By mapping the layers of rock in the Green River Formation in Wyoming\u2014one of the world\u2019s richest systems of ancient lake strata\u2014Smith hopes to learn about the climate and flooding events during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO) period 50 to 53 million years ago, when the climate was much hotter than it is now and carbon dioxide levels spiked, causing a greenhouse effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to extract a record of climate change from a time when global warming was in full effect,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe want to know whether increased moisture in the atmosphere creates conditions for bigger storms and floods and test whether that actually happened during the Eocene\u2019s greenhouse climate. Some of the preliminary data suggest that there is, in fact, a pretty strong correlation between flooding and higher temperatures.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project team, led by director Alan Carroll at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, represents a collaboration between more than 20 faculty researchers, postdoctoral scholars, Ph.D. students and undergraduate students at Northern Arizona University, the University of Michigan, North Carolina State University, the University of Minnesota, The University of Arizona, Boise State University and Binghamton University.<\/p>\n
The NAU team will provide the stratigraphic framework of the basin so researchers at the other institutions can analyze the rock samples using chemical and magnetic techniques.<\/p>\n
Smith\u2019s team of graduate and undergraduate students also will spearhead the effort to map ancient river channel deposits. Most of the work involves measuring vertical columns of sedimentary rock from surface exposures in and around Rock Springs, Wyoming, where the landscape provides a rare detailed record of vastly different environmental conditions during the EECO.<\/p>\n
Studies have shown that at that time, equatorial regions were likely so hot they were uninhabitable. Fossil evidence revealed the climate in southwestern Wyoming was subtropical, supporting palm trees, monkeys, ostriches and crocodiles. Smith wants to investigate that climate in detail\u2014for example, was it hot but stable, or did temperatures fluctuate and spike? The information Smith and his students collect will be compared with information collected from ocean contexts that date to the same time.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of effort has gone into ocean-bed drilling to extract a record from this period and others. What we find in the EECO is that there\u2019s so much ocean acidification corresponding with this warming event that often the record is condensed; there\u2019s just not a lot of detail left. The opposite is true in this basin in Wyoming where this sediment was deposited in the lake bed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Augmented reality app to bring backyard geology to school-aged children<\/strong><\/h3>\nAnother goal of the project is promoting geology to school-aged children. PI Smith realized that many elementary and middle school students aren\u2019t exposed to much geology because field trips to interesting sites can be prohibitively expensive. To encourage kids to explore local geology, NAU and the University of Minnesota have partnered to develop an augmented reality app that will enable kids to use their cell phones to learn about the rocks around them.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine walking up to one of the cliffs outside and holding your phone up to it to learn what each layer means,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt will be like Pok\u00e9mon Go, but with rocks!\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith, who joined NAU in 2014, focuses his research on the geochronology of sedimentary basins, deep time stratigraphy and marine geomorphology. He leads the Sedimentary Research Group<\/a> at NAU, which seeks to better understand tectonic and landscape processes as they are recorded in terrestrial and marine basins.<\/p>\n\u201cWe work at the interface between sedimentary geology, geomorphology and geochronology,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re\u00a0focused on the terrestrial stratigraphy of the North American Cordillera and the effects of bedrock lithology on modern and ancient sedimentary processes across a variety of environments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work at the interface between sedimentary geology, geomorphology and geochronology,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re\u00a0focused on the terrestrial stratigraphy of the North American Cordillera and the effects of bedrock lithology on modern and ancient sedimentary processes across a variety of environments.\u201d<\/p>\n
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