Lothagam, Kenya
My research is focused in the Turkana Depression, Kenya. My master’s project is currently centered around the fossil-bearing site of Lothagam, west of present-day Lake Turkana. Outcropping strata expose a late Miocene to Pliocene sedimentary record that documents the evolution of vertebrate fauna, climate, and tectonics. An important stratigraphic marker, the Lothagam Basalt, is exposed along the western ridge of the outcrop. In the broader context of the Turkana Depression, the basalt is likely part of the Gombe Group Basalts, basin-wide flood basalt erupted ~4 Ma. My thesis’s primary goal is to redate the Lothagam Basalt using Ar/Ar geochronology and interpret seismic data surrounding Lothagam to determine its relationship to the Gombe Group Basalts and subsurface. Resolving the basalt age is essential for greater age control on the site’s rich fossil record, especially as it overlies a hominin mandible. After the Gombe Group, sedimentation reflects deposition in a single basin, and magmatic activity is more localized. This project will help better constrain late Cenozoic rift and vertebrate evolution.
My research is focused in the Turkana Depression, Kenya. My master’s project is currently centered around the fossil-bearing site of Lothagam, west of present-day Lake Turkana. Outcropping strata expose a late Miocene to Pliocene sedimentary record that documents the evolution of vertebrate fauna, climate, and tectonics. An important stratigraphic marker, the Lothagam Basalt, is exposed along the western ridge of the outcrop. In the broader context of the Turkana Depression, the basalt is likely part of the Gombe Group Basalts, basin-wide flood basalt erupted ~4 Ma. My thesis’s primary goal is to redate the Lothagam Basalt using Ar/Ar geochronology and interpret seismic data surrounding Lothagam to determine its relationship to the Gombe Group Basalts and subsurface. Resolving the basalt age is essential for greater age control on the site’s rich fossil record, especially as it overlies a hominin mandible. After the Gombe Group, sedimentation reflects deposition in a single basin, and magmatic activity is more localized. This project will help better constrain late Cenozoic rift and vertebrate evolution.