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Cynthia Liutkus-Pierce - Reconstructing a Late Pleistocene East African Paleolandscape using the Footprints of our Ancestors

AAPG Distinguished Lecture Series, 2024-25 Season

AAPG Distinguished Lecture Series, 2024-25 Season

Summary

A Distinguished Lecture talk given by Cynthia Liutkus-Pierce during 2024-25 AAPG DL Season.

Fossil hominin footprints offer a unique and immediate snapshot of our ancestors' lives, capturing their ecological, environmental, and behavioral contexts over remarkably short time scales. This presentation delves into the discovery and analysis of over 400 human footprints from Engare Sero, Tanzania, located on the southern shore of Lake Natron. This site boasts the largest known collection of human footprints in Africa's fossil record. Our investigation reveals that these footprints were created from volcanic material initially deposited on the flanks of the nearby active volcano, Oldoinyo L'engai. The volcanic sediment was then reworked and fluvially transported to the footprint site, which presented several unique challenges. Using advanced dating techniques, such as 40Ar/39Ar and 14C methods, along with stable isotope analysis (d18O and d13C), we determined that the footprints date back to the Late Pleistocene-Holocene. Studies of modern footprints suggest that these ancient prints were made, buried, and preserved within days to months. By analyzing the size, shape, and patterns of the footprints, we gain insights into the individuals who made them, including their sex, age, and social behavior. The trackways tell the story of two groups of humans who crossed this landscape at different times, exhibiting both walking and running behaviors. The evidence suggests a mixed group of individuals, primarily adult females, moving together. One group of 14 adult females walked together at the same pace, accompanied by only two adult males and one juvenile. These findings, when compared to modern ethnographic data, provide a fascinating glimpse into the cooperative behavior of Late Pleistocene humans and how they interacted with their environment tens of thousands of years ago.

In this lecture, I’ll showcase several non-seismic applications of DFOS, with a focus on distributed strain sensing based hydraulic fracture monitoring and distributed temperature sensing based well integrity monitoring. Through a series of field case studies, I will demonstrate the value of DFOS measurements in the hydrocarbon exploitation and carbon dioxide sequestration sectors, emphasizing the significant business impact of cross-disciplinary research in this domain.

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Distinguished Lecturer

Cynthia

Cynthia Liutkus-Pierce

Professor, Department of Geological and Environmental Science

Appalachian State University

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