Throughout Earth’s history, climate has changed on regular timescales due to variations in the Earth’s orbit and spin axis, which regulate the amount of solar radiation received by the Earth, known as astronomical climate forcing. In the field of cyclostratigraphy, these cyclical climate changes are studied by looking at the geological sedimentary record in which they have been recorded.

During my master’s, I developed a strong interest in this area of research. For my master thesis, I worked on deep sea sediments from the eastern equatorial Atlantic Ocean, a region sensitive to the African Monsoon, to understand the astronomically-forced climate changes during the Miocene (about 15 to 20 million years ago). After graduating, I began my PhD research, for which I continue to study astronomical climate signals, but much further back in time. The project aims to improve our understanding of the role of astronomical climate forcing during the Ediacaran (about 550 million years ago), a crucial period for the evolution of complex life. For this purpose, I use sedimentary rocks of this age that are exposed in Namibia (Photo 1).