Abstract:

The Amazon region in tropical South America, housing over half of all terrestrial plant species, is of critical importance to Earth. It affects the global carbon and hydrology cycles with far-reaching implications for climate change. The ongoing Trans-Amazon Drilling Project (TADP) aims to unravel the geologic and biotic evolution of the Amazon through the extraction of two to three continental long cores through the sediment basin along the Amazon River. The main scientific questions are 1) How Cenozoic climate and geologic history, including uplift of the Andes influenced the Amazon rainforest and its incomparable biodiversity? and (2) What was the timing and development of the transcontinental Amazon River? Currently, the TADP team has completed drilling with a 920-meter core recovery at the first site, the Andean foreland site only about 110 km from the Peruvian border. The next step is to commence drilling close to the mouth of the Amazon River in early March.

In this presentation, I will a) provide an overview of this large international scientific continental drilling project, b) share insights from my participation in the project and the hot and humid drilling process in the Amazon, and c) outline how my future research on these cores will contribute to achieving the project’s overarching goals.

All are welcome.