"Later Quaternary palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in the Oltepesi region, southern Kenya Rift: A multiproxy approach."

This research will examine sediments between about 1.2 million and 64,000 years old below the Oltepesi Plain in southern Kenya. Several techniques will be used in the study including the use of microfossils (diatoms), a variety of geochemistry studies (e.g., bulk sediment chemistry, isotopes) and XRD mineral analyses, together with observation of the characteristics of the sediments in the field and from samples returned to Hong Kong. Detailed environments have previously been determined for other locations to the west of the study site, but these earlier studies have not made extensive use of geochemistry as proposed here. The principal aim is to reconstruct past environments in the research area, to determine their spatial distribution, and to relate these environmental reconstructions to past settings for other nearby rift locations.

During the period when these sediments were forming there was a distinctive episode of intense faulting that resulted in erosion, a change in the nature of sedimentation and the kinds of environments that developed. This "breakup" of the basin occurred at a time when humans were changing anatomically and their cultural use of stone tools was evolving. The investigation will focus on this period and will attempt to establish the environmental background against which these changes were occurring. The study will also examine the possible relative roles of climate verses faulting in causing this major regional environmental switch in conditions.