Quadlab

Established in 2005, Quadlab (Quaternary Dating Laboratory) is a ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age dating and noble gas isotope laboratory at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, funded by the Villum Foundation.

Using the latest technology, Quadlab's mission is to produce a robust numerical chronological framework, through the dating of rocks and minerals, to enable a better understanding of critical events in the Earth's history. Much of the emphasis of this work is on the Quaternary Period (the past 2.6 million years to the present), a time of dramatic climate and evolutionary change, that includes the emergence of modern humankind.

Our research is truly interdisciplinary and covers (i) the relationship between volcanism and climate, including the origin of rapid warming and cooling events during Earth history (ii) hominin evolution and dispersal (iii) geohazards such as landslides and ash dispersal associated with explosive volcanic eruptions (iv) EARTHTIME - an international effort to improve the accuracy and precision of the Geological Timescale, including the intercalibration of astronomical and radio-isotopic dating methods.