G.C. - E.L
Researchers of the Agrifood Campus of International Excellence ceiA3 analyzed iron oxides in soils from 2.4 million years ago in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing
2.4 million years ago, the last known geological period began: the Quaternary, still found in the Earth today. It is the time when Homo sapiens appeared and therefore one of the periods that has most interested the scientific community. Learning how this species was able to adapt to climate changes that have happened since then occupies many researchers in different areas of knowledge. Among them, ceiA3 Edaphology research team (Agronomy Department) at the University of Córdoba, has for several years searched in the centre of the Chinese province of Lochuan for the key to understanding how climate evolved in the last 2.4 million years
Cordoba researchers, José Torrent and Vidal Barrón, in collaboration with a team from the Geophysics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, analyze loess plateau paleosols and characterize iron oxides, the study of which enables deduction of many climatic characteristics (temperature and rainfall). Thus for example, analysis of changes experienced by rocks or the size of various types of iron oxide particles allows cientists to deduce average temperature on Earth in a given time period.
The main results of these investigations have been recently published in high impact scientific journals such as 'Earth and Planetary Science Letters', 'Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors' and 'Global and Planetary Change'. In his articles, this international research team has provided new data for studying climate evolution not only on Earth but on other planets in the Solar System.
2.4 million years ago, the last known geological period began: the Quaternary, still ongoing on Earth today. It was the time when Homo sapiens appeared and therefore one of the periods that has most interested the scientific community. Learning how this species was able to adapt to climate changes that have happened since occupies many researchers in different areas of knowledge. Among them, ceiA3 Edaphology research team (Agronomy Department) at the University of Córdoba, has for several years searched in the centre of the Chinese province of Lochuan for the key to understanding how climate evolved in the last 2.4 million years.
Cordoba researchers, José Torrent and Vidal Barrón, in collaboration with a team from the Geophysics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, analyzed loess plateau paleosols and characterized iron oxides, which enable deduction of many climatic characteristics (temperature and rainfall). Thus, analysis of changes experienced by rocks or the size of various types of iron oxide particles, among other parameters, allows scientists to deduce average temperature on Earth in a given time period.
The main results of these investigations have been recently published in high impact scientific journals such as 'Earth and Planetary Science Letters', 'Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors' and 'Global and Planetary Change'. In these articles, this international research team has provided new data for studying climate evolution not only on Earth but on other planets in the Solar System.
