sense. We seek studies that investigate the magnetic properties of minerals found in diverse terrestrial and extraterrestrial rocks. The goal is to apply this knowledge to tackle key challenges in Earth and planetary sciences and broaden the scope of their applications in geosciences.

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.

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.

Stable and radiogenic isotopic records have been successfully used for investigating various terrestrial and marine sequences, fossils, evaporative rocks, palaeosols, lacustrine, loess, caves, peatlands. In this session we are looking for contributions using isotopes along with sedimentological, biological, paleontological, mineralogical, chemical records in order to unravel past and present climate and environmental changes or as tracers for determining the source of phases involved. Novel directions using triple isotopes, clumped isotopes, biomarkers are welcomed.
The session invites contributions presenting an applied as well as a theoretical approach. We welcome papers related to reconstructions (at various time and space scales), fractionation factors, measurement methods, proxy calibration, and verification.

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 well as collaborative and interdisciplinary research.

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 features, 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

Past hyperthermals (extreme climate warming events) offer crucial insights into the response of the Earth’s System to rapid and large-scale greenhouse gas emissions. In the geologic record, hyperthermals are studied using a number of sedimentological, palaeontological, mineralogical and geochemical proxies, which are used to constrain bio-geochemical models. In this multidisciplinary approach, the role of stratigraphy is always central. Constraining the ages of the studied rocks, understanding the timescales and associated uncertainties of changes observed at different locations, and correlating between marine and terrestrial strata are key and universal challenges. Addressing such challenges are, however, necessary pre-requisites for establishing the timing, pace and duration of hyperthermals, and understanding their likely causes.
In this session we invite talks on the stratigraphy of hyperthermals. We solicit oral presentations and posters on the lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, chronostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy, chemostratigraphy and cyclostratigraphy of hyperthermal events. We particularly invite contributions that address open problems on global-scale correlation of palaeonvironmental and palaeobiological proxies from successions spanning major events such as the Permian–Triassic and the end-Triassic mass extinctions, the Toarcian and Cretaceous oceanic anoxic events, and the Palaeogene hyperthermals. Talks on the state-of-the-art and unconventional stratigraphic approaches are welcome, as are contributions on the technical aspects of various stratigraphic tools. We encourage early career scientists to present their work and offer their own fresh look to this long-standing, but still fundamental, aspect of the Earth Sciences.

This session asks for well-dated geoarchives that document the physical stratal evidence of the transition from Late Holocene to Anthropocene conditions: such as artificial deposits, lake, estuary or marine sediments, peat, speleothems, ice core or biological hosts such as trees or corals. The evidence for transition to the Anthropocene may include various marker signals such as changes in the types and abundance of physical materials or biota or distinct geochemical signals; ideally providing multiple proxies and/or using innovative techniques. We are interested in continuous to near-continuous records that nevertheless can extend hundreds or even thousands of years back in time, while including comparable analysis through the mid-20th century to near the present day. Presentations should focus on how, if at all, the Anthropocene can be distinguished in these archives. Studies from any continent will be considered, though presentations on archives from the Global South are especially encouraged. This session is also part of UNESCO IGCP 732 LANGUAGE of the Anthropocene.

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 and carbon cycle 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 communities. This session invites work on deep-time climate, Earth System model simulations and proxy-based reconstructions from the Cambrian to the Pliocene. We especially encourage submissions featuring palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, palaeoclimate and carbon cycle modelling, and the integration of CO2 and (hydro)climate proxies and models of any complexity.

