NHSM Fossil Club: Fossil Shells as Archives of Last Interglacial Climate

Paleoclimatologists refer to the Last Interglacial, about 125,000 years ago, as “the last time it was warm.” It represents the most recent interval (before the last ice age) in which global climate was similar to or even warmer than today, with sea levels several meters higher. The precise impact of this past warmth on the Eastern US, and its lessons for near-future climate change, are not well understood.

In this talk, Ian Winkelstern, Professor of Geology at GVSU, will present ongoing work investigating the Last Interglacial across sites in the Eastern US, Bermuda, and The Bahamas. At each site the geochemistry of fossil shells is used to reconstruct ancient conditions. Bivalve and gastropod carbonate can preserve remarkably high-resolution temperature records, enabling an unprecedented look at how a warmer world impacted these sites.

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