Cambridge Quaternary
The Quaternary, the last 2.6 million years of geological time, saw major climatic changes which caused ice sheets to advance intotemperate latitudes. Repeated glacial episodes caused significant fluctuations in sea level, major geographical changes and major plant and animal population migrations. Sedimentary sequences record these changes in great detail and are central to unravelling past events.
Cambridge Quaternary is a semi-informal research group of approximately 60 people within the University of Cambridge . Its constituent research groups are based in the Departments of Geography , Plant Sciences , Earth Sciences , Archaeology and Zoology . Links also exist with the Department of Physics and the Scott Polar Research Institute . There is an excellent research environment at all levels, fostered by the staff (10 members), post-doctoral workers, and both Ph.D. and M.Phil. students pursuing interdisciplinary research in a wide range of Quaternary fields. This environment is unique in Britain, offering opportunities for research student training unequalled elsewhere, in terms of the range and quality of the expertise available.
Cambridge Quaternary research
Cambridge Quaternary embraces a wide ranging approach to Quaternary Research. General research themes are based around 'core' areas of staff interest. These include palaeooceanography, archaeology, geochronology, sedimentology, stratigraphy, palaeobotany, dendrochronology, micropalaeontology and palaeoecology. These mainstream interests are supplemented by the interaction of staff members with those from other University and external institutions to provide a diverse spectrum of topics. The understanding of palaeoenvironmental evolution is the central element underpinning all these themes; a foundation that provides a base from which to understand both present and future environmental and climatic change.but
This site contains information about who we are, the Institute's research and publications, together with details of M.Phil. and PhD courses organized within the Cambridge departments. Read about the history and role of Cambridge Quaternary in Cambridge.
News and featured pages
- BBC - An animated journey through the Earth's climate history - P.Gibbard consultant.
- Prof. I.N. 'Nick' McCave wins the Geological Society's Lyell Medal.
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Formal ratification letter of base Quaternary and Pleistocene at 2.6 ma. Read Wiley-Blackwell news release.
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'Quaternary geologists win timescale vote - redefinition rescues once-threatened terminology from extinction' - read report in NATURE 4.5.09 and on Dept of Geography website.
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The ICS vote to confirm the base of the Quaternary / Pleistocene at 2.6 Ma. Voting results.
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Brett's Boulders - the Glacial Theory in art in this month's Geoscientist, published by the Geological Society.
- Now published - From Brandon to Bungay by Richard G. West (associate member of the QPG), an exploration of the landscape history and geology of the Little Ouse and Waveney rivers on the Suffolk - Norfolk border of East Anglia. Available from Suffolk Naturalist's Trust, Ipswich.
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University of Cambridge 800th anniversary celebrations. Image modified from an original in the Rijksmuseum Naturalis, The Netherlands.
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Now published - Episodes special issue 31, No. 2 , June 2008 - The Quaternary.
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Congratulations to old friend of Cambridge Quaternary, Professor Ann Wintle (Aberystwyth University) who has been awarded the 2008 Appleton medal and prize by the Institute of Physics "For her outstanding contribution in the development and application of luminescence properties of minerals as a geological dating tool applicable to the past one million years". Ann receiving the Appleton Medal from Peter Saraga.
- Are we now living in the Anthropocene? - coming soon, the opinion of the Geological Society's Stratigraphy Commission. Watch GSA Today.
- Global chronostratigraphical correlation table for the last 2.7 million years . Compiled by P.L.Gibbard, S.Boreham, K.M.Cohen & A.Moscariello, published for the International Commission on Stratigraphy's Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy. New version now available.
- The Sir Nicholas Shackleton Fellowship Fund.
- Quaternary Discussion Group meetings - EXTRA speaker in November!
- Gallery of Quaternary photographs
- News from the Quaternary Palaeoenvironments Group
- A history of Quaternary Research in Cambridge
- Cambridge reference collections
Links
- making geological data accessible.