Speleothems are key terrestrial archives of regional to global paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental changes on sub-seasonal to orbital scales. They provide high temporally resolved records which can be accurately and precisely dated using a variety of proxies such as stable O and C isotopes and trace elements. Recent efforts have seen the rise in more non-traditional proxies such as fluid inclusion water isotopes, organic biomarkers, pollen, dead carbon fraction etc.. This advancement towards quantitative reconstructions of past precipitation, temperature, or other environmental variables and climate patterns, are key variables for data-model comparisons and evaluation. Beyond this, caves and karst areas additionally host an enormous suite of other valuable archives such as cave ice, cryogenic carbonates, clastic sediments, tufa, or travertine sequences which complement the terrestrial palaeorecord, and are often associated with important fossils or archaeological findings.
This session aims to integrate recent developments in the field, and invites submissions from a broad range of cave- and karst-related studies from orbital to sub-seasonal timescales.
In particular we welcome contributions from:
(1) (quantitative) reconstructions of past climatic and environmental variables to reconstruct precipitation, vegetation, fire frequency, temperature etc. across different climate zones,
(2) field- and lab-based developments of process-based methods to improve our application of proxy variables,
(3) process and proxy-system model studies as well as integrated research developing and using databases such as SISAL (Speleothem Isotope Synthesis and AnaLysis).
We further welcome advancements in related and/or interdisciplinary areas, which pave the way towards robust (quantitative) interpretations of proxy time series, improve the understanding of proxy-relevant processes, or enable regional-to-global and seasonal-to-orbital scale analyses of the relationships between proxies and environmental parameters. 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.

Examining historic and prehistoric variations in the geomagnetic field provides insights into processes occurring from the core-mantle boundary to the planet's core. Investigating the paleomagnetic field also enhances our ability to predict future changes, which in turn affects the climate and has implications for life on Earth and human technology. Over the past two hundred years, the Earth's magnetic field has exhibited a global decrease of about 10%. Moreover, regions with weakened magnetic fields, or magnetic anomalies, such as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), have evolved, with a new minimum emerging near the South African coast. Indirect records from archaeological materials, volcanic rocks, sediments, and speleothems are essential for studying the ancient geomagnetic field, covering different time scales, from secular variation to magnetic reversals. In this session, we welcome abstracts that contribute to the advancement of our understanding of geomagnetic field variations in terms of time scale (short and long) and spatial scale (e.g., magnetic anomalies). Applications extend to the fields of geomagnetism, stratigraphy, volcanology, chronology, climate, geobiology, and geospace.

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.

Microbial carbonate precipitation in the ocean has played a fundamental role in shaping Earth surface environments through geologic time, from documenting the earliest occurrence of life on Earth to being a crucial carbon sink in present-day methane cycling. Marine microbial carbonates encompass a wide variety of precipitates, from shallow-water microbialites, to deep-water mud mounds and hydrocarbon-seep deposits. They are an integral part of the sedimentary rock record, recording changes in environmental conditions and (bio)geochemical processes during key intervals of Earth history. Trace elements are widely used tools to recover information from the microbial carbonate archive, reconstructing the evolution of paleoenvironments and the (micro)biological ecosystems that shaped them. The use of trace element patterns in concert with stable and radiogenic isotopic records and the molecular fossil inventory of carbonates is at the forefront in identifying microbial metabolic processes in ancient habitats, and to reconstruct the overall chemical evolution of Earth’s hydrosphere and atmosphere.
This session welcomes contributions that reconstruct marine environmental change and identify the composition of microbial habitats using microbially-derived carbonates as an archive from the recent to the ancient past, applying traditional, non-traditional, stable and radiogenic isotope systems (e.g. Li, Mg, Cr, Fe, Sr, Mo, Cd, Ni, Nd, Pb, U), redox-sensitive and bio-essential trace elements, as well as lipid biomarkers. We appreciate contributions that apply these tools, and combine them with mineralogical, sedimentological, and paleontological records in order to unravel past and present climate and environmental changes. We also encourage submissions relating to field, laboratory, and experimental work that establish and calibrate new proxies for microbial habitat and metabolic process reconstruction.

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 lake 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 limnogeology.

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. Interpretion of these archives requires fundamental understanding of fluid-rock interaction 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.

