Skip to main content
Explosion (Credit: Fulvia Favaro, distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

SSP Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology Division on Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology

EGU logo

European Geosciences Union

Division on Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology
ssp.egu.eu

Division on Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology

President: Cinzia Bottini (Emailssp@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Marc De Batist (Email)
ECS Representative: Shradha Menon (Emailecs-ssp@egu.eu)

The Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology Division (SSP) focuses its activities on all aspects of the sedimentary record. About 70% of the Earth surface is covered by sedimentary deposits, which are eroded and deposited right at the contact between the solid lithosphere and the atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere. Sedimentary rocks record the history of our planet since almost 4 billion of years and play a pivotal role for our understanding of the evolution of life. This deep-time archive of Earth history is studied with a wide range of analytical techniques providing ever stunning details on the evolution of our planet. Sedimentary basins host important natural resources like coal, gas, oil, ore deposits and groundwater and therefore a better understanding of the physical, chemical and biological processes controlling the formation and distribution of sediments and sedimentary rocks is of utmost importance for our society.

Latest posts from the SSP blog

Drilling on world’s rooftop – the Nam Co-ICDP campaign on the Tibetan Plateau

International Scientific Continental Drilling Program (ICDP) campaigns may lead scientists from all over the world to most exciting places that are often of extraordinary beauty and remoteness. All these attributes certainly apply to Lake Nam Co situated at an altitude of 4700 m above sea level on the Tibetan Plateau in the Himalayas. Today this area supplies one third of the humankind with fresh water via the great rivers of Asia that mostly have their springs here. Lake Nam Co …


Fossilized Tree Trunks: Preservation in Continental and Marine Ancient Outcrops of Baja California

While working on the exceptional, but remote outcrops of Baja California, I have encountered an extraordinary quantity of fossilized tree fragments in Cretaceous deposits. These fossils were preserved in both subaerial, fluvial, and marine environments. Does this mean that preservation of tree trunks is easy? How can wood be preserved for more than 70 million years? What kind of information can we obtain from fossilized trees? Let’s try answer all these questions. Fossil wood can be preserved through various mechanisms, …

Recent awardees

Silvia Frisia

Silvia Frisia

  • 2024
  • Jean Baptiste Lamarck Medal

The 2024 Jean Baptiste Lamarck Medal is awarded to Silvia Frisia for her highly significant impact as a sedimentologist researching carbonate-based palaeoclimate science, in particular through her work on carbonate fabrics in cave deposits, or speleothems.


Miguel Ángel Maté González

Miguel Ángel Maté González

  • 2024
  • Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award

The 2024 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Miguel Ángel Maté González for his outstanding work in palaeontology and archaeology developing a new methodology for the analysis of 3D cut marks on bones.


Mélinda Martins

Mélinda Martins

  • 2024
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2024 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Mélinda Martins Deciphering local from global signals in Portimão Bank sedimentary dynamics

Current issue of the EGU newsletter

In our December Issue, don't miss out on the EGU25 abstract submission deadline, it's in one week! Also if you need a visa to travel, get EGU Media and Communications Officer Asmae Ourkiya's tips on the steps you may need to take.

If you need financial support to attend EGU25 due to caregiving responsibilities, a disability, career status or another reason, apply for our new EDI Participation Support by 26 February 2025. All this and much more in this month's Loupe!

Find SSP on

Subscribe to