Abstract The Plio-Pleistocene sedimentary deposits of upper Bed I and lowermost Bed II in the Olduvai basin, Tanzania, are analyzed in terms of sedimentary processes, paleoenvironments, and paleoclimate. The sedimentary basin was a shallow, closed depression (∼ 50 km wide with strata ∼ 100 m thick) located adjacent to the East African Rift between Precambrian basement rocks to the west and the large Plio-Pleistocene Ngorongoro volcanic complex to the east. Olduvai lies on the west flank of the main rift valley, and this rift platform area was subjected to crustal extension resu I ting in normal block faulting and block tilting. Through time the axial part of the sedimentary basin episodically migrated eastward toward the main rift valley. Syndepositional volcanism included basalt flows, pyroclastic air falls, ground surges, and ignimbrites from eruptive centers of the Ngorongoro volcanic complex. Hay (1976) interpreted the paleolandscape to have had a central lake basin that was filled with detrital sediment, carbonate rocks, and tephra. Detrital sediment was provided both by rivers sourced in the Ngorongoro complex and by Precambrian rocks of the Serengeti to the north and west. Recent high-resolution stratigraphic studies of paleoenvironments in a time slice (1.85-1.75 Ma) found that the sedimentary facies vary temporally and spatially because of the interplay among five independent variables affecting the sedimentary record: (1) sediment flux (pyroclastic air fall, intermittent fluvial runoff and mudflows, and eolian), (2) sediment composition (Precambrian source rocks vs. volcanic source rocks), (3) hydrology and chemistry (lake water, surface water, and groundwater), (4) soil formation, and (5) tectonics associated with rift extension. Lake cycles, ephemeral fluvial systems, soil formation on the interfluves and lake margin, well as a large groundwater-fed wetland (> 3 km 2 ) are all part of the Olduvai rift-margin basin record and provide insights into the Plio-Pleistocene paleoclimate history of East Africa.

Abstract While Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, is most famous for its impressive and formative record of early human technology, Pleistocene fauna and hominin fossils, its geological record is equally important. At Olduvai, palaeoanthropologically significant sites are often preserved in primary context (not redeposited), and they can be contextualized within the palaeoenvironments in which the hominins lived. This has provided an exceptional opportunity to assess not only hominin evolutionary changes over time, but also to understand their adaptive behaviour including toolmaking, foraging and sociality. Abundant volcanic material from the nearby Ngorongoro Volcanic Highlands, interspersed within and between archaeology-bearing deposits, made Olduvai a target for some of the earliest applications of radiometric dating using the K/Ar system. Ultimately, the 40 Ar/ 39 Ar dating system has produced ages with exceptional precision. Early radiometric dating at Olduvai helped establish the antiquity of the hominin lineage, and early palaeomagnetic studies (and the ‘Olduvai event,’ the longest normal subchron within the reversed Matuyama Chron) were critical in establishing the importance of Olduvai in the field of geochronology. More recently, high-resolution palaeoclimate studies of the palaeolake that once occupied the Olduvai Basin have helped to reconstruct the palaeoenvironments encountered by hominin species. Over a century of geological research has secured Olduvai's status as an important site for geoheritage.