Clastic sediment is the product of surficial weathering and erosion, which break down existing source rocks into individual minerals and rock fragments. The textural, mineralogical, and chemical analysis of clastic sediment can therefore help in (a) the identification of source rocks in general and quantification of source rock contribution in particular and (b) the weathering and erosional regimes that prevailed during sediment generation. Accordingly, sedimentary archives around the world are used to reconstruct past Earth surface processes and conditions. However, the link between original source rock composition and resulting sediment composition is often obscured by transport and depositional processes (e.g. abrasion, mixing, dissolution). This session invites contributions that study source rock-sediment relationships using experimental and modeling approaches, as well as observations in natural systems across all spatial and temporal scales including deep time. Topics could include (but are not limited to), petrographic and textural studies on rocks and sediments, fingerprinting and multi-proxy provenance studies, and studies on (paleo-)weathering and (paleo-)sediment fluxes.

The study of diagenesis—the physical, chemical, and biological changes occurring in sediments after deposition—is pivotal in unraveling the history and evolution of sedimentary basins. Diagenetic processes profoundly influence porosity, permeability, fluid migration, reservoir quality, and the geomechanical properties of rocks. Understanding the relationships between diagenetic evolution, fluid flow dynamics, and sedimentary basin development has significant implications for strategic resource exploration and management, including hydrocarbons, groundwater, geothermal energy, and ore deposits. Additionally, insights into diagenetic processes inform the safe storage of anthropogenic gases (e.g., CO2, H2) and enhance our understanding of risk factors such as groundwater contamination and fault reactivation.
This session, therefore, aims to explore these relationships from initial sediment deposition to deep burial, with a strong emphasis on the multidisciplinary nature of diagenesis and its integration with various geological processes. We invite contributions that advance our knowledge through:
• Diagenetic processes across varying depths and time scales, focusing on their temporal and spatial variability and their impact on the evolution of sedimentary basins, as well as the prediction and modeling of reservoir quality.
• Investigations of the mechanical and chemical compaction of sedimentary rocks, including the role of cementation, clay mineral formation, mineral replacement and dissolution, in shaping reservoir quality and fluid pathways.
• Examinations of geobiochemical alterations in sedimentary rocks, tracing the evolution of organic and inorganic processes from initial deposition through to deep burial, and their effects on mineralogy, fluid composition, and mechanical properties.
• Quantification and modeling of fluid flow patterns within sedimentary basins, integrating field data, laboratory measurements, and numerical simulations to elucidate the controls on fluid distribution and pathways.
• Exploration of the impact of diagenesis on the long-term stability and integrity of subsurface storage sites for CO2, hydrogen, and other gases, as well as implications for groundwater systems.

The coastal ocean and especially in marginal seas are of great importance to human society as places of natural resources that need to be preserved for long term sustainability. They are dynamic environments that are subject to rapid change whether that is caused by natural climatic and related sea level processes or more recently as result of anthropogenic impact on the coastal zone. Understanding how sediment and carbon move through the coastal zone in river mouths, as well as along the coast and across the continental shelf is important if we are to manage these areas efficiently in the future. Can sediment be captured in the coastal zone and help to defend against future sea level rise? Carbon may be potentially sequestered or lost in these areas in coastal lagoons, deltas or in shelf clinoforms.
In addition to sediment transport, habitat mapping plays a crucial role in coastal management. Mapping benthic habitats, marine biodiversity, and geomorphological features is essential for developing strategies to mitigate environmental stressors, such as pollution or habitat degradation, and for understanding how these areas contribute to carbon storage. This information supports sustainable management practices and informs restoration efforts aimed at protecting biodiversity hotspots.
We encourage submissions from all working in shallow water environments and especially in marginal seas. Studies of modern systems as well as Quaternary examples can help us understand what controls the transport and recycling of sediments and carbon. These studies need to integrate both modern and recent observations as well as reconciling these with numerical models to improve our predictions of coastal evolution in the future. Combining vast datasets from remote sensing, habitat mapping, geophysical surveys, and in situ monitoring, with advanced analytics and numerical models, provides a holistic view of coastal evolution.

