The Hominin Sites And Paleolakes Drilling Project: Using Scientific Drilling to Understand the Paleoclimate Context of Human Evolution
Project Acronym: HSDPD | State: Completed | Expedition ID: 5053
Scientists with the Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP) drilled near-continuous sediment cores from some of the world’s most important fossil hominin sites in East Africa, mainly in Ethiopia and Kenya, where ancient lake beds preserve long records of environment. The goal was to cut into thick lake sediments close to where early humans and early stone tools were found, so researchers could reconstruct climate and landscapes over key time windows in the pliocene and early pleistocene. By drilling multiple sites and storing cores (much of the recovered material is kept at the University of Minnesota), they built long, continuous sequences that capture changes in temperature, rainfall, and lake levels. These records help scientists ask how environmental shifts shaped the evolution of hominins and why certain adaptations appeared when they did. In short, the project links climate history to human evolution by providing a clear, long record from Africa’s paleolakes.
Cores are stored at University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, Continental Scientific Drilling Facility, USA
Project Management
Contact Person
Lead PIs
- J. Arrowsmith – Arizona State University
- Asfawossen Asrat – Botswana International University of Science and Technology
- Anna Behrensmeyer – Smithsonian Institution
- Christopher Campisano – Arizona State University
- Craig Feibel – Rutgers University
- Shimeles Fisseha – University of Addis Ababa
- Roy Johnson – University of Arizona
- John Kingston – University of Michigan
- Henry Lamb – Aberystwyth University
- Emma Mbua – National Museums of Kenya
- Daniel Olago – University of Nairobi
- Richard Owen – Hong Kong Baptist University
- Richard Potts – Smithsonian Institution
- Robin Renaut – University of Saskatchewan
- Frank Schaebitz – University of Cologne
- Jean Tiercelin (T) – Universite de Rennes 1
- Martin Trauth – University of Potsdam
- Mohammed Umer (T) – University of Addis Ababa
- Giday WoldeGabriel – Los Alamos National Laboratory
Project Details
Project Description
- Title:
- The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP): Using Scientific Drilling to understand the Paleoclimate Context of Human Evolution (HSPDP)
- Proposed in:
- 2010
- Current State:
- Completed
- Proposal abstract:
- n.a.
- Geologic age:
- Pliocene/Pleistocene
- Number of drillsites (drillholes):
- 6(13)
- Drilled length:
- n.a.
- Cored length:
- n.a.
- Core recovered, length:
- n.a.
- Core recovered length / Cored length:
- n.a.
- Core recovered / Drilled length:
- n.a.
- Expedition #
- 5053
- Location
- Africa, Eastern Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eastern Rift Valley, Kenya, Ethiopia
- Coordinates
- -2.0000, 36.0000
- Status
- Completed
Project Location
Project Timeline
Drilling 4
6 - 30 November 2014
Drilling 3
11 June - 10 July 2014
Drilling 2
23 February - 31 March 2014
Drilling 1
1 June - 31 July 2013
Full Proposal Approved
Workshop Held
17 - 21 November 2008 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia