Evening lecture

The evening lecture on September 19, 2019 will be delivered by Prof. Dr. Carina Hoorn (University of Amsterdam).

Into Amazonia: the history of the Amazon River and rainforest

In this presentation I hope to take you with me on a journey that started in 1988 went I first visited the Amazon rainforest. My mission was to document the Tertiary at whichever outcrops I could find and perform palynological analysis of samples to get an insight into the history of the rainforest. My research started at Araracuara (Caquetá Province, Colombia), which means ‘home of the macaws’, however, this site also had a dark history, as it was a former penal colony for the most dangerous criminals from Colombia. Araracuara is situated along the Caquetá River, which cuts across Paleozoic and Neogene formations. The latter turned out to be a key to the puzzle of how the history of the Amazon and its rainforest unfolded. I will also introduce you to some of the research sites in Peru and Brazil, and even extend to the deep waters at the mouth of the Amazon, which forms part of my more recent research. The data collected and the collaboration with many great colleagues made it possible to lift a tip of the veil and discover some of the history of the Amazon. This story is still unfolding and future work can generate more knowledge on this endangered ecosystem.