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Tag Archives: sediments
Human adaptation to climate change in prehistoric NE Thailand?
This pretty challenging line, however without the question mark, is the title of a new manuscript, which we submitted yesterday. For this manuscript we pulled together all the paleoclimate evidences we have for Northeast Thailand based on our sedimentary records … Continue reading
Posted in Asian monsoon, Singapore sabbatical, Thoughts and Tales
Tagged Asian monsoon, Asian monsoon project, Department of Geological Sciences, Earth Observatory of Singapore, Geological Sciences, lake sediments, monsoon history, Nanyang Technical University, natural science, science, sediments, Stockholm University, Sweden
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It is actually a great feeling …
…. when your PhD student manages to get a paper accepted in Nature. It never happened to me before, but today was the day! Francesco, who had worked so hard on this paper and on the replies to the various … Continue reading
Toba eruption ash on campus?
The Toba eruption, which occurred about 74,000 years ago, at the site of Lake Toba on Sumatra, Indonesia, spread its ash over wide areas in Southeast Asia and is an important marker horizon in many paleo archives. Caroline Bouvier, one … Continue reading
And the sea never rests
Svante Björck from the Geology Department, Lund University in Sweden is currently also visiting Chulalongkorn University. His lecture on Quaternary Sea Level Changes – A Complex Story was well attended. About 70-80 students and many staff members quickly filled the … Continue reading
Lakes and wetlands tell an important story
A few days ago, I gave a lecture to undergraduate students in geology at Chulalongkorn University. I chose the title ‘Lakes and wetlands tell an important story’ since the focus of our Asian monsoon project is on lakes and wetlands … Continue reading
Posted in Asian monsoon, Bangkok sabbatical, Thailand fieldwork and travels, Thoughts and Tales
Tagged Asian monsoon, Asian monsoon project, Chulalongkorn University, crater lakes, Department of Geological Sciences, Geological Sciences, geology, lake sediments, monsoon history, natural science, sabbatical, science, sediments, Stockholm University, Students, Sweden, Thailand
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Plant remains from ancient sediments
During the weeks before Christmas I was busy at the microscope looking through sample after sample to select plant remains for radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon dates provide us with an age for our sediment sequences, and to obtain good and valid … Continue reading
Summing up 2014
At this time of the year people send Christmas cards and wishes for the upcoming year. Some even summarize in shorter and longer reports what they and their family had been up to during the year. These types of letters … Continue reading
Posted in Asian monsoon, Thoughts and Tales
Tagged Asian monsoon, Asian monsoon project, Chulalongkorn University, Department of Geological Sciences, Geological Sciences, geology, lake sediments, Les Eyzies, monsoon history, natural science, science, sediments, Stockholm, Stockholm University, Students, Sweden, Thailand, tsunami
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It’s been a long time
Yes, I am still around and yes I am fine, and no, I am not lazy, just terribly busy with other things! It has been exactly 41 days since I published my last blog. And so much has happened since. … Continue reading
Where will they all go?
