Allogenic vs Autogenic processes: On the preservation and shredding of environmental signals in submarine fans (AvaFan)

• Applicants: Professorin Yvonne Spychala, Ph.D.; Professorin Dr. Jutta Winsemann
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 525486108

Submarine fans represent valuable archives of our Earth’s environmental history and enable us to make informed predictions on impacts on organic carbon budgets, landscape resiliency and hazard management related to our changing planet. However, deciphering this record is impeded by our lack of understanding of entangled allogenic (external) and autogenic (internal) signals. Only allogenic signals indicate environmental changes, while autogenic signals represent self-organizing processes of sedimentary systems.The concept of this project is the combined use of analogue modelling and sediment composition analysis to achieve a new in-depth understanding of the depositional response to allogenic and autogenic processes and its impact on climate and provenance proxies. We will investigate the effects of these two steering factors on stratal stacking patterns as well as grain-type and grain-size distributions – two main parameters that are used widely to detect tectonic perturbations, changes in climate and sea-level and therefore in paramount need to be accurate. Two central questions we will tackle are 1) how stratal stacking patterns and particle distribution in purely autogenic formed submarine fans are expressed; and building on this, 2) how various allogenic inputs modify this expression. A comprehensive multi-scenario concept will enable us to gain the most holistic understanding of the record of environmental change caused by allogenic signals and the stacking patterns and grain type distribution governed by purely self-organizing processes. Results will address ongoing challenges and uncertainties in decoding the environmental record stored in submarine fans by testing, refining (or negating) current models for stratal stacking patterns, informing best-practice sampling strategies for sediment composition analysis of natural system and assess the faithfulness of documented cyclic signals.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Netherlands
• Co-Investigator: Professorin Dr. Sumiko Tsukamoto
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Joris Eggenhuisen