Search Directories Reference Tools UW Home ... Degree Programs Quaternary Research Center 19 Johnson Quaternary studies focus on the processes that presently shape the natural environment and have operated over approximately the past two and a half million years (Quaternary period). A knowledge of Quaternary events facilitates an understanding of earth history in relation to the modern environment and has predictive value with regard to present-day and future environmental changes. Quaternary research is typically interdisciplinary, and thus it commonly involves related interests of two or more academic units. The Quaternary Research Center was established in 1967 to foster such interdisciplinary studies on a cooperative basis. The center has the following goals: To understand environments and climate changes of the past two and a half million years in the context of modern surface processes, which include historical changes, prehistoric postglacial environments, and Ice Age events. To serve as a catalyst in fostering interdisciplinary studies in the fields of atmospheric sciences, archaeology/anthropology, botany, engineering, fisheries, forestry, geology, geophysics, oceanography, pedology, and zoology. To provide a scientific perspective on the scale of modern and man-made environmental changes, including climate changes, in the context of recent earth history. | |
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