We are pleased to announce a School Seminar by Professor Sarah Greene on the topic of: Large igneous provinces and the global carbon cycle.
Abstract
Large igneous provinces (LIPs) are dotted throughout the geologic record, with the largest amongst these coinciding with some of the biggest climate perturbations and mass extinctions in Earth history. One of the major pathways by which LIP emplacement can perturb surface environments is by the rapid emissions of carbon to the ocean-atmosphere. But how much carbon can LIPs release and how quickly? How can we disentangle whether the carbon release we reconstruct from palaeoclimate records is sourced from the solid Earth or from carbon cycle feedbacks from surficial carbon reservoirs? In this talk I will share results from two projects. The first, begun during my time in Bristol, examines ocean acidification and carbon release across the end-Triassic mass extinction. In the second half of the talk I will share progress on our NERC large grant C-FORCE, which aims to constrain carbon emissions and feedbacks across the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, using independent constraints from the solid Earth, palaeoclimate records, and Earth system modelling.
Bio
Sarah is currently a Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Birmingham. Prior to this post she was a post-doc at the University of Bristol over in Geography. Sarah is a palaeoclimatologist, geobiologist, and Earth system modeller studying the biogeochemical cycling of carbon between the atmosphere, the ocean, and marine sediments. Particular research interests include rapid carbon cycle perturbations (Mesozoic mass extinctions, Palaeogene hyperthermals), protracted multi-mullion year carbon cycle trends (co-evolution of life and the carbon cycle), and how biogeochemical cycling within marine sediments influences palaeoclimatological and palaeoenvironmental records.
Join the event online
https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/35713034748247?p=G7dCLH2hyxpBRnchZx