Featured publications - Sedimentary Geology Research Group

Multidisciplinary and international research

Our group's scientific output reflects the breadth and rigor of our research, from foundational work on human evolution and Cretaceous amber to applied studies on geothermal reservoirs and critical mineral resources. The selection below highlights publications that showcase the group's leadership in advancing key research lines, its role in supervising and launching the careers of early-stage researchers, and its ability to translate geological knowledge into frameworks with real-world scientific and societal relevance.

Magnetostratigraphic Dating of Earliest Hominin Sites in Europe

This study provides the most robust and precise chronological framework to date for the earliest hominin presence in Europe. By combining detailed magnetostratigraphy with a Bayesian age–stratigraphic model, the research firmly places hominin occupation at the Orce sequence (southern Spain) at around 1.3 million years ago, making it the oldest and most accurately dated evidence of early Europeans. The findings reveal a clear delay between the first hominin dispersals out of Africa and their arrival in Europe, proposing two distinct dispersal waves — an earlier one linked to Oldowan technology and a later one associated with Acheulian industries — offering a new framework for understanding the timing and environmental conditions behind humanity's first settlement of Europe.

Amber and the Cretaceous Resinous Interval

This large international collaboration provides a unifying framework explaining why Cretaceous amber is so abundant and exceptionally informative for reconstructing past terrestrial ecosystems. By defining the Cretaceous Resinous Interval (CREI), the authors move beyond isolated amber deposits to identify a coherent, global-scale phenomenon driven by the interaction of climate dynamics, forest ecology and sedimentary environments — helping explain the extraordinary concentration of amber in the Northern Hemisphere between the Barremian and Campanian. The study reframes amber not merely as a preservational medium but as the product of specific environmental and evolutionary conditions, strengthening its value as an archive for studying the evolution of terrestrial biodiversity.

Diapirism and Geothermal Reservoir Properties in the South-Central Pyrenees

This study offers a comprehensive assessment of the petrological and thermophysical controls on geothermal reservoir potential in salt-basin settings, using outcrop analogues from the Estopanyà and Boix synclines. The work demonstrates how diagenetic processes and salt diapirism enhance fluid circulation and rock alteration near diapir margins, creating localized zones of higher geothermal potential, and establishes the use of surface outcrops as a cost-effective strategy for early-stage geothermal exploration. As one of the group's first contributions specifically focused on geothermal energy, it lays important methodological groundwork for future research bridging sedimentary geology with applied geothermal exploration.

Geology, Geochemistry and Mineralogy of the Moa Bay Ni Laterite District, Cuba

Originating from the Ph.D. thesis of D. Domínguez-Carretero, now a postdoctoral member of the group, and co-supervised by stable core member J.A. Proenza, this study delivers the most detailed mineralogical and geochemical characterization to date of one of the world's largest lateritic Ni–Co districts. The research reveals that maghemite represents a major but previously underestimated Ni- and Co-bearing phase, with significant implications for both resource evaluation and metallurgical processing strategies. By refining our understanding of metal enrichment across oxide and saprolite horizons, the study also highlights the importance of deposit-scale variability when assessing the economic relevance of laterite districts.

Eustasy in the Aptian World: Insights from the Iberian Plate

This study reconstructs Early Cretaceous (Aptian) relative sea-level fluctuations from carbonate platform successions in the Maestrat Basin, providing quantitative estimates of sea-level fall (approximately 50–60 m within less than 0.9 million years, and up to 115 m within less than 3 million years) that approach the magnitude of change documented for the Last Glacial Maximum. These findings challenge the classic view of the Cretaceous as a uniform "greenhouse" interval, instead supporting the possibility of brief, ephemeral glaciation events interrupting the period's overall warm climate — a contribution with direct implications for our understanding of deep-time paleoclimate dynamics.