Sedimentary archives can be found across diverse environments worldwide, allowing investigation and disentanglement of past environmental processes over different setting. However, one key limitation in the investigation of such records is deciphering the complexity of how the different forcings acting in a natural system are manifested in the environment and consequently propagated into the studied archives. Interpretations derived from any sedimentary archive thus depend on a our understanding of the surrounding natural system itself and its web of feedbacks, the investigated sedimentary record, and the utilized proxies. Such interpretations often call for the integration of different disciplines, the development of new tools for sampling, novel laboratory methodologies and modelling.

For this session we welcome any contribution that integrates sedimentological, geochemical, biological, and geochronological methods, as well as modelling approaches, novel laboratory experiments and monitoring, for the interpretation of sedimentary systems, with a special focus on mechanism-oriented interpretation. Contributions that either focus on the development and calibration of novel proxies, analytical approaches (either destructive or non-destructive) and data analysis (statistics, machine learning, AI), or present interesting case studies, are welcome as well.

The glacial sedimentary record, and the geomorphological features associated with it, are rightfully often seen through the prism of the modern day processes at work on Earth. Yet the issue of representativeness is a major factor in the correct interpretation of the sedimentary record. Which factors conspire to a glacial record dominated by steep-sided fjordal palaeovalleys, and which factors promote extensive till(ite) sheet deposits? In this session, through both talks and posters, we will explore through new contributions and perspectives the red thread that unites all glacial records. We warmly welcome workers on modern and ancient glacial records alike for a fruitful exchange.

Aeolian processes act on planetary surfaces throughout the Solar System, yielding similar landforms and patterns 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, as well as analogue studies, 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 on planetary surfaces, employing a variety of techniques, including, but not limited to, short- and long-term field experiments, laboratory experiments, numerical simulations, and remote sensing of aeolian landform features.

Alluvial fan-river systems, which are ubiquitous at mountain fronts, are products of interactions among boulders, pebbles, grains, and the water carrying them. These cross-scale interactions among the granular materials and fluidic environment shape the macroscale self-organized and self-affined alluvial fan-river systems and control the dynamics and evolution of such systems. Theoretical reasoning, and measurements including high-resolution terrane mapping, geophysical probing, geochemical fingerprinting, state-of-art geochronology, and numerical and physical modeling, have been applied to unveil these interactions and quantify the relationship between fluxes, sizes and shapes, as well as the related constants and exponents of scaling laws. In this session, we invite contributions across these disciplines to foster our understanding of how the mechanics, physics, and chemistry at different scales regulate the alluvial fan-river system, which serves as an important habitat for species and reservoirs of nutrients and represents key sediment archives of nearby landscape evolution.

Underwater landscapes, from shallow coastal zones to deep oceans, are shaped by geologic, biologic, oceanographic and anthropogenic processes. The resulting morphologies are manifold and their description and quantification provide critical insights into associated underlying processes. Many such processes act at multiple spatial and temporal scales, and their understanding is key for a safe and sustainable use of coastal regions and the assessment of offshore geohazards. This interdisciplinary session aims to examine the causes and consequences of processes shaping underwater landscapes, including erosional and depositional dynamics, gravitational driven and current-induced sediment transport, submarine landslides, active deformation, volcanic activity, fluid migration and escape, faulting and folding, and other processes responsible of seafloor geomorphic changes. Contributions to this session can include work from marine or lacustrine environments and all physiographic regions such as coastal oceans and marginal seas, oceanic plateaus, abyssal hills, mid-ocean ridges, accretionary wedges, continental shelves and margins. We welcome integrative studies that combine satellite-derived and hydroacoustic seabed characterizations, visual observations, seismic images of the sub-seafloor as well as sedimentary, geochemical, and geological seabed samples. Such interdisciplinary studies provide an exciting opportunity to integrate the approaches of geomorphology and geophysics, and to extend quantitative geomorphology offshore.

