The geologist of the UPV, Aitor Abuelos, will receive the ICS medal, International Prize of Stratigraphy
Geologist Aitor Payros will receive tomorrow in Graz (Austria) the ICS medal at the central event of the International Congress of Stratigraphy 2015. The delivery is due to the research carried out on the beach of Gorrondatxe (Getxo, Bizkaia), “which has corrected and replaced the scale of geological time that has been in force for 50 years as a result of this research”, as it has been collected in the note opened by the UPV.
Prize for the work published in the magazine Lethaia: "Reassessment of the Early-Middle Eocene biomagnetochronology based on evidence from the Gorrondatxe section (Basque Country, western Pyrenees)" (“Revaluation of the biomagnetocronology of the Low-Middle Eocene according to the evidence of the Gorrondatxe section”). The Commission considers that “it has been an extraordinary contribution to the stratigraphic field”.
Payros has been “very proud” of the recognition, “because besides being a professional recognition, it gives me great personal satisfaction.” According to him, it has been a difficult task to convince other scientists of the value of the results obtained in Gorrondatxe, because they would suggest that the calibrations that have been in place for so many years were erroneous, so “it was our controversial alternative.”
It has been analyzing in depth the stratigraphic section of the beach of Gorrondatxe, whose cliff is formed by sedimentary rocks of 45-50 million years ago. “We saw that in Gorrondatxe, to date the stones, the standard calibration that was being used in the last 50 years could not be applied. In the Eocene it was believed that the events occurred at the same time and that, therefore, should be located at the same level as the stones, appeared in very different layers of Gorrondatxe, which gave rise to differences of about 3 million years with respect to the standard calibration,” he explained. Faced with this problem, the original works were reviewed and geological records were collected in other areas. “This led us to conclude that the calibration standard had important errors and that our Gorrondatxe observations were reliable,” added Payros.
Payrore highlights the importance of having reliable dating tools. According to him, geology analyzes the effects of events in Earth's history (global warming, glaciations, meteorite impacts, volcanic eruptions, etc. ). ), specifying the sequence of consequences derived to be able to make predictions before similar situations in the future. “For this it is essential that the events of the past be placed in a correct chronological order, and for this purpose a reliable dating is necessary,” he stressed.
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