MPI-BGC members Lennart van Maldegem and Christian Hallmann (Paleobiogeochemistry Group) obtained precious samples during a field expedition to the Grand Canyon. Together with colleagues from University Brest (Pierre Sansjofre) and Boston College (Paul Strother), they undertook an arduous two-day hike to reach the bottom of the canyon. Down there they studied, measured and sampled a sequence of Neoproterozoic rocks that were deposited just before Earth plunged into it's most severe Snowball Earth glacial. As part of van Maldegem's PhD project, the obtained samples are supposed to shed more light on the nature of life and environmental conditions that prevailed on Earth around 750 million years ago.
