Quaternary Geosciences (Quartärgeowissenschaften)

Course given at Göttingen University, Module B.Geo.113 and B.ÖSM.110, 1 SWS, in German (but can be provided in English, as well)

The Quaternary, the last 2.58 Million years of Earth's history, had a bold impact on the landscape we live and and live from, today. Depsite its comparably short and recent evolution, this period brought to us the activity of glaciers and the deposits and landforms they have left behind, it has formed Central Europe under cold, periglacial conditions, and driven powerful fluivial processes. Upon the ceasing cold conditions, a new set of landscape shaping processes took over, including mankind.

In this course, you will get familiar with the terms of the Quaternary, its timing in the geological record and the important drivers and feedbacks that are responsible for the kick-in of cyclic cold and warm periods during that time. You will learn what glaciers are, how they form and move, and which processes and landforms they create, hence how one can infer the presence of past glaciers from the landforms they havew left behind. We will discuss the set of landforms and processes associated with periglacial conditions, learn the principles of fluvial and glaciofluvial morphodynamics, and finally see how the transition into the human dominated recent times have happened.

Materials to this course (slides, script) will be provided in due course