Dr Kaja Fenn BSc (Hons), MSc , PhD

This research theme focuses on using multi-proxy dataset supported by Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating to better understand landscape evolution during Quaternary. The questions central to this include ‘continuity’ and ‘uniformity’ of loess profiles regionally and continentally, and climate-loess connections. I am really interested in local and regional drivers of loess-sequence development.

Sediment source, whether geomorphological (more immediate) or geological (the proto-source), can provide information about past landscapes and sediment transport including sediment production, atmospheric circulation, landscape evolution, and the wider dust cycle. To address provenance questions I apply sediment geochemistry techniques such as elemental composition of bulk sediment, isotopic composition, and single grain approaches. To date most of my research focused on U-Pb dating of detrital zircon and their hafnium content.

This final theme brings together two previous research themes to investigate links between loess and climate, using extensive and robust environmental data and to address questions of dust production, landscape activation, and the drivers of dust emission.