Two geophysicists and an archaeologist teamed up to connect space weather 41,000 years ago to human behaviors that might have been in response – and show the value in cross-discipline teamwork.
GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences
The GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences is Germany’s national centre for solid Earth research. It is one of 18 centres belonging to the Helmholtz Association, Germany’s largest research organisation, and part of the Helmholtz Research Field “Earth and Environment”.
GFZ aims to comprehensively understand the Earth system and the dynamic processes within, on and around our planet. We use this knowledge to develop strategies and solutions to address global change and its regional impacts, understand natural hazards and mitigate associated risks, assess human impacts on the Earth system, and enable the responsible provision of energy and mineral resources.
The challenges we face as a society are inextricably linked to the dynamics of our entire planet, not only to the solid Earth and the surface on which we live, but also to the hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere and the chemical, physical and biological processes that connect all these spheres. We therefore view our planet as a system with interacting components. We explore the structure and history of the Earth, its properties and the dynamics of its interior and surface, and we use our fundamental understanding to develop solutions needed to maintain planet Earth as a safe habitat. Therefore, the transfer of technology and knowledge to various areas of society is an intrinsic part of our research.
