News

Dr. Juan Cruz Larrazoaña (ICTJA-CSIC in Spain) and Prof. Steffen Mischke (University of Iceland) visited the lab and we had an intensive three-day field campaign in southern Israel. We aim to investigate the magnetic and physical properties of lacustrine/palustrine sequences dating back to the Pliocene and early Pleistocene. The utilization of ground-breaking modern analytical tools will provide valuable insights for reconstructing the environmental settings during this very important and relatively-unknown period of time.

The ICDP Lake Challa Drilling Project (DeepCHALLA) has started! For over a month and a half, Nicolas participated as a co-chief scientist in the drilling operations (in charge of the science team during night shifts on the platform). The project retrieved almost the entire sedimentary infill of the lake (~228 m). Aihemaiti Maitituerdi is carrying out his PhD research as part of the project, dealing with well-log and core-log interpretation.

Stay tuned, more to come!

Dr. Or Bialik and Dr. Nicolas Waldmann participated in the Dolomieu Conference at the core of the Dolomite Mountains, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2009. The Dolomites are one of the most imposing and beautiful mountain landscapes in the world. Furthermore, over the years this amazing carbonate landscape has contributed to many key concepts in the field of carbonate platform and dolomite research.

We welcome Prof. Weiqiang Li (Nanjing University) and his team to PetroLab! His visit occurs as part of the ISF-NSFC mutual grant (MgSCALE) and included providing a presentation at the weekly seminar series in the department and 4 days of fieldwork in the Negev desert and Jerusalem hills. Over 200 samples were obtained as part of the planned work and will be measured in both laboratories.

Stay tuned for updates on the project and papers that soon will be out!

We are happy to report that Or Bialik from our PetroLab group has recently returned from the Maldives as part of his participation on board of the JR on Expedition 359: Maldives Monsoon & Sea Level. Or is the first scientist to participate in an IODP leg under an Israeli flag. He has contributed to the scientific cruise with his expertise as a sedimentologist.

We are looking forwards to the upcoming publications from this cruise, as well as the participation of more Israeli scientists on board the IODP through ECORD.

A great start to the year with a new paper leaded by Dr. Neugebauer (GFZ-Potsdam)! The paper deals with hydroclimatic variability in the Levant based on high-resolution sedimentological analyses of ICDP core 5017-1, drilled at the Dead Sea depocenter. The paper presents a high-resolution sediment facies analysis and elemental composition by μXRF scanning to trace lake levels and responses of the regional hydroclimatology during the time interval from ca. 117 to 75 ka (the transition between the last interglacial and the onset of the last glaciation). We distinguished six major micro-facies types and interpreted these and their alterations in the core in terms of relative lake level changes. The two end-member facies for highest and lowest lake levels are (a) up to several meters thick, greenish sediments of alternating aragonite and detrital marl laminae (aad) and (b) thick halite facies, respectively. Two intervals of pronounced lake level drops occurred at ∼110–108±5 and∼93–87±7 ka and likely coincide with stadial conditions in the central Mediterranean and low global sea levels during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5d and 5b. The study suggests a close climate link between the Levant to the North Atlantic and Mediterranean during the time of the build-up of Northern Hemisphere ice shields in the early last glacial period. Please follow this link for more details! Congrats Ina!