Landscapes are continuously shaped by tectonics and climate across geological timescales and into the present day. Sedimentary archives therefore offer a unique window providing narratives for how geomorphic systems adapt to external forcings. However, bridging the gap between modern and ancient observations is not straightforward due to preservation, buffering and shredding of environmental signals, requiring integration of both short- and long-term records scattered in landscapes and stratigraphy across time. This session aims integrate insights across timescales and methods to understand the sensitivity of modern and ancient landscapes to climatic and tectonic perturbations.

The Earth’s surface today is undergoing rapid change amidst increasing climate extremes worldwide, and recent advances in geoscience are making connections between geomorphic systems across time. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that in order to unlock projections of landscape change in the future, we must integrate our analysis from source to sink, using insights from modern short-term landscape dynamics to understand stratigraphy, and using long-term geologic approaches to unlock projections of landscape change in the present and future.

Our session will value research which uses quantitative techniques drawing on sedimentology, geomorphology, stratigraphy, geochemistry and modeling. This session will welcome a range of methods in source-to-sink analysis from modern and ancient systems to investigate the function of erosive, transport and depositional processes in inheriting, translating and preserving environmental information. The ultimate goal of this session is to improve our understanding of the dynamics of past, present, and future geomorphic systems in response to changes in tectonic and climatic boundary conditions.

The integration of geological and archaeological methodologies proves valuable for the study of human activity and landscape evolution, especially as the application of advanced analytical methods becomes more frequent. The formation of archaeological sites is closely coupled with geomorphological processes resulting in the deposition, preservation, reworking and exposure of sediments and remains of human activity. In addition to its anthropogenic record, an archaeological site can be investigated as an archive recording the interaction of fluvial, aeolian and tectonic events that operate on various temporal and spatial scales. However, despite the shared perspectives of archaeological and geomorphological studies, those two fields are not commonly integrated within a unified holistic framework, which limits their impact.

This session is open to a wide range of studies that integrate the study of geomorphological, sedimentological and environmental proxies at archaeological sites, alongside investigations that incorporate geological approaches to address archaeological and geomorphological questions. The goal is set to provide a platform for describing common challenges and achievements that may lead to synergistic outcomes and outline directions for future cooperation and for the establishment of a common language. The session is not restricted to any specific time period or geographical area, but rather wishes to highlight methodological novelties and common challenges shared by both disciplines.

The links between crustal deformation, mantle dynamics, and climate-driven surface processes have long been recognized as main drivers for the evolution of orogens and sedimentary basins. Yet, the feedback mechanisms between erosion, sediment transportation and deposition, crustal tectonics and mantle dynamics, including magmatism, remain elusive. Understanding the complex interplay between tectonic and surface processes requires an interdisciplinary approach. Quantifying the uplift and erosion rates in orogens and subsidence and sedimentation rates in basins, and separating distinct crustal, deep mantle, and climatic forcings are among the most challenging objectives, because they all act on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Understanding such a dynamic system requires observational data from field studies, geophysical and well data analysis, thermochronological studies as well as analogue and numerical modelling techniques.
We invite contributions investigating orogenesis and sedimentary basin evolution and their connection to (climate-driven) surface processes, and crustal and mantle dynamics. We encourage contributions using multi-disciplinary and innovative methods addressing the coupling between tectonics and surface processes.

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.

The operation of the terrestrial heat engine manifests geologically in ceaseless mass transfer between lithological reservoirs, under the action of tectonic and surface processes. Sedimentary Provenance Analysis is a broad and interdisciplinary field aiming to track these transfers and reconstruct Earth’s evolution on a wide range of temporal and spatial scales by studying detrital mineral grains. This encompasses the geodynamic evolution of mountain belts, paleogeographic reconstructions, changes in climatic conditions, and the tectono-magmatic-metamorphic evolution of planet Earth from the Hadean to present.

