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PD Dr. Benedikt Ritter


Phone +49 221 470-2963

E-Mail: benedikt.ritter(at)uni-koeln.de

Ongoing Projects

Landscape and climate evolution in arid to hyperarid climates - Atacama Desert (SFB / CRC 1211, "Earth Evolution at the Dry Limit" -  PI C04)

  • Using terrestrial sediment archives to reconstruct paleoclimate and surface activity in hyperarid environments.
  • Terrestrial Cosmogenic Nuclide (TCN) dating of geomorphological features (alluvial fans, shorelines, inactive fluvial channel, tectonic fault scarps) to reconstruct past climate variations in hyperarid environments.
  • Determining erosion/denudation rates in hyperarid environments using multiple cosmogenic nuclide isotopes (10Be, 26Al, 21Ne)
  • Inferring existence and duration of hiatuses in sedimentary archives using cosmogenic nuclides
  • Reconstructing incision histories of fluvial drainages
  • Interaction between aggradation and degradation processes in response to tectonic and/or climate events in the El Salvador area.
  • CaSO4 dynamics and related landscape evolution

Noble Gas Mass Spectroscopy

  • Build-up and routine application of 21Ne analysis in the new established Cologne Lab for Noble Gases
  • Establishment of He analysis for cosmogenic nuclide and mantle/crust geochemistry applications
  • Liquid extraction procedure for noble gases