Tracking climate change and human activity in the Amazon basin in magnetic mineralogy of deep-sea sediments

• Grant number: 12/19096-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2013
• End date: August 13, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Oceanography - Geological Oceanography
• Principal Investigator: Luigi Jovane
• Grantee: Giancarlo Scardia
• Host Institution: Instituto Oceanográfico (IO). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

During an expedition with RV M.S. Merian exploring the Holocene and Pleistocene climate history of the Amazon River basin, oceanographic data were collected in order to study the changes in ocean circulation on millennial to decadal time scales as well as the Holocene development of the Amazon River delta. Sediments from the continental slope and shelf off northeastern Brazil and French Guiana were sampled with gravity corer and multi-corer. We aim to perform rock magnetic and paleomagnetic analyses on the collected cores in order to study the effects of climatic changes and human activity in the Amazon basin on the magnetic mineralogy of the marine sediments. The expected major outcomes are: 1) rock magnetic characterization of the marine sediments from the Amazon River delta and the Paranaiba basin, 2) study of the magnetotactic bacterial activity in different marine settings, 3) high-resolution paleomagnetic secular variations and relative paleointensity since the Late Pleistocene, and 4) dating of the major climatic and anthropic events in the Amazon basin.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SCARDIA, GIANCARLO; FESTA, ANDREA; MONEGATO, GIOVANNI; PINI, ROBERTA; ROGLEDI, SERGIO; TREMOLADA, FABRIZIO; GALADINI, FABRIZIO. Evidence for late Alpine tectonics in the Lake Garda area (northern Italy) and seismogenic implications. GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA BULLETIN, v. 127, n. 1-2, p. 113-130, JAN-FEB 2015. (12/19096-5)

MUTTONI, GIOVANNI; KENT, DENNIS V.; SCARDIA, GIANCARLO; MONESI, EDOARDO. MIGRATION OF HOMININS WITH MEGAHERBIVORES INTO EUROPE VIA THE DANUBE-PO GATEWAY IN THE LATE MATUYAMA CLIMATE REVOLUTION. RIVISTA ITALIANA DI PALEONTOLOGIA E STRATIGRAFIA, v. 120, n. 3, p. 351-365, DEC 2014. (12/19096-5)