Wim Hoek
Based on some grains of pollen under the microscope, I can see what a landscape may have looked like in the past
Wim Hoek, Quaternary Geologist and Lecturer/Researcher at Utrecht 木瓜福利影视, studies the causes and effects of sudden natural climate changes. Since his time as a student, he has been fascinated by the last ice age, the Weichselian. Today, based on some grains of pollen from ancient lake deposits under the microscope, he can see what a landscape may have looked like in the past.
Dramatic consequences for prehistoric man
The transition period from the last ice age to the current warm period, the Holocene, is what fascinates Wim Hoek the most. This transition happened very rapidly, faster than today's climate change. And in contrast to the present, man had no influence on this change. In approximately ten years' time, the temperature rose by a number of degrees. The sea level rose quickly because large ice caps melted, thereby impacting the circulation of the oceans. The climate and landscape changed completely. This had dramatic consequences for food provisions and the living conditions of prehistoric man.
The Earth is one large archive
Information about the past can be found not only in ocean and lake mud, but also stored in ice. Core samples from the Greenland ice sheet tell us more about this transition period from Weichselian to Holocene. Counting backwards through the layers of ice, which accumulate every year, provides indications of the first major changes that occurred some 11,700 years ago. In addition, archives such as the ice sheet contain all kinds of gases and substances, including volcanic ash. From these archives, it can be seen that large amounts of volcanic ash have regularly been present in the atmosphere, which ended up in different archives, providing the perfect correlations with sediments in the oceans and on land in, for instance, lakes.
Understanding the Earth system
It is a fascinating field of research, often carried out in collaboration with various specialists in Earth Sciences. That is what makes it so special, according to Wim Hoek: "All these scientists working together to unravel and understand the complex system Earth."