CL
Climate: Past, Present & Future

Dr Rieneke Weij

My name is Rieneke Weij, and I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Geological Sciences and the Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) at the University of Cape Town (UCT). I’m passionate about Quaternary research, particularly (U-series) geochronology, palaeoclimatology, and isotope geochemistry. I use speleothems (secondary cave carbonates) to unravel the antiquity of famous fossil cave sites and to quantify past climate change through various proxies. Together with my postdoc advisor, we are also setting up a U-Th dating capability at UCT, the first on the African continent.

Misinterpretation of glacial aridity in subtropical environments in the Southern Hemisphere

Misinterpretation of glacial aridity in subtropical environments  in the Southern Hemisphere

To understand Earth’s changing climate, scientists often examine how the climate has varied in the past, by studying geological records. These records allow us to reconstruct past climates and help us predict planet’s responses to different climate forcings. In this context, it has long been thought that past ice ages on Earth were relatively dry, whereas the warm periods between ice ages we ...[Read More]