One of the larger events this year, at least for our Department, will be the SWERUS-C3 expedition to the Arctic. More than half of the researchers at IGV (Dept of Geological Sciences) will join the expedition, which is led by … Continue reading
How a small peatbog reached fame
The small peatbog of Hässeldala in southern Sweden is located in the middle of a mixed forest, fringed with blueberry shrubs and boulders, and almost impossible to find. I stumbled upon the site more than ten years ago and was … Continue reading
Earthquake in Lake Vättern
Colleagues at Stockholm, Lund and Uppsala Universities just published an exciting article in the journal Geology, where they describe a major earthquake that occurred some 11500 years ago! This is really a long time ago, and it is amazing that … Continue reading
Monsoon film gets attention
Great to see that our latest film Under the Eyes of the Buddha – in White Coats now is a news item on Stockholm University’s Science Faculty’s homepage. Hopefully this will help spreading the film to a wider audience. I … Continue reading
Posted in Asian monsoon, Science and media, Thailand fieldwork and travels, Thoughts and Tales
Tagged Asian monsoon, Asian monsoon project, Chulalongkorn University, Communicating research, Department of Geological Sciences, Geological Sciences, geology, lake sediments, monsoon history, natural science, science, science career, sediments, Stockholm University, Students, Sweden, Thailand, university
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Under the Eyes of the Buddha – In White Coats
Finally, finally our latest video about the Asian Monsoon Project is finished! This film really took time to finish! But then it is also different from the earlier films. It involves many more people, a specially designed animation, and specially … Continue reading
Posted in Asian monsoon, Science and media, Thailand fieldwork and travels, Thoughts and Tales
Tagged Asian monsoon, Asian monsoon project, Chulalongkorn University, Communicating research, Department of Geological Sciences, Geological Sciences, geology, lake sediments, media, monsoon history, natural science, Plastic Buddha, science, science communication, scientists, sediments, Stockholm University, Students, Sweden, Thailand
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The luxury of a sabbatical
My application for a sabbatical next year has been approved! What a luxury to being able to spend time abroad and to being able to only and entirely concentrate on my research. It is great that Stockholm University provides and … Continue reading
Posted in Asian monsoon, Science and media, Thoughts and Tales
Tagged Asian monsoon, Asian monsoon project, Chulalongkorn University, Department of Geological Sciences, Earth Observatory of Singapore, Geological Sciences, geology, lake sediments, monsoon history, Myanmar, natural science, science, sediments, Stockholm University, Sweden, Thailand
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Sediments and radiocarbon dating
Time flies, which means busy days and definitely no boredom! Last week we had a successful workshop, which focused on Asian monsoon research at the Bolin Centre, and brought together scientists interested in different aspects of the Asian monsoon: paleo-data, … Continue reading
Posters and talks at EGU
This year’s participation in the annual meeting of the European Geoscience Union will be tough! All our eight abstracts have been accepted, and this means a lot of work. Of course we still don’t know which of these will be … Continue reading
Posted in Asian monsoon, Thoughts and Tales
Tagged ancient tsunamis, Asian monsoon, Asian monsoon project, Communicating research, crater lakes, Department of Geological Sciences, Geological Sciences, geology, lake sediments, Myanmar, sediments, Stockholm University, Sweden, Thailand
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Communicating Earth Science
Back to one of my favorite topics – using films to explain earth sciences to a wider audience. Of course there are many great films about different aspects of earth sciences and these have been made with a huge financial … Continue reading
Ice or no ice?
Instead of giving my talk at the Nordic Winter Meeting two days ago, I was in bed with a cold, fever and almost no voice … that’s how it goes with all these winter viruses swirling around! Pretty disappointing though, … Continue reading
Too curious to wait
Last week we opened two of our Myanmar sediment sequences, described the sediments and sub-sampled one sequence. The first preliminary analyses will be made in January/February and will give us a good idea of where to focus further investigations. It … Continue reading
Busy days in Singapore
Tropical heat, tropical humidity, tropical thunderstorms and tropical rains – that’s how Singapore presented itself to me. Finally I managed to get an experience of heavy monsoon rains! Singapore is well adapted to this type of climate. Air-conditioning is on … Continue reading
160 kg plus 55 kg