Tackling such topics requires disentanglement of inherently convoluted signals, calling for the application of multiple classical and novel methods of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary petrology as well as the statistical treatment of large datasets. This includes, for instance, (i) novel developments in in-situ geo- and thermochronology including double- and triple-dating of single U-hosting grains, and β-decay systems accessed by reaction-gas mass spectrometry (e.g., Lu-Hf and Rb-Sr); (ii) multivariate discrimination of grains from the same mineral species by using flexible algorithms (including machine learning) applied to the major-element, trace-element, and isotopic composition of single grains; (iii) petrological methods such as inclusion assemblages in detrital single grains and elastic thermobarometry; and (iv) statistical methods disentangling differences and patterns in large datasets of multi-proxy provenance data like Generalized Procrustes Analysis or three-way Multidimensional Scaling.

This session welcomes contributions that highlight methodical advances applicable in the interdisciplinary field of Sedimentary Provenance Analysis as well as studies that rely on such methods to tackle problems and answer questions on any temporal and spatial scale, with particular emphasis on bridging micro to macro to planetary scales.

Micropaleontological data, such as assemblage composition, morphology, and evolutionary patterns, provide unique insights into the dynamics and tipping points of past environments and climate through changes in the fossil record. Micropaleontology lies at the heart of biostratigraphy and provides a fundamental tool for reconstructing and stratigraphically constraining 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 (including, but not limited to, coccolithophores, diatoms, dinoflagellates, foraminifera, ostracods, radiolarians, pollen) as proxies for paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatological reconstructions and tools for 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.

Marine and terrestrial ecosystems have been affected by anthropogenic stressors (e.g., biological invasions, eutrophication, land use change, overexploitation) for centuries to millennia. By covering only recent decades, scientific surveys and monitoring are insufficient to fully assess human impacts and the long-term ecosystem status. Predicting future changes and effectively restoring degraded communities without knowing past species and ecosystem responses and historical baselines is thus challenging. The fossil record and other palaeoecological archives (e.g., biogeochemical or isotopic signatures of sediment cores and/or archaeological middens) provide long-term data that document past disturbances and their effects on organisms and ecosystem structure (e.g., body size changes, taxonomic and functional composition, diversity patterns). In addition, deep-time palaeoecological records provide analogue scenarios for present-day environmental perturbations, capturing extirpations and recovery dynamics of ecosystems at evolutionary timescales.
Therefore, this session will explore how interdisciplinary approaches to palaeoecological records can enhance the interpretation of the temporal dynamics of past (deep-time and Quaternary) ecosystems and thus provide context and guidance for the near-future dynamics of modern ecosystems. We will address major challenges of interpreting palaeoecological records. For example, a proper understanding of their spatial and temporal resolution is needed to reconstruct long-term ecosystem dynamics and historical baselines. It is also crucial to know how the ecologic information preserved in the fossil record is affected by taphonomic biases. Despite these challenges palaeoecological records are highly useful for conservation efforts. This will be demonstrated by case studies using a wide range of tools and analytical approaches from palaeontology, palaeoecology, stratigraphy, historical ecology, and archaeology.

Plate tectonics has had a profound influence on Earth’s biosphere, possibly from its inception. Tectonic processes can directly affect ecosystem evolution by impacting available habitats and controlling changes in nutrient flux through oceanic rifting, or weathering and erosion of the continents, which sheds nutrients and raw materials necessary for biological processes into the oceans. Collision and break-up of tectonic plates also affects the distribution of marine organisms, whether by altered ocean circulation patterns or by the creation and destruction of physical barriers (e.g. mountain ranges, land bridges, seaways). While it is relatively easy to reproduce palaeogeographic and tectonic configurations for more recent time periods (e.g. Jurassic to the present day), reconstructing the spatial relationships of more ancient tectonic blocks can be challenging. Nevertheless, reliable palaeogeographic models and/or full tectonic global plate models (GPMs) are the cornerstone for testing the relationships between global tectonics and the biosphere.

