Research Focus

Dr. Claudia C. Johnson is a professor of geological sciences and geobiology in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Indiana University.  Her work at Olduvai Gorge focuses on rock layers in which hominid remains have been found. She teaches students how to examine rocks’ sediment grains and crystals to establish if the deposits are from a river, a lake, a volcanic eruption, or a landslide, and how to resolve if the deposits are primary or secondarily reworked by wind, water, or gravitational processes. Numerous trips into the Olduvai River gorge to collect and examine rock samples will reveal to students the finer points of paleotropical environmental reconstructions for the time of the evolving lineages of hominids. During these field excursions students will learn how to relate fossils and stone artifacts to the rock layers and figure out the environment of deposition.