Recipient Emma Louise Horn
Date 01 April, 2024
Amount £3000.00
Summary Volcanic ash (tephra) layers have been previously identified within the Palaeolithic sequences at archaeological sites in NW Africa dating back over 140,000 years. The application of tephra analysis can also be extended to even older cave sequences in Morocco and correlated with tephras in marine core ODP 958 (a record extending back as far 320,000 years). Accurately constraining and tying together these sequences is vital to understanding the timing and climatic background in the evolution of Homo sapiens in NW Africa. New tephra results from the offshore marine records show a high proportion of the volcanic layers are sourced from westerly volcanoes in the Azores and Canary Islands. However, the chronology of the Canary eruptions, particularly in the period concerned (300-150,000 years), is complex and glass chemical datasets are incomplete. This work is essential for constructing a robust age model for the marine core sequences and linking the different tephra layers. The overall project aims to identify both the number of discrete Canary Island eruptions and the geochemical signatures associated with each eruption.