This session aims to bring together a broad spectrum of researchers investigating how Precambrian–Phanerozoic tectonics has impacted biological processes. Because tackling such questions leans heavily on multi-disciplinary approaches, we encourage submissions from researchers utilizing data and methods across a variety of research fields. We welcome submissions covering a wide range of topics, including, but not limited to; palaeomagnetism, palaeogeography, palaeontology/palaeobiology, macroevolution, palaeoclimatology, geochemistry, sedimentology and geochronology. We would also like to showcase studies that emphasise the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable), CARE (collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility, ethics) and Open Science principles when it comes to leveraging data at both model-development and model-application stages.

Fossil skeletal remains (tests, shells, bones, teeth…) are crucial archives for reconstructing past climates, studying biogeochemical cycles and ecosystems using a variety of proxies based on geochemistry, mineralogy or morphometry. The use of mineralised tissues as environmental palaeoarchives is not straightforward. Both the metabolism and the ecology of the organism that produced them must be taken into account. Indeed, the growth of these tissues results from specific biomineralisation pathways, and is dynamic, responding to biological and environmental factors, which can complicate interpretations of information from these archives. Nevertheless, biomineralised tissues provide opportunities for high-resolution reconstruction of environmental or ecological parameters in the deep past. The dynamic growth of hard tissues can be used to reconstruct temporal variations in the environment or ecology of the organism throughout its life-time, down to the hourly scale. Furthermore, the cross-examination of associated organisms with different ecological strategies can provide insight on the variability of environmental parameters in their respective habitats or on their ecological relationships.
This session aims to bring together palaeontologists, biologists, geochemists and other users and developers of proxies from different fields. We welcome contributions aiming to develop or use skeletal hard parts as archives for environmental and ecological parameters. We want to highlight the variety of proxies that can be applied on mineralised tissues to answer palaeoenvironmental and palaeoecological questions throughout the Phanerozoic, including proxy studies of the fossil record and proposals for new proxies. We also aim to stimulate discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the proxies, and the biases associated with biogenic mineralisation, which are key to provide informed interpretation of proxy data. We thus welcome studies of modern organisms, in their natural or artificial habitats, aiming to understand biomineralisation pathways and how various environmental and ecological parameters are recorded in mineralised tissues or highlight how specific biases could be addressed. Finally, we hope that this session will encourage novel scientific collaborations for multidisciplinary and multiproxy studies of hard tissues.

Archaea, belonging to the domain of prokaryotes, are a crucial component of the tree of life. They are ubiquitous in contemporary surface and near-surface environments, playing a vital role in maintaining Earth's ecological functions and mediating biogeochemical cycles. They are also considered one of the earliest forms of life and recognized as a significant force driving the development of the early Earth's biosphere. However, like bacteria, archaea have left few fossil records in ancient strata, limiting research on their evolution during Earth's early history and their role in geochemical cycles. This session aims to explore the feasibility of studying the co-evolution of archaea and the earth system by leveraging large-scale, high-completeness archaeal genome data, in conjunction with known major geological events (such as the Great Oxidation Event, Snowball Earth, and the formation and breakup of supercontinents) and biogeochemical modeling. Researchers from both earth and life sciences are welcome to contribute to this session.

Oceanic anoxia developed during the latest Ordovician glacial pulse around 444 million years ago, concomitant with the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction, and lasted for several million years into the early Silurian, as testified by geochemical proxy records and large-scale organic-rich marine black shale deposition. Yet, the mechanisms responsible for this protracted period of oceanic deoxygenation and organic carbon burial, which was an order of magnitude longer than the ocean anoxic events of the Mesozoic, as well as its coupling with the evolution of Earth's habitability and the marine biosphere, remain poorly documented. This session intends to improve our understanding of the triggers, characteristics and consequences of oceanic anoxia around the Katian–Rhuddanian boundary. We welcome contributions using sedimentology, paleontology, geochemistry, and Earth system modeling to address these questions. We especially encourage submissions providing new and innovative insights regarding the mechanisms, feedbacks, or quantitative thresholds of black shale deposition at that time.