Tiny fossils, big questions: insights from ocean sediments
This event has ended.
Contact
Add to calendar
Earth scientists have the privilege and pleasure of exploring all parts of the world, from poles to tropics, from great heights to ocean depths and even beyond, in their search for the information that addresses important challenges relating to the history of the planet.
In the Voyages of Great Discoveries series, internationally recognised experts in a variety of disciplines will present accounts of their adventures in the field, followed by the joys, tribulations and satisfaction experienced in the laboratory as they make the discoveries that have transformed our science.
Our public lecture series are free events that attract a diverse audience, including the public, secondary school pupils and professionals. The series aims to open up areas of interest in the Earth and environmental sciences and present new research in this area to the public.
If you would like to have Q&A sessions in Welsh, please email edwardsd2@cardiff.ac.uk at least two weeks before the event.
Abstract
Speaker: Dr Jenny Pike (Cardiff University)
The Earth sciences provide us the opportunity to explore scale like no other discipline – from the ocean depths to the highest mountains, from seasonal-scale climate to changes that take place over millions of years, from the tiniest single-celled fossils to the largest of dinosaurs and great whales.
In this lecture, Jenny will take us on a journey through time and space using ships and microscopes. Marine microfossils are fossils derived from the tiniest planktonic organisms that fall to the seafloor when they die and are preserved in the sediments, capturing the story of the oceans. She will focus on how we use the fossils of diatoms, single-celled plankton, to reconstruct not only ocean history but also the history of sea ice in the polar regions and events on land. We will use different diatom species associations and the chemistry of their silica cell walls to reconstruct the structure of the oceans, ocean and climate evolution, and also the behaviour of major ocean-scale current systems in the past – truly tiny fossils and big questions!
Main Building
Park Place
Cardiff
CF10 3AT