Lake Malawi Drilling Project

The proposed project is an integrated scientific drilling campaign and analytical laboratory effort. Lake Malawi has long been recognized as an outstanding laboratory and archive for the study of tropical paleoclimatology, extensional tectonics, and evolutionary biology. Along with Lake Tanganyika, Lake Malawi holds the promise of a high-resolution paleoclimate record of unparalleled antiquity in the continental tropics. The critical role of the tropics in driving global circulation is widely recognized, but the climatic linkage between tropical Africa and the high latitudes at decadal-centennial through orbital timescales, has yet to be established.

The key Lake Malawi Drilling Project objectives are:

• Determine if tropical African climate responded to changes in low-latitude precessional insolation (23-19 kyr) or to high-latitude ice volume (100 kyr and 41 kyr) forcing.
• Assess the phasing of lake level changes in Lake Malawi in the last half of the Pleistocene.
• Determine from the high-resolution Lake Malawi drill core records if high-frequency, climate variations are superimposed on glacial-interglacial timescale variations.
• Establish how interannual African climate variability has changed in association with longer-term climate variations.
• Determine the long-term evolution of tropical East African climate.

(Figure ©: C.A. Scholz)

See also:

• ICDP-06/00

Africa, Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique, East African Rift Valley, Lake Malawi

12° 00' 09'' S, 34° 06' 45'' E (Please scroll down to end of page for more information.)

• Begin of drilling February 2005
• End of drilling March 2005

• ICDP Germany - German Science Foundation
• International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP)
• U.S. National Science Foundation

• Thomas C. Johnson, University of Minnesota, Large Lakes Observatory
• Christopher A. Scholz, Syracuse University, Department of Earth Sciences
• John W. King, University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography
• Michael Richard Talbot, University of Bergen, Geological Institute
• Andrew S. Cohen, University of Arizona, Department of Geosciences
• Leonard S.N. Kalindekafe, Ministry of Natural Resources, Geological Survey Department of Malawi
• Eric Onyango Odada, University of Nairobi, IDEAL Office, Department of Geology
• Michael B. Dolozi, University of Malawi, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Chancellor College

• Auto Dynamic Positioning Services Ltd.
• DOSECC, Inc.
• GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Scientific Drilling ICDP (Operational Support Group OSG/ICDP)
• Ministry of Natural Resources, Geological Survey Department of Malawi
• Seacore Ltd.
• Syracuse University, Department of Earth Sciences
• University of Arizona, Department of Geosciences
• University of Bergen, Geological Institute
• University of Malawi, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Chancellor College
• University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Division of Marine Geology and Geophysics
• University of Minnesota, Large Lakes Observatory
• University of Nairobi, IDEAL Office, Department of Geology
• University of Potsdam, Institute of Earth Sciences
• University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography

Africa , Climate Change , Global Environment , ICDP-06/00 , Lake Drilling , MALAWI , Mozambique , Paleoclimatology , Rift Zones , Tanzania

Drilling operations have been finalized, scientific evaluations are ongoing

• http://malawidrilling.syr.edu/

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