After a three-hour drive we were back in Mandalay, the holy and magical city with its many temples, monasteries and myriad of people, cars and motorbikes. We had a couple of hours before our flight left and used the time … Continue reading
Posted in Asian monsoon, Myanmar, Thoughts and Tales, Travels
Tagged Asian monsoon, Asian monsoon project, crater lakes, Department of Geological Sciences, Geological Sciences, geology, lake sediments, Mandalay, Mandalay hill, Monywa, Myanmar, natural science, sediments, Stockholm University, Sweden
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Bye-bye Monywa
How shall we manage to get all our samples out of the country and into Thailand? This question has been on my mind for several days now. My first worry, some days ago, was about the equipment and the permission … Continue reading
Posted in Asian monsoon, Myanmar, Thoughts and Tales, Travels
Tagged Asian monsoon, Asian monsoon project, crater lakes, Department of Geological Sciences, Geological Sciences, geology, lake sediments, monsoon history, Monywa, natural science, sediment core, sediments, Stockholm University, Sweden, Thailand
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Many helping hands
Everyday two or three master students join our little expedition. They help carry the equipment, join us out on the lakes for coring, filter the water samples, assist in sub-sampling and help packing everything up again. The students are so … Continue reading
Posted in Asian monsoon, Myanmar, Thoughts and Tales, Travels
Tagged Asian monsoon, Asian monsoon project, crater lakes, Department of Geological Sciences, Geological Sciences, geology, lake sediments, Monywa, Myanmar, natural science, science, sediments, Stockholm University, Sweden
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The sounds of Myanmar
During the past two days and nights we have been surrounded by a constant singing or preaching from loudspeakers. Small pickup trucks drive all around the town and the larger villages with loudspeakers mounted on the back. Along the streets … Continue reading
No secrets revealed in Shinme Chauk
The sediments of ‘Banana Lake’ or Lake Shinme Chauk, which is located close to the Bronze Age cemetery of Nyanggan, were the last on our to do list. The lake is very shallow, and partly overgrown, but according to the … Continue reading
Early morning in Monywa
Another of these early mornings! Getting up at 6 am, leaving at 6:30, and eating breakfast in one of the street restaurants on our way to the lakes. The hotels where we had stayed before served breakfast, but our current … Continue reading
Movie time in Leshe village
Both of our teams have been really successful during the last days. We were able to obtain several nice sediment sequences from Leshe Lake, and a number of gravity cores from the deeper crater lakes. The other day Nut, Lin … Continue reading
Another day in the surroundings of Monywa
One group with Nut, Lin Thu Aung, and Thomas completed coring at Leshe Lake today, and the other group with Sheri, Rienk, Zaw Win and another student drove to one of the three deeper crater lakes to obtain a gravity … Continue reading
What a different world
It is fun talking to the students about life in Myanmar. One of my questions was of course if there were any female geology students, because we have only met men so far. The students told us that only 10% … Continue reading
All these friendly people
I am really overwhelmed by all the friendly people we meet everyday and everywhere: the staff at the different hotels we are staying in, the village chief and the villagers, people in the market, on the street, and in restaurants … Continue reading
And the cores keep coming
No driving down the steep sandy slopes to the crater lake today. I think the drivers got a bit worried yesterday, given frequent meetings with bullock carts, the narrow paths, the steep slope, the deep tracks and the huge hollows, … Continue reading
Posted in Asian monsoon, Myanmar, Thoughts and Tales, Travels
Tagged Asian monsoon, Asian monsoon project, bullock carts, crater lake, crater lakes, Department of Geological Sciences, Geological Sciences, geology, Lake Kumphawapi, lake sediments, Leshe Lake, Monywa, Myanmar, natural science, sediments, Stockholm University, Students, Sweden, Upper Myanmar, water lilies
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What a lucky day!
What an amazing day we had today! Accompanied by three MSc students and two officials from the Ministry of Forestry and Environmental Conservation we headed towards our first lake, Leshe Lake. I had never imagined that the two huge 4WDs … Continue reading
Posted in Asian monsoon, Myanmar, Thoughts and Tales, Travels
Tagged Asian monsoon, Asian monsoon project, crater lakes, Department of Geological Sciences, Geological Sciences, geology, lake sediments, monsoon history, Monywa, Myanmar, natural science, paleoclimate, sediments, Stockholm University, Sweden
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Equipment arrived, permission received!
