Dr Rhys Timms

Quaternary geology, Geochronology, Tephrochronology, Palaeoclimatology, Human evolution

I am a physical geographer specialising in Quaternary geology and geochronology. I am particularly interested in the far-travelled transportation of volcanic ash (tephra), and how these ash layers can be used to help answer questions related to the timing and phasing of climatic transitions. I am also interested in understanding how periods of abrupt climate change influenced early Human development and dispersal. 

My research is predominantely focused on NW Europe as well as the Southern Caucasus, the Levant and Saudi Arabia - these latter regions having some of the earliest evidence of Human occupation outside Africa.

Current Research Projects

Project: Developing a refined tephrostratigraphic framework for the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition (c. 16-8 ka BP), and constraining abrupt climatic oscillations in the British Isles using high resolution (tephro-)chronologies.

The Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition (LGIT; c. 16-8 ka BP) is typified by a series of abrupt climatic transitions between cold stadial and warm interstadial conditions. Due to the number and resolution of palaeoenvironmental records that span this interval, the LGIT is one of the best periods in Earth's history for understanding abrupt climatic change. However, developing robust and reliable chronologies through this interval can often be problematic due to the uncertainties and limitations of radiometirc techniqies. To understand these climatic changes fully therefore, requires greater precision in the correlation of archives within which such transitions are recorded.

One way in which records can be aligned and compared more reliably is by using tephrochronology, a technique which exploits the isochronous potential of volcanic ash layers. Deposition of volcanic ash or 'tephra' in climate archives can be considered geologically ‘instantaneous’, thus tracing ash layers to climate archives allows these records to be stratigraphically tied with a precision atypical of other methods.

In NW Europe cryptotephra (ash layers that are invisible to the naked eye) of varying age and provenance have become increasing utilised as a means to correlate palaeoclimate records, and to test the spatial and temporal synchronicity of key climatic transitions (see for example work from the INTIMATE community - INTegration of Ice-core, MArine, and TErrestrial palaeoclimate records).

This ongoing project specifically aims to:

• Refine the tephrostratigraphic record in the British Isles and NW Europe (a region in which these abrupt climatic changes have been well documented).

• Improve the current age estimates for cryptotephra included within the regional framework

• Couple tephrostratigraphic investigations with high-resolution palaeoenvironmental reconstructions to answer questions concerning the timing, phasing and magnitude of climatic events.

Project: Pleistocene Archaeology, Geochronology and Environment of the Southern Caucasus (PAGES) (Led by Dr K. Wilkinson, Winchester)

The Southern Caucasus (modern day Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan) currently host some of the earliest human fossils outside of Africa, making it an extremely important location for understanding Homo sp. dispersal 'out of Africa'. Despite this, the timing of human dispersal, and the mechanisms behind human migrations into the region are not particularly well constrained. The aim of the PAGES project is to:

• Understand the stratigraphic link between archaeological sites through detailed geological mapping and the geochemical and petrological characterisation of volcanic deposits.

• Produce independent chronologies for key deposits and archaeological sequences through 40Ar/39Ar geochronology and tephrochronology.

• Reconstruct past environmental and climatic changes in the region through detailed sedimentological and environmental proxy investigation of key sequences.
  

• Provide an environmental context to early human occupation in the region.

2012 - 2016: PhD, Quaternary Science, Royal Holloway University of London

2010 - 2011: MSc, Climate and Environmental Change, Coventry University

2008 - 2009: Earth Science/Geoscience, University of Iceland

2007 - 2010: BSc (Hons), Physical Geography, Coventry University

Quaternary Research Association (QRA)

International Focus Group on Tephrochronology (INTAV)

Integrating Ice core, Marine, and Terrestrial records (INTIMATE)

Pleistocene Archaeology, Geochronology and Environment of the Southern Caucasus (PAGES)