Deep Time and Sedimentology

Key words: 
• deep time

Abstract: Global climate change is represented by a significant warming in the past 100 years. Human civilization is faced with an increasing urgency to understand global climate change and its potential effects on ecosystems, resources and habitability. It is limited to focus on modern and Quaternary climate researches. The path to understanding earth's climate system demands a fully integrated exploration of the earth in the geological history. Deep Time will study climate changes and main geological events using sedimentary records in the preQuaternarey, so as to provide information for predicting the future climate. Deep Time focuses key scientific questions in Earth's climate system, discusses thresholds and rates of climate changes, atmospheric and oceanic composition, atmospheric and oceanic circulation, linkages with the biosphere, solid earth and sun, and finally reveals the relationship between earth's climate system and earth's surface system. The goal of Deep Time is to read, date and model earth's past climate system. To achieve this, development of a continental drilling program to enable acquisition and preservation of continuous, highresolution datasets is the most important. It is predictable that Deep Time together with Deep Space, Deep Sea and Deep Interior will be new fields in Geosciences. Sedimentology will play a core role in Deep Time research. 