Lin Thu arrived this evening from Yangon after a 10 hour-long drive. He had with him the equipment and the permissions to core all the five lakes! What more could we wish for! Tonight I passed by the temple and … Continue reading
No connection to the outer world
Our hotel has wireless Internet on all its seven floors. The only problem is that the connection only works sporadically. This is obviously not only the hotel’s problem. We tried at several other spots where Wi-Fi is offered, but it … Continue reading
Questions and no answers
Back again in Bangkok! It is always a nice feeling to arrive early in the morning and then drive into the slowly awakening city, which is usually full of life and people, and bustling with energy, but still really calm … Continue reading
On my way to SE Asia again
Just a few minutes left before boarding and then starts the nine and a half hours direct flight to Bangkok. The trip to SE Asia is short compared to the return flight, which will be almost twelve hours, plus the … Continue reading
Posted in Asian monsoon, Myanmar, Thailand fieldwork and travels, Thoughts and Tales, Travels
Tagged Asian monsoon, Asian monsoon project, Chulalongkorn University, Department of Geological Sciences, Geological Sciences, geology, lake sediments, Myanmar, natural science, sediments, Stockholm University, Sweden, Thailand
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Stockholm – Bangkok – Mandalay – Bangkok – Singapore – Stockholm
In less than a week’s time I will hopefully be out coring on some of the crater lakes close to Monywa, a town which lies a 2-3 hour car drive west of Mandalay in Myanmar. I write hopefully, because we … Continue reading
Exciting fieldwork ahead
In a bit more than two weeks it is finally time again for fieldwork in Asia. We will return to Myanmar and to the beautiful crater lakes of Monywa and will explore how much sediments these lakes contain, what type … Continue reading
Knee-high in mud
I am sure that many of you, who have been reading my blogs from Thailand, will think that doing fieldwork in this great, warm, sunny, tropical paradise is like being on holidays all the time. I must admit it does … Continue reading
Khao Lak – 8 years later
Would it not be for the Tsunami Memorial, the big ships that had been transported by the tsunami waves onshore and the construction site for the new tsunami museum, one could never imagine the devastation that the 2004 tsunami had … Continue reading
Bye bye Phra Thong
Time to leave this flat, sandy, mysterious island with its 700 inhabitants, small villages, beautiful beaches and almost no tourists. We needed two ‘island cars’ (speak tractors) to transport us, and all our stuff the 10 km from Mr. Chui’s … Continue reading
Coring equipment has arrived
How happy I am about a Russian corer that has travelled more than 700 km from Bangkok by lorry, bus and boat to Phra Thong Island! Andrew went to the mainland yesterday to pick it up at the next bus … Continue reading
More sediment to sample
Waw’s trenches #2 and 3, which we also intend to sample, all have too much water. Carrying the pump and the pipe around is not possible, because it is far too heavy (even for the Swede boys) and because the … Continue reading
An eventful New Year’s Eve
All of Waw’s trenches are completely filled with water because the groundwater level is still too high and thus only parts of the sections that we plan to sample are visible. One of Mr. Chui’s water pump is broken and … Continue reading
Who is who in our tsunami fieldwork?
It is probably time to present the multi-national crew who now populates Phra Thong, eager to dig trenches, to pump water and to dive into the mud to find ancient tsunami sediments: From Thailand and Chulalongkorn University are Waw (Dr. … Continue reading
Ancient mega tsunamis discovered
Waw (Dr. Kruawun Jankaew) from Chulalongkorn University has been working on Phra Thong Island for the past seven years to study the extension and impact of the 2004 tsunami. By digging extensive trenches in many parts of the island, she … Continue reading
Splashing in Baltic Sea Waters
Swedish TV showed a thought-provoking documentary last week about the state of the Baltic Sea. Take-home message #1 was that increasing pollution and uncontrolled emissions/leakage from animal farming, especially in east European countries has and will have large consequences for … Continue reading
Barbara Wohlfarth 